Thursday, December 4, 2008

The Two Harrys





I was talking to Diana the other night. She had written to Harry O. Morris (AKA Harry Zero) about Harry (AKA HEF) out in Albuquerque. I met Harry Zero in Tucson, at the World Fantasy Convention, October of 1991. The following April, when THE HOLY TERROR premiered in Nashville at World Horror, I gave one of my contributor copies to Harry and met his wife Christine. Harry has always been shy as hell, even when he chain smokes, and couldn't believe I was giving him my book. I'll always be baffled why anybody thinks my writing is so meaningful, and I'll always feel that way. Over the years, the two Harrys corresponded a lot and our Harry even went to Albuquerque (Harry O.'s hometown) for Bubonicon several times. The photo of Harry O. is one of several he has sent me over the years, strangely printed on something like fax paper. The photo of our Harry is courtesy of Yvonne, and he's looking in the window of the long gone Stars Our Destination bookstore on Belmont, a few blocks off Sheffield. The lot of us had quite a few book signing there, Von, me, Harry, Jeff Osier, Andrew Lynch, even Frederick Pohl, the science fiction great, was there once. Well, full circle, Diana told me after getting a card from Harry and Christine, she mailed them a thank you. A few days later, she received another letter postmarked Albuquerque. She thought it might just be another quick note, but it was Harry writing to tell her that Christine had been killed in a bus crash. Sometimes it is a strange fucking world.