Internationally renowned author Alexander McCall Smith acknowledged Saturday afternoon to hundreds of fans at his Bee Book Club appearance that he suffers from a condition known as "serial novelism."

"You write novel after novel, and then you die," he said, during remarks at The Pavilions shopping center in Sacramento.

Judging from the reaction of those at the event, his fan base is hoping that Smith never recovers from the illness.

"I can see why he became a writer -- because he's such a great storyteller," said Craig Manson, a professor at McGeorge School of Law in Oak Park. His favorite Smith series of novels are those in "The 2¹/₂ Pillars of Wisdom" series.

The 54-year-old Manson, a Carmichael resident, said that Smith has quite a fan club at McGeorge. That seems quite fitting, since Smith was a respected expert on medical law and bioethics before he left the University of Edinburgh in Scotland to pursue his love of writing.

As Smith finished his speech and the applause died down, the audience buzzed with comments about how tremendously entertaining he had been.

In his remarks, Smith spoke a bit about the obstacles that writers face -- among them, editors who fail to keep track of just how many limbs the author has given a character and the challenge of writing a first line that will hook readers.

Smith then shared a couple of opening lines that he admired. One of them came in English novelist's Rose Macaulay's masterpiece, "The Towers of Trebizond." The famous opening line reads:
"'Take my camel, dear', said my Aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass."

Then, with the comedic timing of Jerry Seinfeld, Smith lamented that there simply are not enough camels in novels and mused about the possibility of working one into a future book.

As to his mistakes, Smith acknowledged that he may have made a few in his novels but explained that he hadn't come prepared to enumerate them.

Lee and Linda Dills of Citrus Heights discovered Smith through the BBC/HBO presentation of "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency." After they read the books, they were impressed with just how realistically human Smith's characters are.

"I saw the lady who plays this character on Oprah," said 62-year-old Linda Dills, speaking of Jill Scott, filmdom's personification of Smith's detective, Mma Ramotswe."The character itself intrigued me. Then I saw the movie, and the beauty of the countryside and the music at the end intrigued me."

Smith is "Sandy" to those who know him well here in Sacramento, and in a sign of just how small the world is, audience members discovered that the Scottish author has quite a few friends among our fellow residents.

Smith not only delighted his loyal fan base but also won over at least one fan of R&B singer-songwriter Scott. That would be me.

Like many, I left impressed with the author's wit and skillful story-telling, but I was just as struck by the possibility that some Smith fans out there found him because they are following the work of Jill Scott and the possibility that some Smith fans may also be discovering Scott's music. These are happy thoughts, indeed.

If you didn't get a chance, read Allen Pierleoni's story about Smith. Go here to read the first chapter of Smith's latest book, "Tea Time for the Traditionally Built."