Hello,
My name is Joey, I am 24 years old. Way back in 1987 when I was 6 years old my mom took me to see Ray Bradbury and he signed a copy of "The Martian Chronicles" for me. I live in the so cal area and would really like to have him sign the book again....20 years later. It brings tears to my eyes when i think about it. What a great author....I have read this book at least once a year for about....well...20 years. Any word on when he will be in public again?


This is what he wrote


For Joey!
Way up there in some future year!
From Ray Bradbury
Way back here in December 1987
With love!

That's really beautiful, AND also serves as a great example of how one can communicate fowards and backwards through time. Kinda spooky if you can look at it just so, hold it just right, turn it so the light hits it at just the right angle... and voila, time travel, courtesy of Ray Bradbury. What a gift! Now, that you are beholden to the gift, what are you going to do with it?

================================================

TrekFan:

Ray Bradbury will be speaking in Thousand Oaks, CA today,(October 29th) 12 noon, at Barnes and Noble. Try this number for directions: 1 805 446 2820

On November 4th, around 12 noon, Ray will be signing books at the Bakersfield Festival. Check the exact location on perhaps google.

The evening of November 4th, 8PM, Ray intends to be at the final performance of his play in Pasadena, CA at the Fremont Centre Theatre, on Fremont.

Try getting over to one of them...

It was about ten years ago that I was given the opportunity to meet Ray personally at Eureka College here in Illinois. I live in Peoria, about a fourty-five minute drive from the college, and ever since my college days I've missed out on his lectures. I tried several times calling for tickets, only to be told they were sold out. This time was no different; I called after hearing on the radio he would be lecturing and signing books, and again I was told it was already sold out. By now I was married and had a child, and a second one on the way. I'd been writing fiction for years, but only been published once. I had written Ray a letter after I published my first short story, and told him he was the reason I wanted to become a writer. To this day, like many of his fans I'm sure, I still think of him as a friendly father-figure somewhere out on the West Coast, watching out for all idealistic writers. He wrote me back, and I was so touched by what he said. We corresponded for a time, and then it seemed like a long perod went by without any contact between us.

I told a friend at work about how I'd missed out on tickets, again. Larry was a fifty-something artist approaching his retirement. He suggested I make the drive to the college, wait till the doors close, then slip in; there are always seats open because of no-shows. And he said, this opportunity may never come again. I did it, just as he said, and I'll never regret it. After Ray spoke, he and his host stepped behind the stage curtains to wait for the auditoreum to empty. I knew I had to be up at 5:30 the next day for work, and so I walked down to the stage and, taking a giant breath for courage, stepped through the curtains. Instantly, his host wanted to intercede in Ray's behalf, but Ray stepped forward, took my hand and squeezed it warmly. His smile was amazing. Here was a man who was then beginning his seventies and still had all the wonder of his boyhood, all of our childhoods, really, beaming out of his face.

I told him of my actions, and he said, "Well, as far as I'm concerned, you don't need to pay for tonight." We talked a few minutes, and then I went to the bookstore and paid an admission fee before I left. I lingered a while outside, baked all through with the warmth of the experience; it was like really seeing Santa, or being introduced to Boris Karloff in his garden, or have a beer with Stephen King...all these things and a whole lot more all rolled up in evening.

I hope today you are able to go see him, and if not today, then as soon as possible. It will mean so much to all of us.

roddenii@yahoo.com

Thanks for sharing your wonderful story Rodden II. Very well put, my sentiments exactly!

Next RB appearance: Saturday, 11 November in Ventura, California!

Looks like they'll be putting on a Ray Bradbury Theatre Celebration, the first literary festival to bear his name, and it will commence as an annual event in November 2007.

The multiple-day event, taking place at various locations in and around Ventura, will feature guest speakers, an exhibition of rare books, a children's theater presentation, book-signings, and theater and writing classes.

That's great news for anyone living in or around Ventura - hey, that's where I live!

http://www.venturacountystar.com/vcs/lifestyle/article/..._230_5093480,00.html

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Doug Spaulding,

Thanks for the information, I wish I could go to Ventura, too much else going on.

Ray will also be signing Farewell Summer at the following;

http://www.mystery-bookstore.com/blog/archives/001290.html

http://www.mysteryandimagination.com/?page=shop/aboutus...51a550d3910e2d844a14

patrask:

Hey! I may make one of those. If you want to ride up with me, no problem, sir!

Also...

... latest as of today, Nov 8th, is that HarperCollins will have archived all the posts from the 'old' Bradbury site onto this 'new' Bradbury site by the end of this month. wOw! That should be interesting.

Thanks for keeping on top of that, Nard!

quote:

Originally posted by patrask:
Ray will also be signing Farewell Summer at the following;

http://www.mystery-bookstore.com/blog/archives/001290.html

Perhaps there's some mix-up on the dates, but according to Ray, he will be elsewhere on November 18th at noon. I'm going to have to check up on this.

When I last saw him (about a week or so ago), the last thing I said to him was, "see you at Forry's party." He replied, "see you there."

The party is on the 18th from 11am to 2pm.

More to come.

patrask is correct, Dad will be signing at the Mystery Bookstore on the 18th at noon. He'll be at Mystery and Imagination on the 19th and will be at the Woodland Hills Library on December 6th.

Alexandra

CLEAR AND COLDER

Wind, the season-climate mixer,
In my Witches' Weather Primer
Says, to make this Fall Elixir
First you let the summer simmer,
Using neither spoon nor skimmer,

Till about the right consistence.
(This like fate by stars is reckoned,
None remaining in existence
Under magnitude the second.)

Then take some leftover winter
Far to north of St. Lawrence.
Leaves to strip and branches splinter,
Bring on wind. Bring rain in torrents.

Dash it with some snow for powder.
If this seems like witchcraft rather,
If this seems a witches' chowder
(All my eye and Cotton Mather!),

Wait and watch the liquor settle.
I could stand whole dayfuls of it.
Wind she brews a heady kettle.
Human beings love it--love it.
Gods above are not above it.

Witchypoo, I think that it is so marvelous that your father, although with some health problems, has such a zest for life that he really enjoys being out and about with his fans.

I've told him on more than one occasion that I am convinced that this activity, and the adulation, is what is keeping him young. The last time that I mentioned this to him, several weeks ago, he said "And the writing." So it is so refreshing that he, with your assistance I believe, still writes everyday. What an elixir!