Sometimes, the fact/fiction line gets a tad surreal

Tod Goldberg was recently asked by one of his former writing students to sit in on a class she taught. It was test day, and the open book in question was his first novel, FAKE LIAR CHEAT:

She handed me a copy of the quiz — 10 questions, including a few two-parters — and what I realized is that, at best, I knew 7 of the answers, which is how one succeeds at CSUN, but not a great percentage for the guy who wrote the book. Beyond that, understanding that these students would be graded on their comprehension of my novel  — possibly on a curve for all I knew– made me intensely nervous. What if I hadn’t been clear with the text? (And judging from one of the first questions I fielded apres exam — "What, exactly, do you think happened at the end?" a young man asked. "Uh, yeah, well, they died. Or they lived. Or, like, uh, it was all totally a dream and stuff," I said. — that was more than just a token fear.) What if they really needed an A to appease their asshole parents, but because the friggin’ author was sitting beside them watching them answer the questions (sorry Jeff and Devon, but you both got number 6 wrong…) they pulled educational Cindy Bradys and just froze. When Stephanie stepped out of the classroom for a moment, part of me just wanted to scream out answers and the other part of me was afraid they’d be wrong. Fucked either way, I suppose.

I must admit that experience sounds rather frightening in a funny way, but I love surreal moments, whether hearing about them or experiencing them. The strangest, perhaps, was the train ride back to New York after my first Bouchercon. There was a small group of us including myself, S.J. Rozan, Keith Snyder, Tom Savage, and Jennifer Jaffe. Tom sat next to S.J. and was reading a galley of her book. Across the way, I sat alone, reading Keith’s book, as he sat behind me talking to Jennifer, who was also reading a book. Not one of Tom’s though — otherwise it would have been a complete circle…

So if anyone else has more of these odd displacement-type stories, whether involving students, reading books with the author present, or otherwise, please do share them in the backblogs.