Oh, not for any sort of La Femme Nikita sparring or Charlie's Angels' high kicks. No, he proclaimed me so quiet that I would fade into the woodwork and therefore make a great secret agent. But that didn't stop me from becoming the queen of shameless book promotion. I'm still the same person I was back then. I'm not big on small talk.
Social mixers are second only to root canals.
And I absolutely hate gettting up in front of a crowd. I knew when my very first editor called to say she wanted to buy my novel that I would need to promote my book as hard as I could if I wanted to build a writing career and quit my day job. I needed to make a big splash with my New York publisher. Frankly, I wanted to be remembered so I could get a second contract. I knew enough about the publishing industry to know that authors who earn huge advances on their books make the newspapers because they make huge advances.