ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA - Wednesday., July 15
Harriet's daughter Pam Burns-Clair spoke on an author's panel at the annual NFFC (National Fantasy Fan Club)

FROM PAM BURNS-CLAIR:
There were 4 of us authors, and I had the good fortune of going last--since our panel got a late start, they allowed us to run over into Marty Sklar's time for his talk immediately following ours, so I had the advantage of a full house and then some for my talk! The crowd of fans included maybe 250 seated and some 30 standing.

Don Peri, my co-author spoke before me and primed the crowd with a nice presentation of his book Working with Walt: Interviews with Disney Artists, sharing colorful interviews and a power point of slides with many of the greats.

Next, I was up. As I read 7 partial excerpts, many of which were both sweet and funny but all captured some aspect of my mother's personality, the audience was very engaged--there was laughter, tears and applause! I was very touched, and then even more so afterwards as kind Guests lined up in droves after Marty Sklar's talk when we authors (plus my daughter Chelsea who got plenty of kudos for her graphics and power point accompanying my talk) were seated at a table in the lobby to answer questions and sign books.

Chelsea and I were asked to autograph our flyers and pose for pics! The first dozen people who rushed up to us were in tears from the talk. They were such devoted fans of Mom and told of how she impacted them when they heard her speak at this convention in years past. It was quite touching.

Fans kept filing up to speak with us, fill out our forms, get autographs, and share their memories. This lasted for 90 minutes! Chelsea and I definitely felt like we inherited 'instant celebrity' in this crowd from Mom's following--really gratifying and humbling. I look forward to having books in hand at the next such event!