Queen's Own Interview with Herald Auric (Eric Dooley)
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| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Queen's Own Interview with Herald Auric (Eric Dooley) |
| Interviewer: | Queen's Own |
| Interviewee: | Herald Auric (Eric Dooley) |
| Date(s): | April 1, 2002 |
| Medium: | print, online |
| Fandom(s): | Mercedes Lackey, Valdemar |
| External Links: | Queen's Own Newsletter--April 2002, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
In April 2002, Queen's Own interviewed Herald Auric (Eric Dooley).
For other interviews in this series, see Queen's Own Interviews.
Some Excerpts
When did you join Queen's Own?
I have been involved since the early 90’s now [Ed. Note: Herald Auric was approved in July of 1991.]. I got the privilege of helping out with one mailing day when Judith was doing the newsletter, and she is a wonderful/caring person. I met a boyfriend from Queen's Own, and we long distance dated for 4 months, and then he moved to be with me for four months before we broke up. (Don’t do long distance relationships! They are very hard, and you don’t really get to see the real, day-to-day person that way. (I’ve also recently had the pleasure of meeting our two hard working managers/runners of QO now.
What got you hooked on Misty's books?
Vanyel and the Last Herald-Mage Trilogy. I was captivated by one of the covers in the store, and when I realized the character was gay . . . I was amazed and overjoyed. Then I went back and found everything else Misty had written. Vanyel touched my heart and made me cry, but, most importantly, he made me see that there were other people who were gay out there. For that I’ll always love Misty. I grew up in small town USA, being sheltered, and so it was a wonderful moment to discover these books. Finding that book changed my life and made me realize I could do something like that. So I’ve been working on my own book ever since, between school and working and all the other ups and downs in life. Misty really changed my life.
What types of things would you like to see Queen’s Own do in the coming years?
I’ve already suggested some things to our editors/owners. I would love to see more interaction. Have Misty answer questions, write a note for each or every other newsletter. How about an article from Judith? Why she did it, how it felt doing all that hard work, what she felt was rewarding. How did it feel giving it all up? Does she keep in touch with anyone? More stuff than what we have now. Reviews of Misty’s books, opinions, other authors people think are great and why. I think it should all be in one thing not spread out all over the place. We have chat groups, the newsletter and minizines everywhere. How about coming together to make this list the best and brightest. How about Q&A with other fantasy authors? What they are into? What are their latest books, etc.? There are lots of authors on the Net out there, or there should be ways to contact them. The old list used to get me excited when I saw a preview for something that was coming out from Misty. I also met and got to meet a lot of cool people through the fan messages section. I still talk to some of them now. I know Misty has lots of fans out there. Why not advertise our group in the back of her books? [Ed. Note: We’ve asked DAW about that several times, updating those ads in the back of the books and adding the ad to the new books. DAW has not responded to our queries.] That’s how I found out about QO and Judith. It seems like there is a disconnect between Misty and the group. I also belong to a Tanya Huff group, and there we get info on where she is appearing what books she is working on next and an estimated time of arrival. I also used to belong to P.N. Elrod’s fan club, and she would write in each newsletter, answer fan questions and interact. She even wrote me a letter once, which was really great and exciting. I just want this group to be the best that it can be and Linda and Kenny can’t do it alone; it needs to be everyone pitching in. What do other people want to see? What are your ideas for bringing in new blood and making people interested enough? Anyway, that’s enough about me and my opinions.
Why did you get involved in fandom?
Always loved escaping from reality into a comic book or a fantasy book, and it saved my sanity at times in my dysfunctional childhood.