My Experience

by Steven H Silver

As I mentioned, I received several comments from people, some of whom I knew personally, some of whom I knew by reputation and some of whom I had never heard of. I received e-mail from Del Rey thanking me for plugging one of their books on national television in my first game, from a graduate student who attended my talk on the Bubonic Plaque mentioned in the second episode, and a mention on a technical writers' list serve because of my interview during the final game.

I've sent e-mail to Jason and left a message for Kari, but haven't heard from either of them. Attending a science fiction convention the weekend after the shows aired, I fielded questions about the show and accepted congratulations from people who I had previously only seen in passing. At one point, the guest of honor congratulated me and I started talking about the show, only to realize she was congratulating me on my Hugo nomination. BookPage, a magazine which publishes my monthly review column, contacted me asking if it was all right to include a line about my Jeopardy! championship in the bio which appears with my column. A week after my first game, I still haven't been recognized on the street (no real surprise), although I did get an e-mail from Meg saying that she was recognized by a store clerk the other day when she was paying for something.

I'm glad I was able to appear on the show. I would like to think that I would have enjoyed the experience as much if I had lost to Jason or if I had managed to become a five time champion. In the end, it doesn't matter. The people involved with the show were great, professional, and knew how to put the contestants at ease. I was lucky in the group selected for my day since all of them were friendly and there was no real feeling of competition or psyching each other out. As Meg wrote in an e-mail, "I look at it this way: you and I weren't so much competing against each other as we both were just trying to do well."

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