Visiting Janis Ian

Carolyn and I spent the afternoon with Janis Ian, the Grammy Award-winning folk singer best known for "At Seventeen" and "Society's Child." Janis lives in Nashville, Tennessee -- which is where we were getting our flight home after Chattacon (in Chattanooga).

Janis took us out for a great barbecue-chicken lunch, then we hung around her place for a few hours before heading to the airport.

Janis is a big science-fiction fan (and has an amazingly good SF book collection). She's published nine SF stories of her own, and edited (with Mike Resnick) the anthology Stars, containing SF and fantasy stories inspired by her songs (including my own "Immortality," inspired by "Society's Child").

It was fun comparing notes about the ways in which our two industries -- recording and publishing -- are similar and different (and screwed up!).

Photo: That's Janis and me, standing in from of her wall of gold and platinum records and other awards.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site