My Life as a Writer Groupie

Some people are musician groupies and collect signed concert ticket stubs. I am a writer groupie and collect signed books. This year was a particularly good one for me. I met two of my favorite living authors. Or, at least I met one author who I wished would be my new best friend, and I met another whom I was hoping would hire me as his assistant and ask me to live in France with him and his partner. I met Elizabeth Gilbert at the Music Hall’s “Writers on a New England Stage” series in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, while she came through town to promote the softcover release of the book, Committed, which “followed up where Eat, Pray, Love left off.” The latter book was the reason I wanted her to be my new best friend. (Listen to her interview from my evening at The Music Hall and you will want to be her new best friend too.) I loved Eat, Pray, Love, though I was not at all committed to Committed. I had bought the hardcover of it; however, after realizing this was not the book for me, I sold it back to the local bookstore where I got a small credit to buy another book. The only thing I had for her to sign was an old softcover copy of Eat, Pray, Love. Of course, she had already signed that book  five years ago, after my friend decided it would be the perfect birthday gift. (She was right, since at that point I had only listened to the audio version.) Without Committed in hand, I thought it would be “fun” for my soon-to-be new best friend to sign the book she had already signed once, again. Unfortunately, about an hour before I met my idol, I had  spilled an entire bottle of water on it. So, not only did I ask Elizabeth Gilbert to sign an old paperback copy of a book she was no longer promoting—that she had already signed once—it was also sopping wet. Due to the aforementioned circumstances, I did not have the courage to ask her if she would be my new best friend while she signed my soggy book for the second time.