Kids Ask the Darndest Things

I did an online chat about High School Bites on Monday. The girls were 9 and 10 years old--about eight of them. They were great! And they asked me very important questions.

Do I like pizza? (Yes.)
What is your favorite color? (Green.)
Do you root for the Yankees? (This is the MOST important question, and the answer is YES.)

What got me smiling--besides the great questions--is how kids really zero in on what's important for them to know about and identify with an author. They asked me the questions that were important to them.

Which got me thinking about my bio on my books, and also about how I "relate" to the authors I read. My bio is usually mildly humorous. Like this one for The Roofer:

Erica is a native New Yorker, roots for the Yankees, and believes you can take the girl out of New York, but not New York out of the girl.

I very rarely have a "lofty" bio--just usually a mix of odd facts about myself.

And when I read an author I really, really like, in this era of the web, I do go to their website or do try to find out more about them, their research methods, whatever. If I read a book with cultural or historical implications, I especially will try to find out more.

Which also got me thinking . . . I have met one author who think is a total b*tch--a term I don't use lightly. Absolutely and totally, and she makes my skin crawl. I have met one other I think is simply psycho. Also a b*tch, but I think it's because she is somehow not medicated properly and it's less being truly mean and backstabbing and more . . . just . . . crazy. And I cannot read either of these women. Either of them could write the most brilliant book ever in the history of publishing (neither has), and I couldn't read it because they as people just ruined that experience for me by how they behave in person.

So tell me . . . what is your relationship to the authors you read? Do you like knowing about them? Do you visit their websites? Are things like the Yankees important? (Silly question, that last one. Of COURSE it is.)

Go Yanks!
E