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puppetmakerThis is going to be a long one so I am putting a chunk of it after a cut unless you clicked on a link and then I would have you know that it will be a long one.
The universe is quieter today because there is a Harlan Ellison sized hole in it.
Just to get it out of the way it would be ‘“Repent Harlequin!” said the Tick Tock Man’ followed by “When Jeffty was Five”.
Yesterday afternoon we received a phone call that we have been expecting and dreading for a while. It was Susan Ellison informing Peter that Harlan had passed away in his sleep.
Today Peter is on a plane headed out to see Susan and help however he can.
Since that call, I have been thinking a lot about my friend who was a living legend.
I heard a lot about Harlan from various friends before I encountered him. I knew he was not that tall but seemed taller when he stood on his Ego. I knew he did not suffer fools gladly or really at all. I knew he was a passionate person who was one hell of a writer that I admired.
It was DragonCon and I was working tech. I don’t remember if I was tech director yet but I do know I was running fast from point A to point B making sure that everything was working and everyone had what they needed.
It was when DragonCon was in the Hilton. I was walking around one way to get to my next room on the list when I saw something out of the corner of my eye that made me stop in case there was trouble.
Harlan and Susan were stopped in the hall heading down to a number of rooms that we were using for paneling. There was a guy in front of Harlan, later I found out it was Clifford Stoll, with a water pitcher and talking really rapidly to Harlan. “Is the pitcher half empty or half full?” I heard him say. Harlan replied something but I didn’t hear it. “Wrong, you should change the question,” said Clifford and then he dumped the water all over Harlan’s shoes. Any DragonCon staff in the area immediate came over because we were not sure what was going to happen next. One set of people got Clifford the hell out of there and another set attended to Harlan and Susan. I ran to my next panel room once I saw it was handled.
Never told Harlan that I was there when that happened. I put it on the shelf with the time that a very rich woman tried to buy Neil Gaiman’s services for the evening to amuse her son who loved Sandman.
Fast forward to Peter and I getting together. Harlan and Susan were very protective of Peter especially after what had happened to him during the divorce. They were suspicious of me since Peter had met me at a science fiction convention. I think their concern was that I was a gold digger and just wanted Peter for his fame not for himself.
It was the first I-Con I attended with Peter as his girlfriend. I met a lot of people who cared about Peter and were just making sure that I was right for him. It’s where I first met Glenn Haumann who I recently killed in the anthology “They keep killing Glenn” and his lovely wife Brandy.
I found myself at dinner with Harlan, Susan, and Peter listening to Harlan and Peter tell stories and discuss things. I was asked a number of questions that I answered truthfully. And I had some trivia fact in my back pocket that the two of them could not remember. So I held my own with Harlan Ellison, which made me feel good.
It was another convention that we were all at when I found a Space Cases jacket on a chair outside the elevator. I picked it up wondering if it was one of the girls and figured out it was Harlan’s. I quietly gave it back to Susan who was very grateful because it had been misplaced. At that point I know Susan warmed up to me and Harlan, having satisfied himself that I really did love Peter, accepted me into his clan.
Harlan was the best man at my wedding. His best man speech was one for the ages because it was classic Harlan starting at point A and getting distracted by someone so everything went off the rails in spectacular fashion but very entertaining. Also he had on these orange shoes that everyone remembers very clearly.
Eight years ago Peter had excruciating pain in his back. It turned out that he had a degenerative disk that was impinging on a nerve. They gave him various pain killers starting with the low grade stuff but it went to the heavy meds right before he went in for surgery. One of the drugs they gave him was a morphine derivative that did little for the pain but he didn’t care about the pain anymore. I have never seen him so loopy. I came out of the kitchen to find Peter on the phone talking to Harlan. Harlan convinced Peter to hand the phone to me. “What is he on and what happened?” asked Harlan. I gave him a run down of what we knew and Peter was going in for surgery in a couple of days to take care of the problem. He put Susan on who has back problems and she gave me good advice on how to help him. He got back on and said, “Do us all a favor and unplug the phones. Don’t let him near a phone until after he gets off what he is on.”
I did as he asked and to this day Ariel is a little upset with me since the next person Peter wanted to call was his ex to blow raspberries at her.
After Peter had his stroke and we told a few people I got a call from Harlan and Susan wanting to know if there is anything they could do to help. Harlan checked in with me once or twice a week checking up on Peter and seeing how I was doing. Susan did the same. Once Peter was up for it, I put him on the phone with Harlan and they had one of their long chats. There was one day that things just got too overwhelming for me and Harlan happened to call. He talked to me for over an hour making sure that I was OK and Caroline was OK. He ended that call with “I want you to know that I love you kid.”
