I will, someday She lives here in the Metro area, and one of my twitterbuddies got to hear her speak at the Anthro conference yesterday.
Her books are the perfect mix of story and factual science. And the fact that we've just recently proven that Neander and Homo did mix, 20 years after she told the story makes me all the more in awe.

I love reading anything he writes. His recent book, "My Reading Life", gave a lot of insight into his personal life that I think can be found in almost all of his writing. Love, love, love Pat Conroy!

Although you certainly get the sense that you already know him intimately after reading his books.

Although your "good looks" comment got me thinking that I've always enjoyed the jacket picture on books by Gayle Lynds (not to mention her writing and impressive bio).

Would have been interesting to meet Clancy shortly after "The Hunt For Red October" came out... the amount of research that must have gone into putting together such an accurate piece of fiction was impressive.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TomClancy

Got to meet her after a panel on "Why aren't there more leftist thriller writers" or something like that--the panel's general topic was politics and mysteries. She was on it with three other left-leaning writers, Barry Eisler, SJ Rosen, and Mark Billingham. A pretty interesting hour in all.

She was gracious and friendly (but then all the authors at B'Con tend to be--bad for business if you aren't, I suppose--or else killing people for fun and profit on the page help make them a pretty grounded group). The thing that struck me most, though, was that she exuded an air of competence and "this is what I do, how I think about things, how I fit things together, how I evaluate things." Of course any successful author has that in them, but I'm not sure whether that would be the strongest impression.

Nice to hear that my first impressions were on target.

Alexie has to be a fantastic person.

Chaucer had to be awesome to party with.

The most beautiful brown eyes.

Good to hear he is a nice guy. Man he can write.

She stopped by my university while I was there and I missed her by that much. And she's one of my favorites.

Their writting seems to me, to be so personal and real life.
Hamill was/is a newspaper columnist and novelist. John updike became one of my favorites with his "Rabbit" series.

I know she's dead, but I'm glad I didn't meet Ayn Rand. I wouldn't want to meet Glen Beck either.

Thanks for the "tip of the hat", fadedrose.

I loved the "Rabbit" tetralogy, but just get that feeling.

Dang you Rose, makin' me think! lol

And Hunter S. Thompson too, but at least we knew how he felt about the post 9-11 world, so thats more like just wanting to hang out.

I like the way he thinks and would love to listen when he talks about anything.

I've read every book he's ever written.

dead, John Steinbeck

I love her books about the Inspector from the Sûreté du Québec and the village of Three Pines. I've listened to interviews with her and I think we have a lot in common.

I've met Stephen King on a number of occasions. He's not creepy at all. And very generous to Democratic candidates and causes.

I have loved everything of theirs I've ever read.

Those are the first two that come to mind, but there really are many more.

I've met a reasonable number of science-fiction writers, since I tend to hang out with those kinds of people and have gone to a couple of conferences and workshops in my time. All of the ones I've met are quite nice, but then the authors in any field who go to these things usually are quite happy to meet their readers.

Starts with Julius Caesar's grandfather and goes through his sucessor, Augustus Caesar. Brilliantly researched and vividly written. I read all 7 and then started over. I've made it to book five again.

Would love to meet her but she is in her 80's in poor health and lives in the south pacific-someplace wierd like Pitcairn Island.

I'd PAY to meet him, lol.