When I decided in May to start a fashion/shopping blog (SomeLikeItHaute.com) to promote my novel Some Like It Haute, the main issue was whether to write it in my own voice or in the voice of my book's fashionista main character, Alex Simons. Admittedly, Alex and I are pretty similar: We both have a weakness for shoes, shop for sport, and purport to be smart and shallow. I like to think Alex is just a little more vapid, a little less responsible - and much more prone to getting herself into some ridiculous situations.

But maybe I was wrong.

I went with Alex's voice, and given the shoe obsession, I figured it would be fun to run a photo of Alex's shoes with each blog entry. And for that I didn't really have much choice; those photos would have to be of my own feet. I thought nothing of it at first - my only real fear was that my mom would find out just how many pairs of shoes I owned! But a few weeks in, I discovered that I had an unexpected following. Not envious fashionistas. Not personal bankruptcy lawyers.

No, my most ardent fans turned out to be foot fetishists.

At first the emails were innocent enough: one, a request to post the photos of my shoes on a Yahoo! group. My first instinct was to say no outright and forget about it - but my curiosity got the best of me. I just had to see what that group was really all about, so I created a new Yahoo! identity (lest I leave any tracks), joined the group and - eyes half shielded - gingerly read the posts.

Oh, I was right, no doubt about it. I won't go into the gory details but let's just say that certain requests for descriptions of pain while wearing stilettos and the long discourse on new foot surgery techniques made me turn off my computer and indulge in much, much therapy, both pharmacological and retail (and in an unprecedented move, none of it involved shoes).