I want to make it clear, I hate 50 Shades of Grey. My friend Lacey loves it and encouraged me to read it. The writing was so awful that I still haven't made it past page five. So when I heard she was having a book signing I jumped at the chance. Why? Because I spend almost every waking moment either thinking or working on my book. A paragraph can take me an hour to perfect and lines like "she was like putty in his hand" send me into a fury. Yet she is a literary superstar and I am still a middle school teacher.

              Did she have a secret? I think the adage sex sells applies here. I can't even get to the smut part. But I got up at 8 am to wait in line for two hours for her 11 am signing. So did a lot of women in Miami. They were older, younger, fat, skinny, and hopelessly in love with the book. They squawked about how awesome the book was and how excited they were to meet her.

     I was a bit of a wet blanket and tried to read the book. I added a new paragraph to my reading.The girls in front of me bonded with the late middle aged women behind me. One had a book club and they excitedly talked about meeting up again. A woman flew in from Barbados others came from Naples or West Palm It is truly badly written. But when she arrived people clapped. I alone did not.

     She was actually v.friendly and the nicest writer I have ever met. I asked her to take a picture with a trinket of mine. I may never reach her level of success, but I can at least try.