When meeting writers whom you admire it can be difficult to adequately explain in the few seconds they scribble their signatures (or the swirls they pass off as their signatures) how much their work has meant to you. Actually, let me rephrase that: it can be difficult to express how much their work has meant to you without sounding like an overeager, clichéd stalker. If you are like me and become tongue-tied and embarrassed, you almost always sound like a high-pitched chipmunk and either talk too much or walk away from the exchange having only uttered Thank you and maybe your name, if personalization is your thing (not everyone likes personalized autographs. You may use this as a discussion topic at your next cocktail party). I have the autographs of five published writers—two poets and three novelists. Each encounter falls on the general spectrum of awkwardness, with some being very awkward and others only slightly awkward. What I have found from personal experience is that almost all of the discomfort is on the part of the fan; our reading experiences can be so emotional, so personal, that we feel connected to the writer, who is in fact a total…Read More »
