Clarion West

Anita was a dear friend, as she was to so many
people in Seattle and around the world. It was a privilege to know her,
and always a joy to see her.

For more about Anita, and to offer condolences to Jack and Riley, please see:

Jack's memorial site for her, with comments by many of her friends around the world.

Anita's own site, Anita's LOL.

Cory Doctorow posted a photo and his memory of Anita on Boing Boing, and some folks are commenting there, as well.

Also, there is a fund to help pay for Anita's medical care
that was started last February. If you enjoyed Anita's presence in the
past four years, extensive medical care is what made it possible, and
much of it was not covered by insurance.

Sadly,
Eileen

Thanks for posting about Anita, Eileen. I keep trying to post, and getting caught up in which memories to select, which details to highlight. It's especially good to see the posting in Boingboing and recognition of Anita as a pioneer in blogging and on-line journaling. The quiet dailiness of Anita's Book of Days made it one of my favorite places on the web ten years ago.

She was a dear friend, always dependable, always helpful and practical, nearly always cheerful. Even while she was dying, she tried to take care of her visitors, reminding them to go get some rest, drink some water, eat a meal.

She liked science fiction, Regency romances, opera, dancing, sparkly hair ornaments, happy endings, and abundance in all things. She was like me in being a bit of a border collie, wanting people to get organized and do things; unlike me, because she was fairly relaxed about how quickly they got around to doing whatever it was. She couldn't drink, because alcohol sent her into fits of uncontrolled sneezing.

She was about the best grandmother I've ever seen, and I say this from the standpoint of being a pretty good grandmother myself.

I'll miss her. I do miss her.

I did not know Anita well.  I enjoyed her presence at parties and zingy wit, her sardonic smile and stylishness.  She had laughing hair and curly eyes.  She was pretty, and she knew what pretty was.

Close to the last memory of Anita I have is of her supervising the Hospitality Suite at Potlatch.  By this time her laughing hair had been replaced by a smirking stocking cap.  The room was well supplied, a happy and crafty place full of fun things to drink and eat and make and do.

From what I understand, at this point Anita knew she had a terminal diagnosis.  Yet she took time to cater to us nerdly fen.  I guess it was what she wanted to do.

Now I'm beginning to always miss her.  I'm sorry for all the other people feeling the same way, only more so.  And there are a lot of them.

I wish you were still healthy and happy and alive, Anita.

It is impossible to imagine the world without Anita.  She gave freely of her time and talent to the community and was a joy to know.  We could never thank her enough for her many contributions. 

I enjoyed watching Anita's interactions with Riley and deeply admired and respected how calm and loving she was with him.  It was obvious that she loved her grandson, and I was impressed by how great she was at parenting him.  My heart goes out to Jack, Riley, and all of Anita's friends and family.  I mourn her passing too soon from this world.  We will all miss her sorely.   

Leslie

I'm so sorry to hear of her passing. I did not know her well, but remember Anita from a meeting in 1997. She was a pioneering blogger from the days blogs were called online journals, and in Seattle we had one of the first meetups of the (sort-of) community of the era. 

I remember her as being very kind and smart. Her journal showed off her writing talent and her perceptiveness, and I'm glad to see she progressed with her writing as far as she did.

She will certainly be missed.

It's not much of a secret, but way back when I first landed in the Seattle area I pulled a stint at the Evil Empire working on multimedia titles. (This was back in the days when CD-ROMs were the Next Big Thing.) At one point, space constraints had us jammed three to an office, and for a fun series of weeks my officemates were Paul Goade and Anita Rowland.
Anita Rowland

I just learned Anita died yesterday. She was 51.

I wish I could say I'd known Anita better. We shared plenty of laughs while working unconscionable numbers of hours within about a yard of each other, and she was simply a delight: smart, funny, well-read, and observant in the way I still wish I could be. We talked a bunch about music—at the time, I think she was working on a CD-ROM about Stravinsky or Schubert.

After I took my leave of That Company, Anita and I only crossed paths in person a handful of times—one when I was sitting in with a dance band during the 1990's "swing revival" and Anita turned up at the gig. To my amazement, she was getting into Lindy hop! We would encounter each other online more frequently, and always seemed to be able to pick up where we left off. I had a habit of calling her "Annie Tar" because of the anitar username she wound up with on one of Seattle's (actually, one of the world's) first ISPs. I remember talking her through a SLIP upgrade, and then getting a delighted message from her when she got on the Internet "for real" with a PPP account.

Anita was also tied into the genre fiction community, knowing pretty much everybody there was to know in the Seattle area. Anita turned me on to things like Potlatch and the Cacophony Society (you may already be a member!), and was even responsible for the renowned Clarion Writer's Workshop running ads in InterText, an early online fiction magazine I helped produce with Jason Snell, now chief bottle washer over at Macworld. During the time Anita, Paul, and I were crammed in an office I remember bumming a ride over to Crossroads Mall at lunchtime so I could pick up an issue of Asimov's that mentioned InterText—Anita was politely amused by my youthful enthusiasm.

Before it was cool, Anita helped pioneer the idea of Web logs. ("Blogging" was not yet a word.) Anita's Book of Days served as an unabashed, imperterbable journal of her life. She also organized the Seattle Webloggers Meetup; everyone I know who attended has always said they were a blast, and I wish I hadn't let my general incomprehension of blog culture keep me away.

Anita had been battling ovarian cancer for several years, driving it into remission for a time until it re-emerged in (I believe) 2005. Her journal offered a dispassionate account of her treatments, as well as her joys with her husband Jack Bell and her grandson. I was amazed how much Anita continued to enjoy life, and how her generosity of spirit was absolutely unabated.

I wish I'd heard from Anita more frequently, but each occasion brought a smile. She'll be missed.

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