Please do not sexually harass your friendly neighborhood author.
Before we get into the meat and potatoes of this blog post, this is just a reminder that book four is up for pre-order. You can click here to order. It’s just like the last three, the paperback copy will be available the day of publishing!
If you have seen me at an event, you will know that I am a typically friendly person. I’m not an extrovert in the slightest. By the time an event is finished, I’m exhausted. It’s nice talking to everyone, but it is a lot of people.
This past weekend I was back at my local library for an event. I had a great time except for a few hiccups.
Like many authors, I am a pen person. I have a ton of pens, I love them all. I typically do not loan out my good pens. However a gentleman approached me when I was initially setting up (and I can’t swear on it, but I’m pretty sure this was the guy that also is the cause for my title) asking me for a pen. I’m thinking he needs to scribble something down really quick, so I grab the nearest pen I have. It’s from a set. I’m ANAL about my pen sets. It drives me nuts if any of the set goes missing. THE SETS NEED TO STAY TOGETHER. This man said “Thank you,” THEN WALKED OFF WITH MY PEN!
In a former life, I used to work at a doctors office. I don’t know how it is now, but pharmaceutical sales people would come through, dropping off pens, notepads, all sort of office supplies. My favorite pen from that time was made by Boniva. It is a white and purple pen, with a thick, soft purple cushion right where you held it. It also wrote very well. I cut a deal with the Boniva rep at that time. He bought me two cases of those pens and I let him back to see the doctors whenever he was in town. Those pens took me through two college degrees, and we still have two or three around the house. After that man ran off with my pen, I saw a Boniva pen in my bag. It made me so sad. He could have taken that one. Also, this happened while I was on Tiktok live, so people witnessed the absolute shock on my face. At the time, the guy was creeping me out, as he was staring at me a little too intently. I’m going to be honest with you, I’m cute to a very specific demographic of people. Don’t believe me?
If you think this pic is cute, congratulations, you are probably in the demographic of people that chase after me. Most are polite, but then you get the ones who stare me down while they lick their lips, and it takes everything in me not to fling a knife at them. The pen stealer fell into one of the categories above as he took my pen. I mostly ignored it, because, what are you going to do?
As the day went on, I had an amazing time. I spoke to a lot of people, my neighbor to the right was chatty and just the sweetest bean I had the pleasure of meeting. The event (at least the book selling part of it) was wrapping up, but I had a slight problem. The book fair ended at 2. I had a reading at 2:20. There was no way I was going to be able to tear down my table, get everything locked up in my car, then make it back up to do my reading in time. However, there was no issue as the helpful staff of the event offered to sit with my stuff as I did my reading.
When I got done with that, I thanked the staff graciously as I packed up. A woman had followed me from the reading to ask questions about being an author, which I answered while I packed. Then the man came up as I talked. He was hovering, staring me down as I talked to this woman. She asked for my business card. I gave her my last one. That was when he asked me for one as well. I apologized, explaining the same thing I just told you, I’d given her my last one. I let him know that all he had to do was google my name; my website is the first thing to pop up. Pretty much every single hit after that is me as well for at least ten rows. He took my picture. I did not like that at all. Why do you need my picture? My picture is on my website. It felt gross and uncomfortable. I was trying to be polite because 1. I’m a woman, it’s ingrained in us (trying to make sure my kid doesn’t feel the need to be polite while she’s uncomfortable. We break cycles over here) and 2. initially he reminded me of my father who is deceased. It didn’t take long for that to go away however.
I’m tired. I’m so very tired. Just because I’m polite doesn’t mean I’m flirting. I’m literally selling a product. Buy a book or a sticker, grab a candy, talk about my book, or move on. It isn’t that difficult. Do I think that man is going to come to my website to learn about my books? No. Do I think he’s going to use that picture for his personal spank bank? Yes. At the time, my blood sugar was crashing no matter what I was doing, I had muscle spasms from the insulin I took earlier, and I was tired because I don’t sleep well before events because I have anxiety. This interaction didn’t make anything better. I do want to thank that woman for sticking around. I think she felt the whole situation was bizarre and so she stayed. When I got home and rewound everything in my head, it made me roughly 87% sure that was the same guy that took my pen. I can’t be certain though, there were a ton of people.
After this interaction I needed sustenance, so I filmed an episode of “Will Seonghun Eat It?” While at Fat Dans. That can be viewed here:
My blood sugar is crashing as I talk about this. This is how irritated I am. The only time I crash randomly like this is when my emotions are high. When I found out Lance Bass was coming to the state fair here in Indy and you could meet him, my blood sugar bottomed out. My co-workers were terrified because I couldn’t calm down long enough to even eat anything. I got it together eventually though. And I met Lance Bass…and got into a verbal altercation with Aaron Carter. That’s a story for another day though.
One Comment
Jenny Gaston
I thoroughly enjoyed this blog article, you are a great story teller and had me captivated from the beginning.