The weirdest thing just happened...

[firstfrost]

Okay. So. I mentioned a while ago that the author of The Gone-Away World read my livejournal review of it, and finding that a little startling. I don't friends-lock much, but even so - I mostly talk about things I knit, and things I read, and random anecdotes that I think might be amusing, but I can't think that I'm all that interesting if you don't know me.

This evening, I get an email notice that ladymondegreen had added me as a friend. I didn't recognize the name (well, I recognized the name from the original etymology, but that wasn't actually helpful), so I poked at the userinfo - hmm, they list chanaleh as a friend, but she knows pretty much everyone in the world, and there are no other people in common. And, hmm, as it turns out, she's not a person, she appears to be a musical group. I have been friended by a musical group. Well, okay, I know some musicians, maybe I know someone in the group. I click on their web site. It lists the original members of Lady Mondegreen, and one name kind of rings a bell - Seanan McGuire. Is that someone I know? No, I don't think I know anyone named Seanan. Wait... didn't I just write a review of a book by someone named Seanan? I google Seanan McGuire. Yes, she wrote that book I just read.

Which I had just written a review of.

WHICH I HAVE NOT YET POSTED.

Learning that authors notice my reviews is disconcerting. Learning that authors get some sort of proleptic ARC memo of my livejournal posts which mention them goes rather past disconcerting and into surreal.

Though, now, my next post about the author in question is *not* the review (still sitting in the file waiting to accrue more books), but is this post instead. I don't know if I even *can* post a review of someone who is listening to me already! The timestream has been altered from the original, and we've spun off into some alternate (and more interesting) acausal variant.

I can't wait to see what happens tomorrow!

Comments

[kelkyag]

Apparently your multiple timelines have gotten slightly out of sync. :)

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

Hee!

[tirinian.livejournal.com]

Heh. Did you see that one of the young'ns wrote a review of a book for MITSFS that got quoted on the actual back cover of the book when it came out? :-)

(Which he found disconcerting because he had no advanced notice this was going to happen.)

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

Wow, cool. :)

(I bet real reviewers don't expect to be warned about this sort of thing, but that would feel to me more like having my zephyrs quoted in the Tech!)

[ironrat.livejournal.com]

This is EXACTLY the problem with linear time that I will have been warned people about for ages!

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Hee hee hee hee hee!

I can however vouch for the fact that ladymondegreen is a real (and lovely) person, distinct from the group Lady Mondegreen (http://www.ladymondegreen.com/members.html) (linked for others' convenience) of which she is a member, and distinct also from seanan_mcguire. :-)

[dpolicar]

I can't wait to see what happens tomorrow!

And at this rate, perhaps you won't have to.

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

Hi!

As chanaleh pointed out, I am actually an individual. We actually named the band after a song, after seeing the etymology about the name of my LJ. So in a round-about way, the band is named for my LJ.

You've just fallen afoul of what we call 'clone chain phenomenon'. I'll tell you the story of how this actually happened, and I promise no proto-LJ posts were prematurely seen through time-travel.

So, I was reading chanaleh's journal, and came across one of your comments, I thought it was interesting, and went 'do I know this person?' and went to look. I got sucked in by the knitting posts, and decided to friend you. I feel that it's at least likely we've met in person, probably at a Boston area, or Theater at First something, which I am occasionally up from New York to see.

Where does the band and the clone-chain thing come in?

So, about ten years ago, I rounded up a bunch of my female friends who I felt didn't sing enough, (in fact, to add to the coincidence, I just got off the phone about a rehearsal with co-conspirator batyatoon when I saw your post) and asked them to be in a band with me. This led to a lot of things, including increased confidence in a lot of the members, and it also meant that Seanan, Batya, and I stayed in closer touch.

This meant lots of visits and e-mails and calls, and eventual brain synchronization, which led to us calling each other 'clone' as an affectionate nickname. Around this time, a lot of odd causality stuff happened around us, which we referred to as 'the clone chain phenomenon', where things that happened to one of us would happen to many of us (see also the recent incident with the fire, the liquor cabinet and UPS).

The fact of my friending you just before you were about to post a review of a book/series that I helped edit? Pure clone-chain phenomenon.

So, hi. I hopefully will be somewhat less of a chaos field than all that in ensuing months. Seanan does not, as far as I know, read your journal, but if you're comfortable having your review pointed out, she will almost certainly read it and maybe post it in her own blog.

So, despite sometimes sharing a brain, seanan_mcguire and indeed, her alter ego Mira Grant, author of Feed are distinct people from me. And now you know!

P.S. Lovely knitting!

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

*is proud*

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

Wow, for me this was an unusual bit of surreal. Having it happen all the time must be great fun! (Well, perhaps not if everyone has fires at the same time...)

Having a real author read something I write about them is sort of like discovering the neighbors have been listening to me sing in the shower - the awkwardness is probably more in my head than theirs, and it doesn't seem reasonable to tell them to not listen. :)

P.S. Thank you!

[fredrickegerman.livejournal.com]

I'm now tempted to stand outside your house trying to tape record you singing in the shower.

But that would be creepy. I try not to make a habit of creepiness.

[(Anonymous)]

As a result of this very interesting post, I've started reading "Rosemary and Rue". I hope that's the book that you're going to review.

[jdbakermn.livejournal.com]

er, that was me!