lame

Recently, I was at the hair dresser and had a conversation like this:

She: So what do you do?
Me: Oh, I'm a children's book author and illustrator.
She: Oh, that's cool. So you write kid's books?
Me: Uh-huh.
She: What books have you done?
Me: Oh, you probably wouldn't know any of them.

And that was the end of that conversation. I'm not sure why I am so lame when it comes to talking about my books to "normal" people. Over the year,I've gotten much better when it comes to the "literati"--librarians, booksellers, teachers--people whom I know have an interest in books (Note that I've said "better" not "good", a lot of kind of lame things come out of my mouth when I talk to them too); but to people whom books are not their specialty? I'm the queen of lameness.

Which is kind of backwards, now that I think about it. Because they are the people who probably are more in need of the hard sell. Teachers, librarians--they don't hold it against you if you're dork (usually), they judge you by your book--they have a basis for comparison. The average non-children's book reader (whom is only exposed to celebrity books and Harry Potter), however, is more easily swayed. A magnetic personality can inspire them with enough enthusiasm to go out and get the book, while a socially inept one probably leaves the author forgotten. Which I'm sure I was.

I did get a nice haircut, though.