Harlan and Susan have always had our backs. I can’t count the number of times they have supported us in crises. We tried to do the same for them.
The girls called him Uncle Harlan because he was part of the family, maybe not by blood but defiantly by spirit. They loved him dearly.
Harlan gave Caroline her nickname Caroline Helen Helen David that we use to this day. The reason for it was that in my family there is a tradition of the middle name of the children was from the grandparents. My middle name is after my maternal grandmother. My mother’s name is Helen so it was a given that Caroline’s middle name was going to be Helen. I didn’t know at the time that Gunter’s mother’s name translated into English was Helen so he thought Peter named her after his mother. Harlan found this to be funny and started calling her Caroline Helen Helen, which stuck.
Harlan and Susan gifted Caroline ‘pink blankie’ which covered her from the time she came home from the hospital and was taken everywhere by Caroline. It is now called pink raggy since there is not much of it left. We sewed a pillowcase for it and Caroline puts her head on it to go to sleep. She still takes comfort in it.
Harlan babysat Caroline who was out in LA with Peter for a taping of one of his Young Justice scripts. Peter got tickets to a taping of the Big Bang Theory but Caroline was too young to go so Peter took Susan and Harlan entertained Caroline at his house. She was fascinated with the house and all the books. They watched Pinocchio together and talked about it. Harlan was a good babysitter.
I will miss the phone conversations that never started with him saying who he was until part way into the conversation but I knew who it was. I will miss attending conventions with Susan and him and the meals that would take hours to consume as we talked about everything under the sun. I will miss that clever twinkle in his eye right before he did something that he knew was going to be talked about.
Last time we saw him was about two years ago after San Diego Comic Con. He had a stroke that caused a number of issues for him. We came by the house and we talked to Harlan. Caroline and he had a conversation that I was not privy to nor was Peter. Caroline felt better after talking to Harlan. I talked to him for a bit and left Peter to spend sometime with him while I talked to Susan caretaker to caretaker and let her vent. His mind was there but his body was failing slowly.
He died in his sleep. Someone said it was because Death would only come for Harlan in his sleep because if he had been awake, there would have been quite a ruckus.
I will miss him.
The universe is diminished by his passing and we will never see his like again.
I won’t say rest in peace because peace is one of the last words I would use to describe Harlan but I will say Thank you Harlan for everything.
I am grateful that I had Harlan in my life.
The universe is quieter today because there is a Harlan Ellison sized hole in it.
Just to get it out of the way it would be ‘“Repent Harlequin!” said the Tick Tock Man’ followed by “When Jeffty was Five”.
Yesterday afternoon we received a phone call that we have been expecting and dreading for a while. It was Susan Ellison informing Peter that Harlan had passed away in his sleep.
Today Peter is on a plane headed out to see Susan and help however he can.
Since that call, I have been thinking a lot about my friend who was a living legend.
I heard a lot about Harlan from various friends before I encountered him. I knew he was not that tall but seemed taller when he stood on his Ego. I knew he did not suffer fools gladly or really at all. I knew he was a passionate person who was one hell of a writer that I admired.
It was DragonCon and I was working tech. I don’t remember if I was tech director yet but I do know I was running fast from point A to point B making sure that everything was working and everyone had what they needed.
It was when DragonCon was in the Hilton. I was walking around one way to get to my next room on the list when I saw something out of the corner of my eye that made me stop in case there was trouble.
Harlan and Susan were stopped in the hall heading down to a number of rooms that we were using for paneling. There was a guy in front of Harlan, later I found out it was Clifford Stoll, with a water pitcher and talking really rapidly to Harlan. “Is the pitcher half empty or half full?” I heard him say. Harlan replied something but I didn’t hear it. “Wrong, you should change the question,” said Clifford and then he dumped the water all over Harlan’s shoes. Any DragonCon staff in the area immediate came over because we were not sure what was going to happen next. One set of people got Clifford the hell out of there and another set attended to Harlan and Susan. I ran to my next panel room once I saw it was handled.
Never told Harlan that I was there when that happened. I put it on the shelf with the time that a very rich woman tried to buy Neil Gaiman’s services for the evening to amuse her son who loved Sandman.
Fast forward to Peter and I getting together. Harlan and Susan were very protective of Peter especially after what had happened to him during the divorce. They were suspicious of me since Peter had met me at a science fiction convention. I think their concern was that I was a gold digger and just wanted Peter for his fame not for himself.
It was the first I-Con I attended with Peter as his girlfriend. I met a lot of people who cared about Peter and were just making sure that I was right for him. It’s where I first met Glenn Haumann who I recently killed in the anthology “They keep killing Glenn” and his lovely wife Brandy.
