I have only met my favorite author once in my life. And it was by accident and sadly they weren’t my favorite author at the time. Terry Kay came to the Big Gun or WGUN for an interview in Atlanta when they turned his book, “Dance with a White Dog” into a movie of the week on CBS. He was an older gentleman, white hair, and kind eyes and a little nervous before I took him into the studio with Rich Simpson. I explained to him how the interview would go and asked if he wanted anything to drink – coffee, tea, or water. He said none of the above. Then I rushed back to the board to kick off the next segment – traffic every 15 minutes, weather, and the Hot ‘Lanta sports with Dave Cohen.
The interview went flawlessly. Rich asked some questions and then made some jokes. It had helped that Rich really read his book over the weekend and loved it. Rich was giddy at 5:30 that morning when we were prepping for the show.
“Great day. Great guest today. Great show,” Rich beamed with his wrinkled, cherub face.
When Terry Kay left the studio we shook hands and I said it was very nice to meet him.
I never saw him again. And to this day I kick myself. Because his next novel, Shadow Song completely changed my life. It inspired my short story, “Blithe”. And between him, Lewis Grizzard, and Margaret Mitchell of Gone With The Wind fame he contributed to putting Atlanta back on the literary map. He is the modern day writer that I emulated.
Then I moved to Hong Kong.
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