YOU GUYS!!! I am SO excited for this fun new feature called “You’ll Never Believe” (where authors tell us a crazy, outrageous, fun, fate or … pretty much any kind of true story that happened to them, and we are kicking it off with one of our favorite authors, THE Audrey Carlan, and what a fun story she tells!!! I have my very own true story that matches this one, so I’m especially excited.
P.S. We’re also celebrating Audrey’s re-releases of her 1,001 Dark Nights books (“A Christmas Auction” & “Madam Alana” that have all been re-released today! She, and Blue Box Press are today’s newsletter sponsors.)
She says:
You’ll Never Believe how I met the Queen…
A decade ago, at the RT Convention in New Orleans, Louisiana, I met the Queen. Just in case you have been living under a rock for the last ten plus years, when I say “the queen” I mean the OG, the veteran, the icon that paved the way for all of us erotic romance authors to succeed, Ms. EL James. I know everyone reading this right now has either read or at the very least heard of the phenomenon that was Fifty Shades of Grey. Well to this author, she was and forever will remain in my heart as the queen of romance.
Let me back up and set the scene for you.
Here I go, all by myself to my first ever book signing and boy was it a big one. At this point I’d devoured hundreds of romance novels and had just written my very first indie release named Angel Falling. It’s about a cowboy who saves a rich city girl and smutty goodness, opposites attract, fish-out-of-water type romance ensues. Anyway… back to the conference.
I met up with a ton of aspiring writers and readers, and we navigated the event together. While there, I explained to all of them how I was dying to meet EL James. I called her “My Queen.” Alas, it became a running joke throughout the conference that Audrey Carlan was badly stalking EL James. While I was in a session learning about the craft, friends would text me, “Your queen is in the bar downstairs.” By the time I raced out to find her, she’d left. This happened all weekend repeatedly. It was exhausting and I was beginning to believe I’d never meet her. Regardless, I was so committed to meeting her at this event, I carried around the Fifty Shades Trilogy everywhere I went just in case I found her and could have my precious babies signed.
You see, EL Jame’s books inspired me to start writing romance. I had never read a book that not only had such intense feelings, a great plot, it was sultry and sexy as hell. It moved me in a way I knew I had to learn to do myself. After that, I started to write my own draft novel and signed up to take writing classes out of Gotham’s Writers Group. I spent two years honing my craft, working with mentors like author Jess Dee and Rhenna Morgan until I felt confident enough to officially self-publish my first novel.
The second to last night of that conference, I’d practically given up and decided to delve into partying with the friends I’d made. So, at two in the morning, who walks into the lobby bar with her friends, including baddie Colleen Hoover, Anna Todd, and a few other authors? Of course it was the queen. I lost my ability to breathe, not to mention I was drunk-as-a-skunk on Jameson. I couldn’t meet her now! I instantly started to cry. Well, the sisterhood I was hanging with were not okay with this idea, so one of them went straight over to “the cool girls table” and said, “Hey, my friend Audrey Carlan really wants to meet you but is afraid to disturb you.”
I was DYING inside. My heart was pumping so hard it was like a marching band stomping across my chest. My face was beet red, my hair pulled back in a grubby, ratty bun, and no makeup. Obviously, I was ready to meet my idol. NOT.
And then it happened…
EL James walked over to where I was trying to hide and held her arms out. No shit. Just said, “Come here sweetheart,” or something equally lovely.
I went straight into her arms, and I totally lost it you guys. I sobbed every ounce of fear, joy, excitement, self-doubt, and all the insecurity I had been holding onto about meeting her and let it all out. All over her shirt. She held me, patted my back, and said, “Oh shhh it’s okay. It’s okay. I’m only a human being.”
My response was to cry harder and say, “Not to me you’re not!”
It was the most embarrassing moment of my career as a writer and one of the coolest. She handled the drunken, sobbing, fangirl with such grace and kindness. It taught me exactly how I wanted to treat my readers and future fans one day.
I’ve never forgotten that night and I don’t think she did either. Mostly because, the next time I saw her, which was two years later after I’d hit #1 New York Times for my Calendar Girl serial, she stopped me at an event when I was walking by her signing table. Then, shocker of all shockers…EL James congratulated me on my success. <gasp>
To this day, every time I see her, she’s as nice and down to earth as that very first time. Only now I’d like to think she sees me as a friend and a peer.
This world is wild guys. You never know when you’re going to meet your idol hanging out right around the corner from you, with open arms and kind words. Don’t be afraid to shoot your shot and introduce yourself. You never know where it might take you.
Madlove,
Audrey
[lasso rel=”a-christmas-auction-the-marriage-auction” id=”119060″]
