Conventional wisdom would tell me that I should be shouting from the rooftops about my new book, bragging shamelessly that it’s fabulous and that if you haven’t read it, you’re missing out, etc. Consider the previous sentence my nod to that sort of thing so that I can get down to what I’d really like to discuss: American Idol.

In 30 short minutes, the new season will start. Now, I don’t usually make a TV commitment when I’m on deadline, as I am now. But at the moment, I’m regularly watching–count `em, folks–4 shows.

Whoever said reality TV is dead didn’t live in my house. 3 of the 4 shows I’m devoted to are reality TV. Partly because they are family friendly. Kids can pick up a lot of great values by watching Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Besides, Ty looks great without a shirt. (Shh! Don’t tell hubby I said that!) But second, I find people utterly FASCINATING. To see how they’re going to respond to different events. With American Idol, yeah, you want to know if they can sing. But some of them, you want to know where the heck they got their fashion sense.

So in just a few short minutes, I’ll be sitting down for another season of Randy, Paula and that sexy Brit everyone loves to hate, Simon. And I’ll be watching the folks who stroll across stage for their auditions. I once saw a T Shirt at a writers’ conference that said “Warning: Anything you do may appear in my next book”. Guess it’s too late to tell that to the people who appear on reality TV.

Okay, so I guess if I’m going to be that horn-tooting author that I’ve heard other authors claim to be, I’d say something like, “Watch for my next book. You may see the next American Idol in there.”