You know, I used to blog more than I do. Now it seems it’s mostly for my ROW80 check-ins. I must remedy this!
I still haven’t touched my WIP. I was going to last night, but the time got away from me. I am making progress on the book I’m proofreading, though. 🙂
Since my update is so short, I’m going to mention something not related to ROW80. I did something that might be construed as kind of stalkerly. I met this poet on the airplane, and we started talking about writing. She was delighted to have met a fellow author and she said she learned some things by talking to me. She said she almost never talks to people on airplanes, and I told her I didn’t, either. I got the impression she was definitely an introvert, maybe a little shy. We exchanged names. So, the other day, I started looking for her online and found her email address at the university where she teaches. I hesitated a little, but in my usual “go for it” manner, I emailed her and told her how happy I was to meet her and gave her a little encouragement with her writing. I was a little apprehensive, wondering if I came off like a stalker. To my delight, she emailed me back and was really happy that I had contacted her. So I was glad I did.
How about you? Have you ever done anything “stalkerly”? (I probably won’t user “stalker” as a tag for this post because that would bring interesting people out of the woodwork.)
lauralynnelliott.com 
I once was introduced to someone and forgot the person’s name. Didn’t want to admit that I’d flaked, so I looked up the listing of faculty in the department where the person worked and found their name that way. Don’t know if that counts as stalkerly (nice word!) or not.
Well, maybe not, since you were just trying to find info you should have known already. LOL
I can’t think of anything I’ve done. But I have had a couple people say they found out information about me by doing background checks. That did weird me out. But if someone found my email off a site where I worked and contacted me because we had talked on a plane, that would have been okay.
Ruth, I felt like what I did was okay. The vibes I got from her made me believe she would be fine with it. She was really sweet. Her email was public, and it was a university email address.
I’ve “very closely followed” an agent I like! I try not to be creepy about it though. I someday I will send that query letter…
I think authors should be allowed to “follow” agents without it being stalking. Just good business, right? 😉
Right! I can follow her into the bathroom, as long as I don’t follow her into the stall…
Interesting that you would post this now, Lauralynn. I currently have saved a page with a school email address for the high-school teacher who deeply supported my writing even though she didn’t have to. I really want to write to her, and thank her, and offer her a link to my blog, because (even though I’ve never sent my kids to school, I believe that the best teachers aren’t given the respect they so richly deserve, and I think she might be tickled to see what’s become of the effort she invested.
I’ve also hunted a little for an old friend or two that I’ve lost touch with.
I tend to be seeking more to restore past connections, these days, than to form new ones. But I don’t see anything wrong or icky in what you did, given that you’d made a connection and exchanged names.
May it mark the beginning of a long and mutually happy friendship! =D
Yeah, I figured if she didn’t want me to know who she was, she wouldn’t have told me. LOL
I think it’s great that you found that teacher’s email address. You should totally write that email. I think she would be delighted.
I think I’m going to be daring and actually do that. =)
Hmmmm…I can’t think of anything stalkerish that I’ve done. Maybe I should add that to my bucket list, after all, nothing says love like a restraining order (JK).
LOL, Chris. Ooh, that reminds me, I still have episodes of Night Stalker queued up on Netflix….
Man, I feel stalkery just following some of the blogs I follow. It’s so funny, because if you meet me in a social setting, I’m pretty lively and talkative, but I get so introverted when it comes to anything writerly. I get flustery-fangirly when I’m even in the same room as another writer, and just this weekend, when I had a table of my books out at my garage sale, I found it so hard to just talk to people about it. Yet I’ve worked in sales for years and had no problem pushing all that junk. I think it has a lot to do with how personal writing is; when someone reads your book, in a way, they’re reading you, and not just the outside you, but the one deep inside that no one would otherwise see.
So kudos to striking up a conversation like that. I wish I had the kind of confidence professionally to do that. I’ll get there, though, maybe. Or I’ll just forever be known for being awkward in the presence of my colleagues.
I know what you mean about being able to talk to people easily in a sales situation where you’re not selling YOU. Part of my job here at work is dealing with customers on the phone and by email, and I’m a pro at it. But at book fairs? I feel SO awkward!