Patrick Rothfuss and other authors

A long-time ago I attended a mystery writers event and fell in love with hearing authors talk about their work. As someone who will never be a fiction writer I am in awe of those who do and do it well. Sadly with the closing of so many bookstores it is even more challenging to hear authors speak (i.e., fewer local book signing events). I have had the good fortune to hear some wonderful authors:

• Ray Bradbury - My favorite author talk. Could have listened to the man speak for hours. He spoke of his early days when science fiction was barely recognized and then through his career as science fiction became more accepted. A fascinating person. 
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• Douglas Adams - He was at the same author talk with Ray Bradbury. He actually did a reading and not a talk. It was evident that most of the crowd came to hear him speak and enjoyed the bits he read. The crowd was a bit restless when Mr. Bradbury began his chat but quickly became entranced. In retrospect, curious why Mr. Adams did a simple reading. What did he think of being on the same stage as Mr. Bradbury? Sadly, both are gone now but their work remains beloved by many all over the world and across ages.
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• Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (the Yarn Harlot) - NY Times best seller writer of knitting humor. Yes you read that correctly. She is beloved by the knitting community. Her observations of life and knitting are intelligent and funny. First saw her at an early book signing event at Borders (sadly the now defunct book store chain). They had no idea of how many chairs to set up because we ARRIVED and quickly overwhelmed the store. Many years later (2013) the Simply Socks Yarn Company in Fort Wayne, Indiana wisely set up the event at a local university site. Don't know the total count but it was probably well over a thousand people attending. The YH did not disappoint and it was a delight to hear how well she has grown / gotten more comfortable as a public speaker.
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• Patrick Rothfuss - Tried but missed. Read below. However, I do encourage you to listen to the YouTube chat he did with Nate Taylor to discuss their collaboration on the book The Slow Regard of Silent Things. It is a delightful novella addition to the Kingkiller Chronicle series.

While I did not attend GenCon -- and never had which is silly since it is local -- I did get a free ticket to attend a Fantasy Literature Discussion with Patrick Rothfuss (his blog)and Beth Avila (Beth Powers on Smashwords). The talk was scheduled 11:00am-12:30pm on Friday, July 31, 2015.

Alas, I did not receive the notice until 11:00 am had trouble getting away from the office. I arrived just as the event was breaking up. Fortunately one of the attendees shared some of the event highlights (THANK YOU!) and it may have been videotaped for posting later. I was able to talk briefly with both authors (mostly to thank them for coming and to apologize for arriving late). I could kick myself later because although I was able to snap a picture of Patrick Rothfuss I did not get one of the two of them together.