Irritation, mortification, & vindication

It started with the irritation--which was actually unfounded on my part, but it looked good in the title.

I was dropping off books at The Almost Perfect Bookstore (one of a couple of places you can find me in the wild) and I mentioned to Kelley that there was a discussion going on amazon.com in which a kind reader compared me (favorably!) to Stephanie Meyer .

"That's a stretch!" She snorted, and for a moment, I was a little irritated. I mean, I'm not best selling, but I'm not *that* bad, am I? And then I started talking to the guy at the counter, who is a 10 on the preternaturally cool scale and I sort of figured out that she meant that my books had lots of, uhm, sex. And Meyer's have none at all. So, the irritation went away, but the memory of thinking maybe a little much of myself did not.

My next stop was the mall, with Big T--he was in search of shoes--and we passed the Borders Express that carries my books in it on the way through to the shoe store. I'm not entirely a good mama, so I tried to ditch him at Famous Footwear next door, but he wasn't going.

"You know this is stupid, don't you?" I said to him, laughing. "I'm just here for my own dumb ego..."

"Can I help you?" Asked the nice woman at the store, as I was scanning 'romance' for my title.

"I'm good," I replied, grimacing. "I'm just here as an exercise in vanity that's going to result in a bruised ego."

"Oh, hey--are you a writer, looking for a book?" She had a great smile, by the way.

"Yeah," I replied. I was about to say, "But I"m self-published, so I doubt you'd carry me," when she said, (this is the good part!) "Hey--are you Amy Lane?"

"Uhm, yeah!" (Holy Cat, Brapsman--she knows who I am?)

"I really loved your first book--I'm ordering your second and your third. Would you like to do a signing? Here, let's set you up with a book signing...would June 14th be okay?"

And THAT'S the great part. That's the really really really really really REALLY great part--and now, we really will need that fork-lift and back-hoe to get my ego out of the front door. (squee. Squeeeeeeeee. SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! hee hee hee hee hee hee hee...*whew* Okay, now that that's out of my system...)

And then we went into Famous Footwear and I totally embarrassed myself.

There was a very nice young man, sitting with his three children hanging over him, and I looked at him, and recognized him, and then blanked completely on his name. Student? I thought in a panic, and then I said, helplessly, "Name?"

He was a teacher. We've worked together for six years. I'm SUCH an idiot. I have two things in my defense though--one, I was riding the high of getting my first book signing just handed to me on a silver platter for being visible (the nice woman followed me on the discussion forums...now I'm all thinking about anything I've said that might be embarrassing...CURSE YOU, INTERNET!!!). The other thing is that he was casually dressed with a visor on and looked happy and young.

I mean, how many of us ever look that happy and that young when we're teaching where we teach? Seriously--that alone might have blown it for me, but he was so totally out of context--here I was in book/kid/mall-land, and I was so not expecting anyone from work--but he was very sweet about it. And very cute with his kids, too--it was fun to see.

And that's my post--almost.

This is, (drum roll please!!!) my 400th post. Blessed Merino, patron saint of wool--can you believe that funky bullshit? Anyway, I'm finally going to run a contest. It's sort of a 'raid my stash' contest, but I want to make it stash for anyone--book people, knitting people, whoever--so I figured what I'd do is have you guys leave a comment (anyone who leaves a comment is eligible) but have you name your poison. Do you want books? The new book? The first three books? Some hand-painted sock yarn? Self-striping sock yarn? Do you have a favorite brand? Favorite color? If I have it and I draw your name, it's yours! Some al paca dk? Self-striping worsted in shades of green? I've got a shit-load of black Noro silverthorne that I haven't used...Just name your poison, the yarn/thing you'd like best from my stash or published works, and in addition to any freaky/cool thing I want to throw in the box, if I draw your name, that's what's gonna get sent. It'll be fun, too--we can see what you covet, and that's always fun to know. (I just got a super-cool buzz from making a friend a pair of socks in a color that I personally am not all that thrilled about, but whenever I look at it, I hear her say, 'That's really pretty yarn'. I fully expect to get the same kind of buzz by sending something cool to someone here!!!) So, anything you think I might have that I might be willing to part with--throw it out, and if I draw your name (and it's not one of my kids!) it's very possibly yours.

I'm hoping to get some lurkers in the comments too--that would be a lot of fun! So go ahead, folks--name your poison! And happy blog-o-versary to me;-)