I have been writing for-reals for a good ten years now. I have been a part of several different writing organizations and have had access (for lack of a better word) to many a-published author. Early on I was in awe of the authors who I interacted with. Not so much genuflecting awe, but definitely stutter and stammer awe. Cut to now, a decade later and I am still in throes of the same danged awe of most of those same authors.

I get a little thrill if/when I interact with these authors on be it on FB, Twitter or the likes. Sitting at my computer when an author’s name pops through my email or whatever, I get a case of the giggles and want to point at the screen and say, “Ooh, look who just texted/emailed/tweeted me…” but alas my dogs don’t care. My kids even less. The hubby tries to be understanding but he just doesn’t get it (even when I point to the stacks of books by said author and say, “she talked to me...”).

I suppose I don’t want to out-grow the thrill I get when I interact with an author, but I’d have hoped it would have seemed a little less fan-girl when it happens. God forbid, I ever have to actually speak to them face to face. Once, at lunch, at conference, I was having a lovely conversation with someone—couldn’t read her name tag, didn’t think anything of it—then someone brought to my attention who she was...you’d think I’d just downed a bottle of Nyquil or something the way my brain slowed to a crawl and shifted into moron-mode.

Now, I don’t want to get into all the psychology of *why* this happens, that whole, “I don’t feel worthy” or “on their level”...I am not ready to delve that deep into my psyche. But those “issues” are there and will probably always be there, so I don’t see this awe-struck giddiness leaving anytime soon. It’s okay, I guess. It has yet to hamper me, though it probably does make me a little less outgoing in the social aspect of writing.

Do you get stuck in that, “Look who it is” mode when you interact with your writing peers? Not even just the “famous” ones mind you. Do you thinks it’s good or bad to lose the thrill? Or have you ever been on the receiving end of it? (I have yet to experience that, that’s for sure...)