Thursday, July 21, 2011

You just never know...

On Tuesday I went up to the mountains (Crestline, CA area) to attend my friend’s birthday party. He told me that there may be a writer showing up. Okay, I’m interested, but I quickly forgot about it and grabbed a few more cold ones while mingling with the party-goers. Said writer eventually texted my friend and said he wouldn’t be able to make it due to a busted vehicle that was still in the shop. Bummer. More cold ones.

About an hour after he received that message, said writer was making his way up the steps. My friend turned to me, excited, and said, “That’s him. He got a ride!” Okay, intrigued again. Quickly I had another cold one in my hands, ready to meet the guy.

Well, we shortly got to talking. The initial conversation, which he kicked off, went:

Him: Dirty rumor floating around that you’re a writer.
Me: Even dirtier one says you make a few bucks at it.

Yea, that’s how we roll here in CA. I must admit that the conversation that followed didn’t go nearly as smoothly as I would have wanted, because another party-goer was speaking to him about Bigfoot, UFOs and politics every time I wanted to get a word in. But hey, that is okay. I got to meet a really good author and yak it up with him a bit. Oh, who was the author? Good question. The man’s name is Matthew Scott Hansen, and he wrote the book that Jim Carrey’s movie “Man on the Moon” was based on, among other things. Here’s his site:

http://www.matthewscotthansen.com/meet.php

I got the opportunity to ask him about his life, and even if he’d throw a little advice to a budding author, which he kindly did. He’s a super cool cat who has written everything from comedy to thrillers to screenplays. As I mentioned, I wish I could have had more time with him that night, but I’m never one to look a gift horse in the mouth. He told me that as far as he’s concerned, I have what it takes to be a writer. “Get something published, dude,” he said. You can bet I reached for another cold one after that, friends and neighbors. You can just bet it.

3 comments:

Christina said...

Wow super cool, dude! So jealous...but yeah I agree...u are totally a writer.

cls said...

Excellent experience! That is pretty cool, about the dirty rumor exchange, love that! and the advice he gave you. Where I'm from, when I say I am a writer people either say " Where do you sell your book, I have never heard of you," or "oh god, you went to school for THAT?!" and roll their eyes lol. Not everyone is like that, but it still makes me nuts. I stand by words another writer once told me: "Dear girl, you put words to paper. You are a writer whether you like it or not."

Derek Odom said...

Thanks for reading, you! I sometimes get the same response until folks realize that I support myself by sitting at home in the A/C and work or don't whenever I want to. Their tunes soon change once that fully sinks in. They don't like it any better, necessarily, but they don't make fun of me anymore for it LOL!