I have to laugh at the status-consciousness of some (very few) of the people in my field sometimes. For the four or five of us who haven’t figured this out yet, fifteen minutes away from the Medieval Academy Meeting, to paraphrase Pierre Trudeau, you could be the most published, beloved, reprinted, honorary degreed, endowed medieval historian in the world, and nobody will know your name.
What I didn’t realize until this week, was that much the same can be true in the fiction publishing world. I met Diana Gabaldon on the weekend, and I have spent much of the week trying to impress my friends with the coolness of this and being met with “Who’s she?” or “I *think* I’ve heard that name.” And this is from people who read, and who read fiction at that. It goes to show that you can be a New York Times best-selling writer whose books normally make that list with a publishing career that has spanned decades, and still people will say, “Ummm…”
Anyway, I met Diana Gabaldon on the weekend, and she was lovely. Friendly and warm, and not in a “I will tolerate you while you gush all over me” way, but in an “I will join you and your friends on the couch and we can talk about how to write sex scenes” kind of way. Very impressive.
If I had of been one of the people you told that too, I would have just about been hyperventilating with jealousy!
So what’s the answer? Fortunately, it’s not a question that comes up for the kind of writing I do. Grocery lists, I mean.
I don’t know. I kind of liked the way you juxtaposed the lettuce and the eggs there.
The answer for our colleagues is just to chill, and maybe get a sense of proportion. Diana Gabaldon doesn’t need an answer because she’s doing just fine, thank you, as long as there are people like Marg up there (Hi Marg!) who do know and care.
Last night I was of only twenty or so people in Hyde Park to go se Carlos Ruiz Zafon at International House promoting his new book. He’s one of only a tiny handful of authors I’d go out to see — that’s not just the way I roll. We were al a little surprised there were so few there, but he made it very clear he speaks to large audiences and small, and doesn’t care if only a few come, as long as they are happy they came (we were).