Running With Quills: Jayne Asks: What Was Your Fifteen Minutes of Fame?

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Jayne Asks: What Was Your Fifteen Minutes of Fame?

Jayne here again, filling in for Elizabeth Guest who is deep into her next book in the PHARAOH'S RISING series (personally, I can hardly wait. Great series).

Anyhow, as you no doubt know, they say everyone gets fifteen minutes of fame and I couldn't resist telling you that, yes, I got mine this past week. Okay, it was more like fifteen seconds, but I was thrilled. What's more, if you subscribe to Dictionary.com Word of the Day you may have seen my moment of glory. Yep, I was the Word of the Day on Friday, February 15. The word was "ennui" and one of the examples used was a line from my Amanda Quick title, WITH THIS RING. Folks, it really doesn't get much more exciting for an author. (What can I say? I don't get out a lot).

I have ALYSSA DAY (author of the terrific WARRIORS OF POSEIDON series: ATLANTIS RISING, ATLANTIS UNLEASHED, ATLANTIS AWAKENING) to thank for letting me know about my appearance on Word of the Day. We share the same agent, you see. She kindly notified him and he notified me. Thanks, again, Alyssa! If it hadn't been for you, I would have missed my moment altogether!!

By the way, I immediately cancelled my subscription to that other Word of the Day outfit and fired up a new subscription at Dictionary.com.

Well, that's my story of fame and glory. What's yours? Have you had your fifteen minutes of fame yet? Tell us about it!

18 Comments:

Dr. Christine said...: This post has been removed by the author.; 8:47 AM
Kay Webb Harrison said...: Back in the olden days, when I was attending Old Dominion University here in Norfolk, VA, (1970), our school was invited to field a team on the General Electric College Bowl. The school asked for interested students to attend a meeting. Was I ever interested! After passing through the audition process during the early months of 1970, the candidates were whittled down to 6-8 finalists, which included me. The School of Engineering made us panels with signalling devices so that we could practice just as the contestants played on the program. I made the final four, and the team elected me captain; we were three females and one male. I think our play date was 20 June 1970. We trounced the team from Allbright College of Reading, PA.
It was the final show of the season; we fully expected to return in the fall to defend our title, when Robert Earle (sp?) announced that General Electric had decided not to continue sponsoring the College Bowl. What a let down!
So, I was captain of the last victorious team on the original General Electric College Bowl! Right now I'm working on becoming a contestant on Jeopardy! I should have done it years ago; I have to get on before my reaction time dies completely.
Kay; 9:34 AM
Jayne Ann Krentz said...: dr. Christine: I'm delighted to hear you did the presentation and have a paper planned on the subject of the romance novel. We need more scholars championing our genre. Way to go!

Kay: Wow, now that's a fascinating fifteen minutes! Love that story. Good luck with Jeopardy!; 12:13 PM
DFender said...: Jayne,
You DESERVE your fame and glory because you, UberQuill, are a wordsmith! To me, anyway...LOL.

Uhm, I haven't yet had my fifteen minutes although maybe it'll happen when I win the lottery? Ha!

My most "famous" moment, locally in any case, was when I was in my junior year of high school and the junior girls played the senior girls in a game of "real" football. Full contact, using the varsity boys equipment. It was played after the boys finished for the year. Even though I played in both 11th and 12th grades, I did get my picture in the local newspaper during my 11th grade game. I played safety you see... and well... all you can see in the photograph is an offensive player running toward a defensive player who was down in an aggressive stance with a number "88" on her jersey, in the middle of a snow covered football field, obscured by a damn blizzard. That #88 was ME. Oh, the fame! The glory! LOL

Thanks for the great memory!

Deb; 1:14 PM
Alyssa Day said...: I was on a book tour and one of my TV appearances was on AM Northwest, in Portland Oregon, right after famous children's author Sandra Boynton and her enormous stuffed chicken. My kids finally believed Mommy was famous when I came on their TV after the chicken.
hugs,
Alyssa, a huge JAK fan; 2:18 PM
Brandy said...: I was 16 and my local chapter of The United Way chose me to be a spokesperson on a panel being interviewed on C-Span in Washington, DC. (I was a volunteer for years at that point.) I look back now and want to laugh, or cry. *g* Because they asked me a question about the MANY hours I had and I said "Oh, I would have had more hours, but I caught the chicken pox." GAH!; 3:22 PM
Jayne Ann Krentz said...: DFENDER: LOL! Great story about that incredible # 88!!!

