Meeting Authors

We are talking about meeting famous authors this week. I have met a few in person

and I also have met quite a number online.

I mean directly, meeting directly, speaking directly and bantering back and forth at times. People who answer as blog guests and not only politely respond, but who enter into online conversations.

And those who “Friend” me on Facebook.

You can “like” many author pages and they may respond to your comments at times, but there are a surprising number of famous authors who will “friend” you, and you can be privy to some of their family goings-on, their personal likes and info,(often under their REAL names), plus they will be opened to getting your posts…that is above and beyond accepting ‘fans’.

Although I know that not every writer is a paragon of altruism, and I know that the Green-eyed Monster must raise its ugly head in some, I have found by far that no matter how big or famous the writer, they are almost consistently generous in their encouragement…and many have offered help or advice

and they have come through.

One answered me from a movie set where they were adapting one of her works for the small screen. I have gotten many of my guests over the past years here through many of these connections.

One that I met in person,(see below), was on vacation and emailed me through her assistant from her cabin in the woods. She answered a question I had about putting together bio info on myself for a major publication.

I have other connections to other celebrities, but not that many authors-in-the-flesh. I find that fewer and fewer are being sent out on the traditional “book tour”, and ‘virtual’ meetings/tours  are far more common.

Most book signings are generally uneventful, except the excitement of meeting the authors. However, when I met NY Times best-selling author Mary Janice Davidson, ( my niece was a fan of hers and asked me to accompany her to a book signing), it was a different story.

My niece asked me to read some of MJ’s work and I was very amused. MJD had her husband and some-time writing partner, Anthony Alongi with her, and we had a very good time. The next year she came back alone and we had a wonderful time, laughing with all her other fans. Unfortunately, that was also the night our car broke down.
I used most of it to create a three-person play. I need to get back to reworking it into a readable form to try to have it published.

If you hadn’t visited on the week we did our ‘elevator pitches’, you missed the adventure my niece and I had on that night. That was the biggest thrill, as in ‘thriller’, when meeting a famous author, albeit for the second time. We not only had an experience, but I got a great story out of it…with a bit of a tweak at the end.

 

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