Alex Who?

Welcome to the “Cheers, Cavanaugh BlogFest.”  Today through Wednesday bloggers are honoring Alex J. Cavanaugh, also known as the Ninja Captain. The blogfest is hosted by Mark Koopmans, Morgan Shamy, David Powers King and Stephen Tremp, and runs from December 10 - 12.  Here is a full list of bloggers who are celebrating the Ninja Captain.This is going to be great fun with stories, and, I'm sure, a bit of humor along the way.

When I first met Alex it was via a comment on my blog. He has this weird little AlexIcon that shows up as an avatar- and quite frankly I still can't make out what it is, but then, my vision is not what it used to be. Anyway, I was a little wary of someone that didn't have a face.

After a while I noticed that Alex kept showing up on lists I belong to and commenting on blogs that I visit. He always had interesting things to say, so I decided to go over to check out his blog. It appears he's a big sci-fi fan, which I am not. So I wondered how we could become more than casual Internet acquaintances. Maybe that's really what we still are. I comment now and then on his blog and he comments now and then on mine.

About six months ago something weird happened. I realized that while I could not be a huge fan of the genre in which he writes, I could become a huge fan of a writer who supports other writers so completely. If you read his blog, you will notice that he is always sharing good news from his writer friends. Sure, sometimes he has news about his books, but that is always shared almost as an aside from his news about others, as well as his movie and music reviews.

Introducing Alex to folks who have never met him, the conversation might go something like this:

"Alex? Alex who?"

"Cavanaugh. You know, the writer."

"Um. Sorry. Haven't heard of him."

"Well, he has this really neat blog. And if your interested, he writes a great sci-fi series. Cassa Star was the first book."

"I don't read sci-fi."

"You know, neither do I. But I bought a couple of the books for my husband. Of course, I had to read some of the first book. Just to make sure the writing measured up before buying it for a gift. And you know what?"

"What?"

 "It was pretty damned good."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I kinda liked it. And so did my husband."

"Hmmm. Maybe I'll go check out his books and his blog."

"Before you go, do me a favor?"

"What?"

"Tell me what this AlexIcon is. To me it looks like two tiny Mexicans wearing sunglasses and  sombreros that got caught in an updraft."

"Um... I'll get back to you on that one."