Coming Out Of The Closet, er, Coffin
Talking about being a vampire book writer can be weird.
In non-book-related situations, I mean.
I've only recently come "out of the coffin" in general and let everyone know that I write vampire books. And, not only do I write regular vampire books, but my alter ego/evil twin writes smut vampire books (as my brother calls them).
I've lived in Boulder, CO for a long time, and I've built up various reputations here: first as a tarot reader/psychic and then, as I got more degrees and gathered more education, a counselor/psychotherapist, hypnotherapist and college instructor. I was lucky enough to write a weekly newspaper column for a few years.
Since Boulder is a metaphysical/holistic/"granola" kind of place, people have come to expect certain things from me.
Vampires don't usually fit into their ideas about who I am and what I do.
For example, I participated in a metaphysical fair recently where I did Tarot readings and sold my guided hypnotherapy CDs. I had my book cover postcards on my table, and people frequently picked them up to investigate. I can't tell you the number of times the postcard was thrown back onto the table with a gasp, and -- eyes wide -- the person would inevitably say something about "how could such a lightworker such as you (meaning me), have anything to do with something so dark and satanic as vampires." Wow. Shades of my childhood. But the annoying regularity of the reaction caused me to put my cover photo postcards under the table so as to soothe the fragile sensibilities of the fair participants. Their reactions really took me by surprise. I guess I'd assumed they'd be more open-minded. In my world, metaphysical, paranormal and supernatural all go together.
Well, lessons learned. Will I be holding any booksigning events at metaphysical book stores? Probably not. Well, maybe a pagan one here and there.
But, I'm letting all my clients know about the sale of my book and its upcoming availability. Even psychotherapists have shadowy corners. Will they run, screaming? Gee, my bank balance hopes not!
And speaking of bank balances, I was thrilled to get a nice royalty check from the epub my alter ego sold her novella to. Quite surprisingly delightful.
posted by Lynda Hilburn at 5:46 PM
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