I'd Tell You But Then I'd Have To . . .

I rarely tell people I am a novelist. It invites those dreaded questions. What's your book about? I have this great idea for a book--would you write it and we can split the royalties? You know all THOSE questions. I usually tell people I am an actuary. Lately, I've been thinking of switching my career to "theoretical physicist" but then I am afraid someone will ask "What's that?"

Of course, I have four kids . . . and a couple of them tell people what I do, despite my asking them to say I am an actuary. So then I meet parents of their friends. "Oh, your Baby Girl's mother . . . she tells me you're a writer."

"Um . . . she said that? Oh . . . sort of. I work from home."

How's that for sufficiently vague?

But lately, despite my best efforts, acquaintances are finding out what I do. And a funny thing has happened. More and more, I think people realize that I am a writer and ALSO that I appear to listen very well--to observe them. And if they know me for long enough, they realize I remember EVERYTHING. And NOW, some people start to tell a story and stop and say, "Okay, you can't put this in one of your books."

People now have "off-the-record" conversations around me!

I just crack up. Even if I "use" something, it's usually blended and changed in such a way that no one would recognize it. But it's just very funny how my being a writer affects conversation.

In fact, in my work in progress, someone has to go interview someone else, and the interviewer is told, "Don't take notes. People think twice about talking to people when someone is taking notes." And it's true. I'm not a true journalist, but I am there taking mental notes.

Has this ever happened to you? Of course the opposite happens too. Sometimes someone doesn't STOP talking and says, "You have to put this in a book someday."

When I tell stories, I usually just say, "I'd tell you what really happened . . . but then I'd have to . . ." You know the drill.

Thoughts?