To Approach or Not to Approach...

Telling myself that I could only blog after I wrote for the day has been a mixed blessing...at first, it worked in that I was writing at least a little every day, but I had a couple of distracting personal things going on, then I got sick (knocked me out of commission for a week), and this week has been a bit discombobulated after being out of town for a wedding. So I haven't been blogging because I haven't been writing. The difference this time is that I don't just feel guilty for not writing, as I have in the past, but now I also miss it. I miss the characters, I miss moving the story along, and I miss working on my revisions to improve the whole book. That's how I know I'll be coming back to it (hopefully Monday), because I know I want to rather than being afraid of getting back to it and feeling guilty for being away from it in the first place. It's kind of like in The Goodbye Girl, when at the end, Richard Dreyfuss' character gets a job in LA and Marsha Mason's character thinks he's leaving for good because it's happened to her before, but then she sees his guitar is still in the apartment and she leans out the window in the pouring rain and yells, "You left your guitar! You're coming back!" Then he says "Of course I'm coming back!" and looks at her like she's crazy for being out in the pouring rain and he gets in his taxi and she smiles and waves and the sappy song swells and then the credits come up (gee, you think I've seen this movie a few times?). Well, I just found the guitar in the corner, so I know I'm coming back even though I've been away longer than I've wanted to be.

Yesterday I went to a talk and book signing with the tower of awesomeness that is John Green. I was trying really hard to finish his latest, Paper Towns, to avoid possibly learning the ending at the signing (even just from people around me talking about it), but I only got two-thirds of the way through. However, I digress. For an author, especially at a signing, they're pretty used to people complimenting them on their books and probably don't worry about having anything pithy to say to each person, but as a person on the other side of the book table, I often worry about what to say. It's pretty silly, really, because I'm only one of many in a long line, and it's not like an author is going to think "Wow, that person from Poughkipsie made a really stupid comment--I don't want them to read my books anymore." But for me, it's an opportunity to have a moment, however brief, to interact with someone whose work I admire. I could do a whole blog entry about my interactions with recognizable people (I hesitate to say celebrities, since not all of them are of a highly recognizable status--though I recognized them!), but now's not the time, and it has little to do with writing. Though I will say that one of the most exciting interactions I ever had was when I saw one of the co-creators of Schoolhouse Rock at the airport (no, I'm not that good--I'd seen him the night before at a tribute/discussion). He was so gracious and down-to-earth and didn't act like I was the tongue-tied uber-nerd fan that my friends later teased me that I'd been. Which brings me to my question: to approach, or not to approach?

This is a double-pronged issue. My first instinct, when I recognize people I admire, is to go up to them and tell them that. However, I often hesitate, especially depending on the setting, because I don't necessarily want to disturb them while they're going about doing things that non-recognizable people do all the time. Once I saw a famous actress walking ahead of me with her daughter, and I noticed that the actress' shoe was untied. I debated about saying anything, because I didn't want to take time away from this girl just spending time with her mom, but I finally decided that I didn't want to be responsible for this woman potentially tripping and breaking an ankle and missing her next million-dollar movie all because I hadn't warned her about her shoelace. I quietly tapped her on the shoulder and politely told her about her shoe, to which she rather frostily replied "Thank you." Now, I honestly don't know if she was annoyed that she was in fact spending time with her daughter and thought I shouldn't have bothered her at all, or if she was expecting me to ask for an autograph or tell her how much I enjoyed her work and was put out that I seemed not to care who she was. Which brings me to the other prong: not wanting to approach someone I admire because they might turn out to be a jerk and then I wouldn't admire them so much anymore.

I'll just focus on the author aspect of this, since with celebrities there are whole other categories, such as what their politics are, how they dress at award shows, and other such things that may make one think that the person's not exactly the cat's pajamas anymore. With authors, since I, for one, am basing most of my knowledge and admiration of them on their work, I'm sometimes hesitant to have that momentary interaction with them in case they turn out to be someone whose work I wouldn't want to read from that point forward. It is for this reason that I've been terrified to go to a Julie Andrews book signing (that, and that they're most probably crazy-crowded). I have worshipped Ms. Andrews since I was a wee tot, adored Mandy and The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles, and if she turned out to be anything less than practically perfect in every way, I might be disappointed. Well, that's an exaggeration, because I think someone would have to be a pretty big jerk for me to not want to read his or her stuff anymore if I liked it enough to approach them in the first place. Make sense? I've been to signings, even the "Autograph Party" at the SCBWI conference, where authors (and a few illustrators) seem less than interested to be signing my book, and a few have been paying attention to other people who are talking to them while I'm getting my book signed. I'm not talking about their agent or editor who has a quick comment or question, I'm talking about, let's say, the person behind me in line who strikes up a conversation before they get to the table, which renders my interactive face time moot.

Going to a signing is one thing, but having to make a quick decision in a public setting is a bit different. I recently saw Sonya Sones at a local farmer's market, whose book I had literally just finished reading a few days before. I didn't want to disturb her, but I so badly wanted to tell her how much I loved her book. I blurted out her first name as she was walking away, made my fan-like comments, and she was very gracious, telling me I'd made her day. It was great and brief, but I still couldn't help but wonder if I'd somehow bothered her from going about her business, enjoying shopping for produce, or if she was annoyed that a stranger had called her by her first name (which I wouldn't ordinarily do, but that was the first thing I could think of). That's me, I guess, being a bit too sensitive--but overall I was glad I said something to her. Then there's the time where at a recent conference I found myself sitting one row in front of Lisa Yee, whose work I really enjoy. I asked her some inane question about her famous Winnie-the-Pooh collection, just to have something to say to her. I was going to ask her to sign my book while we were sitting there, but I lost my nerve, and then I worried that she thought I was a crazy book-stalker who asks questions about Winnie-the-Pooh instead of the nervous fan that I was. In that case, I felt like I should have just kept my mouth shut...

Bottom line: there is no hard and fast rule for me about whether I approach an author or not. I guess I have to gauge the atmosphere and whether the person seems approachable. But more importantly, I have to be okay with my decision, to not kick myself later for not approaching someone, or to not berate myself for being an idiot if I do decide to say something. I'm just thankful to be able to see these authors at all in any situation, which my growing and marvelous signed-copy collection proves.

Happy Halloween!