Meeting Favorite Authors

Here is a panel at the Boskone science fiction convention that caught my eye (via Making Light.)

Friday, 5 PM, Gardner
Five Things You Should Never Say to Your Favorite Authors When You Meet Them

I am dying to know, what are those five things? I can be terribly socially inept, completely tactless in fact, which is one reason I stay away from authors beyond surface courtesy.

My instinct is to say something completely honest like, "Oh, I'm a big fan of the books you wrote ten years ago." Or I just want to hound them about sequel information and the like. "Why did you stop writing medievals? They were your best work." And once when an author said the books at her table were part of a family series but could be read alone, I blurted out, "Yeah, that's what all authors say." Oops.

That's not to say I don't gush when I get on an adrenaline high at a big group signing. That's when I truly have no idea what starts coming out of my mouth.

I did have one friend (who, like me, is more thinker-judger than touchy-feely) who saw nothing wrong with questioning an author about historical mistakes in her book. It made my hair stand on end when she told me.

Have any of you made authors wince in real life?