“All Right, Tell Me A Story”

I still remember the first time I approached Larry Niven, one of the greatest SF writers of the 20th century, and said “Hello, Mr. Niven. My name is Steven Barnes, and I’m a writer.”

And he puffed on his pipe, looked me over and said: “All right. Tell me a story.”

I rocked back on my heels, all my insecurities hitting me at the same time. I realized on some level that this was a critical moment. It was put up or shut up. I actually had his attention, and if I didn’t blow the next second, it could change my life forever.

Luckily, although I felt tongue-tied, I’d put a story into the mail earlier that day, a tale of a compulsive gambler who hocked his pacemaker, the first appearance of the character “Promise,” an exotic dancer and escort who had had half the skin on her body removed and replaced with a light display that responded to her emotions and movements, a character who was central to three of my later novels. It was called “Is Your Glass Half Empty?” and I managed to stumble through it.

Larry gave the little smile of approval I’ve come to know and love so much. My life was never the same.

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So I just came back from Brendon Burchard’s “Influencer” weekend, a networking and learning environment for teachers, bloggers, coaches, healers…the people who stand up and say “this works” or “follow me” or “believe in yourself.” The philosophy is that everything we achieve we achieve initially by modeling the behaviors of other people…so…