Strangest question this year

Strangest question asked of me while on book tour this year: How have your ex-girlfriends played a role in the writing of your fiction?

When I asked the woman if something in my books caused her to wonder about this, she said, “No. You just seem like the kind of guy who would have a lot of ex-girlfriends.”

I’m not sure what this meant, and I was afraid to ask.

Though the question was a little baffling and certainly odd, I welcome these sorts of questions because they give me an opportunity to tell stories while weaving my way to a legitimate answer.

I have lots of stories.

So although I couldn't think of a way that any of my ex-girlfriends played a role in the writing of any of my books (other than naming a character after my high school sweetheart), I answered the audience member’s question by telling her about the girlfriend who slept with her eyes open, the hair dresser who I broke up with because she was a terrible kisser and the stalker named Kim who my best friend dumped upon me while I was recuperating from my car accident and unable to fend her off.

I’m still angry with him about that one.