Thursday 16 July 2009

DOES MY LIFE HAVE ANY POINT?

Sorry, I know this is off-message but I have just had an unusual conversation with someone.

Someone: So, what do you write?
Me: Mostly fiction for teenagers.
Someone: Oh! Mills and Boon! How marvellous!
Que??

Sometimes I think I must be whistling in a tornado.

15 comments:

writtenwyrdd said...

That is a bit confusing, but I figure they were just pigenholing you as 'writer thus likely to be published by ____" and Mills & Boon was the first publishing house they thought of.

Michael Malone said...

there are a lot of stoopid folk out there. I worked in a book shop a few years back. Lady approached me with a book in her hand and asked me - see if I want to buy a book do I just bring it up to the till?
A thousand sarcastic answers bounced on the tip of my tongue, but all I could do was nod.

Donna Hosie said...

LOLOL. Blame Stephenie Meyer for turning YA into romantic fiction!

Melinda Szymanik said...

did they have opposable thumbs?

Melinda Szymanik said...

whoops - sorry, that comment just slipped out. Not meaning to malign 'Mills and Boons' or writers (or readers) thereof. It is like whistling into a tornado - sometimes a tornado with fingers in its ears going La,la,la,la,la,la,la...

Nicola Morgan said...

Michael - good god! I laughed out loud at that one! Do you think she went away thinking "god that was a stupid thing I just said"?

Melinda - I don't know: it was a phone conversation, but you could have something there!

Donna - no, this person had not heard of Stephanie Meyer, trust me!

Jane Smith said...

Ha. I once was asked what my then-boyfriend did for a living, by an acquaintance who had studiously ignored him at a couple of functions. When I said that said ex was a writer, the acquaintance replied, "Oh! I'd have spoken to him if I'd have known he was interesting!"

I suppose I should be grateful that the acquaintance was speaking to me. It proved something, I suppose.

Nicola Morgan said...

Jane - you posted at the same time as me so I looked as though I was ignoring you. Course I wasn't.

People are weird. But we are completely normal

Jane Smith said...

Of course you weren't ignoring me, Morgan: that would be impossible. You were just TRYING to, that's all.

catdownunder said...

Of course your life has a point Nicola! It is to save cats like me from clawing the furniture out of sheer boredom. (I once looked at one of those pink paperbacks while waiting for an elderly lady and did not get to the end of the first page.)

Ebony McKenna. said...

Ok, now that I've stopped laughing . . . .

I have loads of friends who write Mills & Boon and I love reading them. They're not really aimed at teenagers - although they are publishing some titles in a new YA line but that's pretty recent.

Plus, you're saying your co-talker hasn't heard of Stephenie Meyer, which tells me he/she knows absolutely squat about books.

If he/she had even walked past a bookshop in the past three years they would know the name.

Sally Zigmond said...

It's a dad fact that 99% of the population know knowing about books or writing. Whenever, at parties, am forced to mention that I write, the next question is always, 'should I have heard of you?'

Fortunately I like my wine too much to tip it over the heads of idiots.

Sally Zigmond said...

I give up. Pass me the pot.

Sally Zigmond said...

Or a 'sad' fact, even.

Sorry, I've only had one coffee so fat this morning.

Nicola Morgan said...

Sally, pot? What are you suggesting?? Oh, COFFEE! that's ok then. Yes, I think you need some!