Having a Celebrity Moment

"You're the one who wrote the soul mate book, aren't you?"

I was minding my own business, trying to watch the Grinch save Christmas and waiting for my relief to come relieve me of my boredom so that I could finally go home and get some real work done and the words "soul mate book" alerted me to the fact that someone out there in Realityville was talking to me.

Just as they were about to get the good part where Cindy Lou was trying to talk the Grinch into coming to Whoville to accept his "Cheer" Award, someone stepped closer and said, "It is you. I recognize your picture on the back."

Well, hel-lo, I was experiencing a celebrity moment and didn't even realize it.

"My book?" I asked, keeping one eye on this weird person and another on Cindy Lou.

"Yes, my boyfriend gave it to me."

Well, that was neat and all that being as my damn book isn't in any bookstore in any land outside of Whoville.

"Uh, may I ask you where he bought it from?"

"I have no idea," she said. "But, I love it. I've almost read all the stories and my boyfriend and I are definitely soul mates."

Well, for fear of being Grouch unpolitically correct, I said to hell with the Grinch and focused on this girl who I had never seen in all my life. This was the first time that anyone where I live (not counting family, friends and those other poor souls that I begged to buy the book) has ever walked up to me, out of the blue and recognized my picture from the back of a book that has been out for over a year.

And, you know what?

I was at a loss for words.

I mean, how do celebrities handle this? Do you say thank you and bore them to tears with all your upcoming books so that you'll have an instant sale when they are released? How do you handle this?

I did thank her. And scribbled my website down on a torn piece of paper. Why in the hell did I do that anyway?

Because I couldn't think of anything else to do.

I'm not used to anyone coming up to me out of the blue like that and I was totally unprepared.

At booksignings, you're prepared. But, not while trying to watch the Grinch on the company's television. And not after you have resigned yourself to the fact that your book will not be on any bookshelf unless you do it by consignment which I absolutely am not going to do. I would rather sell them by hand and make more profit.

So, anyway, after she left, I really felt good. Someone had recognized me from the back of a book. A book that someone had bought them as a gift. A book that took three years of my life to put together. A book that is so special to me that I'll probably put it in my will to put a copy in my coffin with me.

Lord even knows where he bought it, but it's driving me insane trying to figure it out.

After she left, I sighed and sat back down to finish the Grinch and escape back to Whoville. Gotta love that green guy.