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the beginning?”
    “Of course. I’m always on the lookout for a new good book, and as far as I’m concerned Sean Taylor has been a literary genius since the first word he put to paper ten years ago. Now if only he’d get out the next one...”
    “It’s always nice to find someone who’s liked the books almost as long as I have! Sometimes I feel like I’m the only person who knew about them back at the beginning,” he said. “Besides, I’m sure he has a good reason for making us wait!”
    “I thought it was a revelation when I read the first book, so I really don’t care if he takes his time. I’m not like those rabid fanboys that seem to think he owes us something.”
    My love for the books is probably why I spend so much of my time playing Tales of Elassa. Sometimes I wish I could be in that world! Other times I just wish I could craft something as amazing and original!”
    “You never know,” he said. “Just look at that chick with those kinky sex books, and that started out as a fanfiction didn’t it?”
    I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, like something like that would happen to me!”
    “So you’re a huge fan, does that mean you’re going to Elassa Con?”
    I sighed. “How I’d love to go to Elassa Con! I’ve been to a few regional cons, even have a stupid costume I wear to them, but I’m afraid Elassa Con is more than a poor grad student like me can afford though.”
    “Pity, I was thinking of going. We could meet up,” he said. “I’d love to see that costume. ;)”
    “Yeah, well, maybe I’ll go someday if I get rich off of my writing,” I said.
    “I’d like to read some of your stuff,” he said.
    I pulled away from the keyboard. I blinked a couple of times. I stared at the chat window. At those words burned onto my flat panel. Sure I shared my stuff in the critiques every day, sure I shared my stuff with the people I role-played with online, but there was something about this that seemed different. I was suddenly self-conscious about sharing my work with this man. Maybe it was the way he wrote. Maybe it was knowing that he did this professionally. But for whatever reason, I was hesitant.
    “I don’t know,” I said. “I’m sure it would be boring for you…”
    “No! I’m definitely interested! If you’re half as good as what you write in game then I have a feeling I’m going to be pleasantly surprised!”
    I blushed and had to stop. I had to count to ten. It was like this guy was pressing all the right buttons, and I didn’t even know his real name. I had no idea what he looked like. For all I knew it could be some fifteen-year-old kid who was home from school today. For all I knew he could be some old man. He could even be a she!
    Catfishing was an ever present danger online, but something was telling me I should take a chance.
    “Fine, what’s your email address?”
    “[email protected]”
    I arched an eyebrow at that. I was surprised he was actually able to get that email address. It’s not like Conlan was a super famous character in the series or anything, but he was a driving force in the narrative for anybody who bothered to pay attention to that sort of thing. It was the kingdom he created that led to the catastrophe that created the world I was running around in right now. The world I loved reading about so much. The world that had taken the real world by storm over the past five years with its explosive popularity. And I figured a name like that would’ve been snapped up immediately. Only here he was. He had it.
    Interesting. And it also made me respect him all the more. It was slightly cocky choosing that name, but at the same time it showed that he really knew his stuff. He really knew the story. A lot of people didn’t pay attention to it that deeply. They just enjoyed the action in the books or they enjoyed the boobs on the pay cable miniseries. No, that name told me this was a guy who really got the series. This was a guy who was definitely a fan.
    And that made