Life, Interrupted

The Book View Cafe sites have been down for TWO days. As we were loading the new ebookstore for its launch. we are not only disappointed and annoyed but now behind our scheduled testing of the site.

STABBITY * STABBITY * STABBITY

Well, had my third NLP seminar weekend. The people teaching, Keith Fail, Katie Raver and other local NLP practitioners assisting, did a great job. This was especially impressive because our original senior teacher, Tom Best, died suddenly and peacefully on the 24th. He'd had an outstanding weekend teaching a short seminar here in the Austin area, and a lovely morning with his wife and their beloved dogs. Tom laid down for a short nap and never woke up.

I felt that I had found a new teacher for the next step in my evolution. The only reason I did not shake out my piggy bank and take that class last weekend was because I am so new to NLP, I thought I might hold back the group, or spend the weekend bewildered. If there's ever a next time, I'm shaking out the piggy bank. I hadn't offered him a hug yet, either, because he was simultaneously the most generous, compassionate soul I've ever met, and a very private man. He shared so much of himself, he and his wife Bobbi, that I did not want to intrude on their private time. So Bobbi will have to take his hugs, too, next time I see her.

I can see Tom grinning, because he's still teaching us, just from the next plane. He launched us, and now I have to do my part and learn what has been set before me, and teach what I can. On the one hand it seems odd to keep tearing up for a man I had known less than a month. But he was the kind of person who touched so many lives, so many places - who gave so much, continuously, making the world a better place.

It seems right to grieve for those of us he had to leave behind. Tom's out on the next great adventure, and I suspect he will be with all of us, too. Tom clearly loved water, judging from the photos I've seen posted by his friends and students. I don't know if he ever got to see the Great Lakes - but here's a picture I took of Lake Michigan, Tom. I recommend you check it out. I wish I could have invited you up there to teach on the white sands, but another time...another life.

December 5, 2008 - Associated Press, relayed by Craig Miller

Forrest J Ackerman died Thursday [December 4th] of heart failure at his Los Angeles home, said Kevin Burns, head of Prometheus Entertainment and a trustee of Ackerman's estate.

His caregiver Joe Moe said it was just before midnight, and he slipped away gently and with as much dignity as anyone would wish. He had just turned 92 ten days earlier.

{lifts glass...}

We're lost a talent and a genuinely funny man, in the truest sense. No matter what was going on, from conversation at the table during a meal to discussing world affairs over at Making Light, Mike could be counted on to hone in on the precise point that needed illumination. He could make a point with humor better than most people alive today.

I remember sitting at a table with many friends, all of us listening eagerly as Jane Yolen told us she was doing several anthologies for the YA market, the first to be werewolves. We asked questions, and then Mike started to recite a humorous beginning to a proposed short piece -- something like "Billy was a were-gazelle, and Tommy a were-lion, but they still managed to be friends -- " He went on like this for about three sentences, as we all laughed, and then he paused, and said: "Actually, that sounds promising" which cracked us up even more, because we knew he originally meant it as a joke.

Mike never wrote a story for that anthology, and now it's too late to ask him why.

Mike was honored with a World Fantasy Award for THE DRAGON WAITING and also, For Pete's Sake (does anyone deserve that much talent?) for something that was originally a holiday gift in a Christmas card! He did several other fine novels, and more than one memorable Star Trek (Classic) novel. My favorite ST, forever more, must be HOW MUCH FOR JUST THE PLANET? Yes -- I'm on that side of the divide. I think the plot underneath all the silliness was solid, and I think more people need to occasionally read humor.

Mike Ford did it well. I haven't seen him in person in at least a decade, but I was always interested in whatever he had to say about anything.

This post, from his partner's journal, explains a lot about Mike and his life.

http://elisem.livejournal.com/903525.html

And more about Mike, across the tiny lights of the internet:

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/008033.html#008033

I wish you a good journey, Mike. May you be in the light --