ALYSSA DAY: Thanks so much for dropping in here at RWQ. Congratulations on your wonderful series and thanks again for letting me know about my moment of online fame.

BRANDY: That's so funny! Probably what happens to most of us when we finally get our moment. We're caught off guard and nearly miss it altogether.; 3:55 PM
Jayne Ann Krentz said...: ALYSSA: By the way, I think there's a rule about never going on stage after a chicken...

--Jayne; 3:56 PM
karende said...: My moment of fame means nothing to anyone other than myself. It took place in 1999, when I finally got my BA - I started work toward it in fall of ‘65. Better late than never!

Now, if I could just find a totally online MFA class in creative writing...; 6:35 PM
Jayne Ann Krentz said...: KARENDE: Fabulous! Congratulations. Your 15 minutes is well worth celebrating. Like the old saying goes, where would you be if you hadn't started working toward your goal? The answer, of course, is you wouldn't have achieved your objective. But you made it!!!!
--Jayne; 8:43 PM
Anonymous said...: I´m with Karende. My greatest moment was when I earned my BS in Geography from University of Iceland back in 1995.

However, I did one single stint as a "model" for a clothing store when I was sixteen. The pictures appeared in a local paper and I was soooo proud.

Sirry; 1:02 AM
Jayne Ann Krentz said...: SIRRY: Congratulations on that BS and also on that modeling job. Very cool!

--Jayne; 1:07 PM
talpianna said...: I did better than Kay: I was a member of the undefeated De Pauw COLLEGE BOWL team back in 1961-62. Not the captain, though.

And I even had a SECOND moment of fame courtesy of our own Elizabeth Lowell: she dedicated one of her books to the members of her old bulletin board, and quoted a word I invented there: murfle. (Original meaning: a happy sound made by a pet mole curled up in her lap; extended meaning: a burst of laughter or a joke that provokes one)

That's me--making the NEW YORK TIMES bestseller list, one word at a time...; 4:46 PM
Linda said...: My 15 minutes came when the local news showed up at the local playground on Mother's Day. A Salary study had recently come out that stay at home moms would earn nearly $140K if they were paid for their hard work- and they wanted some interviews with moms.

Well...on a rainy day at lunchtime, I was the only mom to be found at the park. So, I reluctantly agreed to be interviewed on camera about being a stay-at-home mom. I had NO make up, a 4 month old in a babyB'jorn covering my husband's ratty old sweatshirt. AND my hair was in that lovely style we women use when no hairclips or hairbrushes are available - some sort of twisting knot with strands falling out at every angle. Neither of my kids had slept well the night before, so I could not even compensate for my appearance with dazzling wit, because my brain felt muzzy.

Oh, well. Like they say...fame is fleeting.; 7:34 AM
Jayne Ann Krentz said...: TAL: Great story about the history of "murfle" and good luck with your next word on the NYT!

LINDA: Isn't that the way it always is with those fifteen minutes of fame? You've never got makeup on when the camera shows up! Thanks for sharing.

--Jayne; 8:32 AM
TinaLouiseF said...: During the 2003 Wildfire season, I was the Office Assistant at the County Disaster and Emergency Services Office. A picture of me talking to one of the local fire dept chiefs was printed in the local paper. They had his name and dept and I was listed as a volunteer.; 7:29 PM
talpianna said...: Jayne: For my next appearance, can I persuade you to include the word "woofle" (the superlative of "murfle") in your next book?; 2:43 PM
psuedonyms said...: my fifteen minutes of fame was when i performed at a Saskatchewan youth talent search. now i know all of you may be thinking "wow Saskatchewan thats such a huge place(with a tiny amount of sarcasm) but yes that was where i got my fifteen minutes of fame i sang an opera song and everyone thought that that was the strangest thing but also quite amazing so i had a bunch of people i did not know coming up to me and talking to me.; 5:27 PM

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Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Jayne Asks: What Was Your Fifteen Minutes of Fame?

18 Comments: