Thursday, February 2, 2012

You don't say??

Last week I was anxiously waiting for an article in a local newspaper to come out about my newly published book.  The interview went well, but I was nervous about it none the less.  I was told it would be in the Sunday paper, but much to my surprise, it came out on Saturday.  Apparently, Saturday IS the Sunday paper.

Logging in to Facebook, I see it slathered all over my personal page as friend after friend posted it with pride.  I was incredibly excited!  I had made it to the news.  I blew up the picture and the article looked fantastic.  I couldn't read the whole thing, but I could get the gist and it sounded good.  I remembered the journalist telling me that it would also be online, so I quickly logged in to their website and type my name into the search field and...there I was.

Sitting for a moment before reading, I took in my name in print. It was just as surreal as the "proof" copy of my book when it first arrived.  Funny that somehow I couldn't visualize it in book format before holding that first copy in my hands.  It must be the fact that you stare at a computer screen for years sometimes, banging out your thoughts, it never occurs to you what it WILL look like in book format.

I made myself a cup of joe, rolled a cigarette and began reading.  "Utica native offers up humor, advice in online dating book." YES...that's exactly what it is!  Line by line I read slowly, outloud, taking it all in.  It's ME...he is talking about ME and everyone I know and everyone I don't know will be reading about ME.  The excitement only continued to grow and then I came upon this line.

"I've been on over 300 dates with both men and women," she said.

I read it again...

"I've been on over 300 dates with both men and women," she said. 

There I sat stunned, head swirling and immediately I remember my last phone call.

"Mom...dad, it's in the paper already, you can read it online!"

Immediately I grabbed for my phone and dialed their number.

Now I am not a close minded individual, I make no judgements on people, I simply live my life to the best of my ability.  However, my parents are about the most devout Catholics you will ever come across and visions of my mother splashing me with holy water while my father held me down were racing through my head. 

I won't lie, I was upset myself.  Not because I am homophobic or feel any specific way about bi-sexuality and the like, but because it was a misrepresentation.  And let's face it, when you're waiting for something like an article about your first published book...you kinda, sorta want everything to be perfect.

Of course their immediate response, was to try to calm me down.  They knew I was disappointed that it was wrong.  I didn't even mention the fact that my last name was spelled wrong three times or that the name of my publishing company was wrong.  Of course, in true form, they made light of the situation and assured me that it was no big deal.  Call the paper and ask them to issue a retraction and stop worrying about it. 

It was all of about ten minutes before the entire situation became quite humorous to me.  The book is about the unreliability of the internet and online dating, the horror stories, humorous stories and general chaos of it all...it's so apropos that the article featuring the book had a bit of chaos to it as well.

I'm waiting to see if there will indeed be a retraction in this Sunday's paper, although I'm not holding my breath.  The journalist was adamant that his notes indeed have me quoted as saying just that.  I'm good with it though...I've sold ten books since that article came out, so someone liked what it said :)

Sincerely,

2 comments:

  1. Congrats! As they say in Hollywood..any publicity is good publicity :)..Cheers :)

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