goodbye, rory

Had my head down yesterday, so I missed the fact that he was in the hospital. Wake up this morning to find he's gone. Ghah! This is awful.

I posted my reminiscences over on LJ. While I'm not usually one for reposting, it feels appropriate this time...

I've been reading the posts over at the retailers forum. Everyone keeps saying how they'll miss the late-night talks 'til 4 in the morning. How wonderful such conversations must have been.

Others talked about how helpful he was to indy creators and zine creators. The latter would be me. I met Rory in 2002, when I took copies of PLATFORM to San Diego. I can't remember who it was - Larry Young, maybe? - who pointed me in Rory's direction. "Oh, you've got to go take some to Rory." I'm going, "Ok, whatever you say, who is this guy?"

He looked over my book and started reading it in front of me. That totally would have made me nuts were it not for his body language and demeanor. He didn't want me to prove anything to him. He was sincerely interested. He really did want to see what I had to offer.

An agonizing minute or two later, he laughed out loud. Then he smiled and said something like, "I know where to put these." Right by the cash register.

When I came back later to settle up, he gave me some pointers. "Always use good cover stock, it's much more professional" and "Always, always put the price on the cover and make sure everyone can SEE it".

I was so grateful for his kindness, and I never forgot it. Now I'm incredibly grateful that I did not pass up the chance to tell him, when we were emailing just about a week ago for this retailer interview.

I'll never forget you, Rory!

EDITED TO ADD: Heidi has more on Rory (in case you didn't know him), including an awesome picture of him... without his hat! ("I never saw him without his hat," says Leland.)