Hank's wake

I got up at 7:10 a.m., picked up Jennie about 8:05, and we drove to Athens, Georgia for Hank Reinhardt's wake. A blend of sadness, memories, and funny stories, it was an event I think Hank would have liked a great deal. Toni asked me to read a favorite short short story of Hank's, "Billy the Rooster," by Mike Stam, and I was honored to do so. I could see why Hank liked it.

Later, we grabbed hot dogs for dinner at the famous drive-in, The Varsity. Though the dogs were good, they were not, in my opinion, great.

We then watched Gone Baby Gone, which was an excellent movie adaptation of an excellent Dennis Lehane book of the same name. (If you haven't read Lehane, what are you waiting for?)

Tonight's one of my favorite nights of the year, because I love the extra hour of sleep. I hope to enjoy it.

Snippets of a day

Lots of work today, with email, meetings, and calls eating most of my waking hours.

Will bounce at home only briefly, then drive Saturday morning to Hank's wake. I hate the unexpected trip, most particularly for its cause, but I am also determined to go.

Dinner at Paley's Place, just declared by Portland Monthly the city's best restaurant and a Gourmet Top 50 restaurant last year. This was my third time there, and though the food remained very good, the service was terrible. I'll hope the holiday was to blame.

Wandered Powell's Books for a bit--my first time there. Amazing place. How could a book fan not love it? They had copies of One Jump Ahead, so I steeled my nerve and asked if they'd like me to sign them. They agreed, I signed the copies, and on went the "Autographed" stickers. This type of self-promotion is very awkward for me, but if it helps sell books, I'll learn to do it.

I'm three quarters of the way through the third pass of Slanted Jack. I can never tell what anyone else will think, but I believe it's better than One Jump Ahead, and I have experienced more moments of fun reading it than I did with the earlier book. I believe that's a good thing, but who knows?

And back to it.

Hank Reinhardt died this morning

At Toni Weisskopf's request, I alerted the Baen's Bar folks with this post this morning:

I got the call from Danielle a little bit ago. Toni asked that I let everyone here know that Hank died this morning.

I dove into work for a bit so I could buy time to compose myself.

Hank was a good guy, a vibrant man full of energy and life. Sometime in the past year, I can't remember exactly when, he, Toni, Dave Drake, Jo Drake, Jennie Faries, and I shared a lovely meal at a kitchen table in the Angus Barn. Afterward, he showed us prototypes of a new line of practice weapons he was debuting. He was excited and hopeful and ready to launch this new project. He was that way every time I saw him.

Some men are insecure around powerful women. Hank was not; he knew himself, and he knew Toni. At WorldCon in LA, Toni and I were meeting in the living room of their suite about 2:30 in the morning. Hank came out, saw us, said, "Still working?", and when Toni replied yes, he nodded and headed back to sleep.

Toni will be incommunicado for a while. I know she takes all of our good wishes with her during this extraordinarily hard time.

I'm replicating it here to get the word out to more people.

Those who'd like to see a picture of that dinner can find it on Dave Drake's Web site; just follow the link and scroll down a bit.

I hate that this happened to Hank, and I feel horrible for Toni. If you know Toni, you know she's had a brutal last year and a half. This sucks.