I found myself at dinner with Harlan, Susan, and Peter listening to Harlan and Peter tell stories and discuss things. I was asked a number of questions that I answered truthfully. And I had some trivia fact in my back pocket that the two of them could not remember. So I held my own with Harlan Ellison, which made me feel good.
It was another convention that we were all at when I found a Space Cases jacket on a chair outside the elevator. I picked it up wondering if it was one of the girls and figured out it was Harlan’s. I quietly gave it back to Susan who was very grateful because it had been misplaced. At that point I know Susan warmed up to me and Harlan, having satisfied himself that I really did love Peter, accepted me into his clan.
Harlan was the best man at my wedding. His best man speech was one for the ages because it was classic Harlan starting at point A and getting distracted by someone so everything went off the rails in spectacular fashion but very entertaining. Also he had on these orange shoes that everyone remembers very clearly.
Eight years ago Peter had excruciating pain in his back. It turned out that he had a degenerative disk that was impinging on a nerve. They gave him various pain killers starting with the low grade stuff but it went to the heavy meds right before he went in for surgery. One of the drugs they gave him was a morphine derivative that did little for the pain but he didn’t care about the pain anymore. I have never seen him so loopy. I came out of the kitchen to find Peter on the phone talking to Harlan. Harlan convinced Peter to hand the phone to me. “What is he on and what happened?” asked Harlan. I gave him a run down of what we knew and Peter was going in for surgery in a couple of days to take care of the problem. He put Susan on who has back problems and she gave me good advice on how to help him. He got back on and said, “Do us all a favor and unplug the phones. Don’t let him near a phone until after he gets off what he is on.”
I did as he asked and to this day Ariel is a little upset with me since the next person Peter wanted to call was his ex to blow raspberries at her.
After Peter had his stroke and we told a few people I got a call from Harlan and Susan wanting to know if there is anything they could do to help. Harlan checked in with me once or twice a week checking up on Peter and seeing how I was doing. Susan did the same. Once Peter was up for it, I put him on the phone with Harlan and they had one of their long chats. There was one day that things just got too overwhelming for me and Harlan happened to call. He talked to me for over an hour making sure that I was OK and Caroline was OK. He ended that call with “I want you to know that I love you kid.”
Harlan and Susan have always had our backs. I can’t count the number of times they have supported us in crises. We tried to do the same for them.
The girls called him Uncle Harlan because he was part of the family, maybe not by blood but defiantly by spirit. They loved him dearly.
Harlan gave Caroline her nickname Caroline Helen Helen David that we use to this day. The reason for it was that in my family there is a tradition of the middle name of the children was from the grandparents. My middle name is after my maternal grandmother. My mother’s name is Helen so it was a given that Caroline’s middle name was going to be Helen. I didn’t know at the time that Gunter’s mother’s name translated into English was Helen so he thought Peter named her after his mother. Harlan found this to be funny and started calling her Caroline Helen Helen, which stuck.
Harlan and Susan gifted Caroline ‘pink blankie’ which covered her from the time she came home from the hospital and was taken everywhere by Caroline. It is now called pink raggy since there is not much of it left. We sewed a pillowcase for it and Caroline puts her head on it to go to sleep. She still takes comfort in it.
Harlan babysat Caroline who was out in LA with Peter for a taping of one of his Young Justice scripts. Peter got tickets to a taping of the Big Bang Theory but Caroline was too young to go so Peter took Susan and Harlan entertained Caroline at his house. She was fascinated with the house and all the books. They watched Pinocchio together and talked about it. Harlan was a good babysitter.
I will miss the phone conversations that never started with him saying who he was until part way into the conversation but I knew who it was. I will miss attending conventions with Susan and him and the meals that would take hours to consume as we talked about everything under the sun. I will miss that clever twinkle in his eye right before he did something that he knew was going to be talked about.
Last time we saw him was about two years ago after San Diego Comic Con. He had a stroke that caused a number of issues for him. We came by the house and we talked to Harlan. Caroline and he had a conversation that I was not privy to nor was Peter. Caroline felt better after talking to Harlan. I talked to him for a bit and left Peter to spend sometime with him while I talked to Susan caretaker to caretaker and let her vent. His mind was there but his body was failing slowly.
He died in his sleep. Someone said it was because Death would only come for Harlan in his sleep because if he had been awake, there would have been quite a ruckus.
I will miss him.
The universe is diminished by his passing and we will never see his like again.
I won’t say rest in peace because peace is one of the last words I would use to describe Harlan but I will say Thank you Harlan for everything.
I am grateful that I had Harlan in my life.
