A budding FanGirl ( GM )

The otherday I met a girl just turned 11 ( that very day.)

She was a freckled tomboyish girl with neck length brown hair. We ended up talking favorite fantasy authors. Neil Gaiman came up, as did one of Gaiman's favorites Dianna Wynne Jones.

Once I mentioned that Jones was the author of "Howl's Moving Castle" her face lit up again. She's a fan of Hayao Miyazaki and had seen his anime version as well as his "Spirited Away." At the bookstore we were in at the time she ultimately came away with the "Howl's" novel and the first few Sandman volumes as well as a recommendation for Satoshi Kon's "Millennium Actress."

Her mother was in the birthday girl's tow. Mom was a bit mousy, but very much a fan-girl all growed up whose love of Sci-Fi/Fantasy and Anime was being passed on to the next generation.

And speaking of next generations... not only was Mom rather hot when her face was lit up with passion for great art, but she was also carrying yet another Fantasy fan in utero; and was pretty far along. ( Considering my thing for pregnant women and 11 year olds, this was a twofer :)

It made my day, and made my trip to the bookstore worthwhile. Me, I walked away with the new biography of Paul Dirac "The Strangest Man;" about the taciturn genius who reconciled Quantum Mechanics with General Relativity, discovered anti-matter and who prefigured modern string-theory.

Dante