What’s it like to meet blog followers and Facebook friends in real life?

  It’s really really fun.

  
By now you know that Lucy Brazier and I met up earlier in my trek to the U.K.  

  

You’re going to go all the way to Great Britain, you have to meet as many of your friends and fans there as you can. Well, Lucy has been a friend for a long time.
How could I not meet her in real life?

  
I couldn’t.

  
Lucy was one of the early followers of my blog, she was the first interview we did on our show Writers Off Task With Friends, she’s constantly bantering with me on my blog and Facebook and Twitter, among other things, and she’s been a huge HUGE huge supporter of my books.

  
So when I heard her second book was coming out, there was no way I wasn’t going to come to the UK to help her launch it.

  

OK, I was going there on vacation anyway. But still.

  
We even set up a fan fest at the Eagle pub in Cambridge.

  

  And what a great time it was. We met so many cool people while we were walking around Cambridge. It will be a time I’ll never forget, and then we sat down for drinks in my hotel and chatted away to the wee hours of the night. (Lucy is a white wine fan, but she will finish your pint of beer if you don’t!)

  So…

  
why is it intimidating for most of you to meet people that you’ve come to know on Facebook or through their blog?

  In a word, it’s because you haven’t really met them – except you have.

  
I’m not going to pretend that some really despicable people don’t act differently on the Internet. You’ve heard the horror stories. That’s fine. Have your guard up.

  
On the other hand, when you’ve been chatting with people for over a year, or two or three, you’ve probably seen them in good times and bad times. You’ve seen them crack jokes and you’ve seen them experience disappointment. 

  

You have, without any physical proximity, shared the things friends share anyway.

  
And for that reason, you are probably friends.

  

  So when you meet in person, it’s very different from meeting somebody for the first time. You meeting them physically for the first time but after about two minutes you realize they were the person you expected them to be. And after about five minutes, maybe a little longer, everybody is relaxed and having fun.

  
And that’s the point. 

  
Don’t pass up the opportunities when they come around. I know a lot of you are introverts and don’t want to leave the house, but do yourself that favor. 

  
I’ve met lots of you now in person and I haven’t been disappointed yet. I hope you haven’t. I encourage you to do it. It’s a lot of fun!

  
You will bond and become better friends, and to be honest with you (and if I don’t get all syrupy sweet here), the world is a better place because we can connect all the way around it with these crazy little devices we type on.