Martha lived up to her reputation as being pretty stand-offish. I bought one of her books and brought it with me with the hopes of getting it autographed for my sister. Luckily I had chatted with one of her camera people earlier in the day. When I saw her with Martha at the media dinner, she told me she could get the book autographed for me, and suddenly I was right there next to Martha, fumbling through my purse for a pen. I told her my sister was one of her biggest fans, and she said something like, “Oh, that’s nice,” … she hears that all the time of course. She handed me back the pen and said, “Now is this your pen?” and I said, “Well, it’s actually the Peabody Hotel’s,” and she actually seemed amused.
  

At the dinner, she only talked to her editors and camera people, she didn’t make any attempt to greet or mingle with the masses. Several of them coaxed her into posing for a photo with them. Then she said to wait until after the dinner and she would go around to each table and pose. But she left early! She also spent 45 minutes (while we waited to eat dinner) giving a slide presentation on her new book. We thought she would give out review copies, which the authors always do at the seminars. There were maybe 40 of us, so it wouldn’t have cost her that much anyway.  But she just gave one copy away to the advertising head of General Mills, and told him he was “hot,” and that he should have brought his 13-year-old son with him so he could learn a thing or two from older ladies.