Today is September 15, the birthday of Howard Waldrop (1946-2024). I hadn’t seen him for at least half a decade before he passed away. I miss him.

Howard only wrote a couple of novels, but he wrote some great short stories. One of my favorites is “The Ugly Chickens”, in which dodos survive almost into modern times. I had the privilege to sit at the same table with Howard and Geroge R. R. Martin at a dinner during the Conestoga convention one year. One of the things they discussed was making a film from this story.

Howard was always easy to talk to. I usually saw him at Armadillocon. He always seemed glad to see me.

Howard had a very distictive voice. Armadillocon always ended with Howard reading a shsort story. I can still hear his voice in my head when I read his work. If any recordings of Howard reading a story exist, I’d apprecizte someone letting me know where I can find them.