The Secret of Being an Awkward Author

So, one of the things that happens once you've worked your butt off getting that novel ready for publication and it comes out and everything is awesome is author appearances! This past weekend I attended the Louisiana Book Festival at the state library down in Baton Rouge. And I wasn't just there to walk around and look at all the pretty books. I was invited to do a panel AND a signing!

The night before the festival was the super exclusive author party where I met some awesome authors like Claudia Gray, Ashley Elston, and Aimee Agresti.

This is one of those experiences that I daydreamed about before I was published. The whole rubbing elbows with NYT bestsellers and being asked to speak to crowds of people.

Ashley and me talking to a room full of people about writing.

Not to mention signing my very own book. Saying that very professional sentence: "Who do I make it out to?"

Now, in my daydreams I was always smooth, confident, and knowledgeable, but in real life? Yeah, not so much. At the author party, I felt so awkward and out of place among all these very hip and experienced people. It's really weird. Writing is such a solitary venture most of the time then once you're published you're expected to go out into the world of actual people *gasp* and be, ya know, normal. When really I'm all:

The cool thing was everyone there was so nice and supportive. I realized that these people I'd been afraid of were just like me. They are big-time authors, sure, but they're just people. People who geek out over the upcoming X-Men movie (Claudia and I had a super fun convo about that). People who are just as nervous as I am (Ashley and I fully admitted to each other that we were nervous as hell over that panel).

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is just relax. We're all regular people who love reading and writing. And that's a beautiful thing.