Signing Syndrome

I’m just wondering if any other authors suffer from this syndrome. It’s the one where someone hands you one of your books to sign after a reading and every single brain cell you have stops working. Brain freeze. The person standing in front of you is someone you have known for at least ten years – but can you remember their name?

Spelling also goes totally out the window; for example last night, I managed to totally mangle the name Nathaniel so that it resembled nothing more than a long line of consonants.

So far I have remembered my own name, but I’m not complacent about that always being the case.

How I envy those authors who can manage to write an erudite but personal message under these circumstances.