I came to a startling revelation yesterday.

I have fans.

The whole thing started with Julie Clayton. If you’ve read earlier posts, you’ll remember Julie as the first person to really encourage my writing. She’s read all of my manuscripts, and she constantly tells me I’ll be famous. God love her. Then Cindy Bell became a fan. She was my aide in my collaborative US History class, and I told her about my writing and offered her a chance to read one. She read them all, and she tears through a book in two days. If I don’t have a new one often, she seems disappointed.

They told other people I write books. Remember that old shampoo commericial with Heather Locklear where she said something like, “I told two friends, and they told two friends…”? Evidently that’s what’s happening at Greenwood High School.

What was startling to me was to now have people come to me to ask for the books. Three this week alone. I don’t think I can describe how flattering that is to a writer! And I have to say my ego loves that they stop by my room or catch me in the hall telling me what chapter they’re on and how much they like the storyline and characters. I do receive a promise from each of them that they’ll buy the books when they’re in print. Otherwise, there’ll be no one who hasn’t read them!

During parent/teacher conferences, several parents asked about my books before they asked how their kids were doing in my class. How did they find out I write? My eye doctor. The last time I went for glasses, we chatted. I needed a stronger prescription because I spend so much time staring at a monitor or a laptop. So I told him I wrote. And he told several of his other patients who mentioned to him they had kids at my school. One parent even asked me to mentor her daughter who has been writing fantasy for most of her adolescence. I was glad to do so.

So now I have groupies.

Who knew?