Story time! Story time!
Once long ago, a young girl went to school in quiet York County, Virginia. Her strong daddy worked to save the lives of others. She lived in a nice house.
She dreamed of being an artist or performer. She went to York High School, and worked summers at the Busch Gardens amusement park in Williamsburg, VA. She then went on to Christopher Newport University and became heavily involved in SF/Fantasy fandom. She was a big fan of The Lord of the Rings! She liked to get involved in fan events and to help run and sponsor conventions that raise money for charitable organizations.
Sound just like me, doesn’t it?
Same county, same high school, same summer job, same fan group, same college, same everything.
Except for this part: the girl we are talking about is not me. Her name is Amy Player.
She is about a decade younger than me, and instead of growing up to become a happy cartoonist who gets to go to conventions and sign autographs and hang out with hobbit actors, Amy Player decided she didn’t just want to go to a convention and meet Elijah Wood, she wanted to be Elijah Wood.
In a gender bending tour de force the like of which has not been seen since Victor/Victoria, she cropped off her hair, ran away from home, and adopted the identity of Jordan Wood, Elijah Wood’s male cousin, who, inexplicably (even if you read the explanation in the book), was on the run from the Irish Republican Army. She also made extraordinary claims about being sold into child prostitution by her very-shocked-to-hear-about-it family, has psychic visions, and generally made a wahoo of herself all over the place.
This means that in some fannish circles, she was very popular.
↓ Read the rest of this entry…
