This past weekend, I had the INCREDIBLE joy of being able to
spend the evening with one of my FAVORITE authors, Aleksandr Voinov. For those that read his work, you know he has
the ability to create characters that produce such FIERCE emotions (loyalty,
hatred, love, obsession…) within his readers. And his stories are…flawless.
For my book-reading community, you know well that I am
obsessed with Aleks (…mostly because you all are too! Ha!) So, when I was planning a brief vacation in
London, he so kindly and
generously agreed to meet up. I met Aleks at
Veeraswamy, the Indian restaurant Malcolm takes Owen to in “Country Mouse”. How cool is THAT?! :) The place was gorgeous and the food
phenomenal. But, that, of course, is
secondary.
I knew I would be the weeping idiot fan girl. I teared up
immediately when he embraced me in greeting.
He was kind and warm and friendly.
I didn’t want it to be a “book club” meeting where we only talked about his
stories and characters. I wanted to get
to know the man himself. What I found
was that he is charming, big-hearted, funny, spiritual, humble, and
approachable.
Yes, we talked about Vadim & Nikolai, Kendras/Andrastes, Skybound,
other authors, the inundation of gifs on Goodreads, some of our favorite GR
peeps, some future spoilers, and of course, The Muse. But, we also talked about our childhoods,
struggles, families, relationships, Rhianna (yup, go figure), London, our
kinks, homeownership, and on.
I had SUCH a blast. I felt an immediate kinship and by night’s
end, Aleks became more of a friend in my eyes than a “famous author”. So
thankful for the opportunity and life feels fuller now with him in it!
Thanks, Aleks.
Looking forward to next time…
xo,
Susan
He's so damned talented and he sounds like such a charmer. Known him online for years and I still can't WAIT to meet him one day. <3
ReplyDeleteLovely post, Susan. So glad you had an opportunity for this. Sounds like a wonderful person!
ReplyDeleteYup, that's him alright.. *wistful sigh* Sounds like you were less "the weeping idiot fan girl" than I was. :D Okay, I left the weeping part for later, but yeah..
ReplyDeleteReally glad to hear you two clicked! :)
what a wonderful opportunity!! your post made me smile . . . thank you for sharing . . .
ReplyDeleteHe's SO nice! I met him at GRL and all but jumped up and down and squeed about how much I love "Scorpion". Apparently, he gets a lot of love for Special Forces & Dark Soul, but rarely hears from Scorpion lovers, so I got a hug for my creepy fan-girling! LOL!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad it was a good meet-up Susan. I'm impressed that you were able to form coherent thoughts. I would have been drivel.
ReplyDeleteI'll depend on you to introduce me in Atlanta...just be prepared to hold me up.