You know, the whole party will wipe if you don't have characters who throw buffs and heals...

[xiphias]

So, I sometimes comment that I feel like a secondary character in other people's lives: that I'm not the protagonist.
And  some days, that feels really, really rewarding when I'm reminded how GOOD a secondary character I am.

Today, I went to a party for someone who is among my best friends.  She just finished her gruelling three-year hospital  residency and is finally starting up her practice.  And I've been a shoulder for her to lean on during stressy times since she was eighteen -- nearly half her life.

I genuinely feel like I had some part in getting her through all this, and I find myself feeling just a little proud of myself in her accomplishment.   More proud of her, of course, and proud to be her friend, but, yeah, proud of myself, too.

And then, tonight, when Jo Walton her Best Novel Hugo (against a whole bunch of other brilliant books, not a weak book on the list), she namechecked me.

I got quoted in a Best Novel Hugo acceptance speech!

If I was merely the protagonist in my own story, well, that would be one story.  I'm starting to feel that it's better to be a supporting character in MANY stories.

Comments

[arib.livejournal.com]

Agreed.

[cellio]

I think you're right.

And congratulations on both!

[dancing-crow.livejournal.com]

I think you have accomplished what Mr. Crow would call an assist.

He tutors people in math on the side, to be paid in baked goods, preferably with a lot of sugar (healthy cornbread is not as prized as cookies!) and of four tutees, all have either passed their tests or passed their courses or accomplished the algebra part of their GED - and he has said, quite carefully, that he is delighted to have participated in their journey and contributed to their success. He counts them as assists. Not personal triumphs, like one's own degree, but something one contributed to, that the other person gets full marks for.

So: congrats on two assists!!

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

You are adorable.

And hey, you're a major supporting character in my life story, appearign at one of the Pivotal Points Of Change, so there you go.

[ckd]

When Jo said that, I turned to copperwise (who I was sitting with) and said "yay, Ian got namechecked!" I then proceeded to tell her that you were someone I value very much as a friend who has been there for me through the rough spots as well as the high points. Later, I was thinking back to Anticipation and the ways in which my life has improved since then...and the times when you had just the right thing to say to keep me going.

So thank you.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

*blush*

[rebmommy.livejournal.com]

I know you are a good support to so many people, and I am very proud of you! And proud of myself, too, for having a little bit to do with the way you are - at least, I like to think that I had something to do with it. :-)

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

Yay, on both counts!

[plantmom.livejournal.com]

I just stumbled across the Hugo awards in another context tonight, and I thought, cool, let me check out this Jo Walton person. I did, and I remarked on same to my hubby, who is way more into this sort of thing than I am (I barely have time to read, and when I do, it tends to be non-fiction). He was suitably impressed. I am impressed with the fact that you are a good friend, IRL as well as here. Go you. I know what it feels like to be a supporting character in other people's lives, especially with regard to our daughter, and I know what hard work it can be, and how necessary in the grand scheme of things.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

She's papersky if you want to read her stuff directly.

She's a really interesting author, because I don't think she's ever written two books in the same subgenre, really. Her first two books were really one book split in two because that was pre-Harry-Potter and publishers weren't set up to publish books of that length, so I count that as one book, rather than two in the same subgenre.

So her books include one of the only genuinely INTERESTING alternate-Arthurian pastiches I've read; a Victorian novel, except that all the characters are dragons; an autobiography about what it's like to grow up after you help the elves save the world; a cozy mystery with Fascists and Nazis . . .

As for what she's like personally, she's like the kind of person who would write those things.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I quoted you, and everybody cheered.