When Julie heard Bill Bryson was coming to her home town in February 2007 to launch his new book “Thunderbolt kid” Julie was determined to be there.
Confident Bill would also be very interested in the publication Julie had written for the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind “DIY braille”, copy in hand, Julie and her creative writing classmate turned up to hear their beloved writer speak.
“Shall we join the queue Julie” asked her classmate, lining up once Bill had spoken.
“Is the pope catholic” Julie responded.
As we approached the famous author, I handed Bill my gift.
"I've brought you a present" I bravely announced, handing him our recent publication DIY braille.
"Oh, how lovely of you Julie" he responded.
Taking a polite look at our new look book he said.
"Is this braille for New Zealand or is it all the same around the world"
I couldn't believe my luck; I was going to get to talk braille with Bill Bryson.
"Oh no," I said, "it does vary, the British don't use the capital letter sign so in England, you would be "bill" with a lower case "b".
"And what about in America" he asked.
"NO", the Americans take our lead and use the capital letter sign" I answered knowledgably.
"I have a poster for you to sign" I asked in pathetic schoolgirl fashion. "Would you like to help us promote the white cane?"
"I would be honoured" he replied staring up at me.
"And how did you get to be on this poster Julie" he enquired.
"Bill, Is it not obvious?" I asked with my pin up smile!
He looked up at me again and laughed.
"I told him it was my competent use of the white cane. He signed the poster.
I asked him if he had heard his narrators on talking book. He told me that authors were being asked to narrate their books now and he had had a go and it required great concentration and skill. I told him that was good because the narrators they used made him sound like a loud American that ate a lot. He told me he ate a lot.
We laughed and parted.
I had got to meet the "thunderbolt kid" in Bill, and he had got to meet the kid in me.
"I’ve tried to write the best I can; sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can."
- Ernest Hemingway
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