Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Fan Mail
Fan mail. Who sends it anymore? Well my mom gets fan mail every once in a while. A few days ago she got fan mail that wasn't even for a class assignment. The girl just sent it because she liked Julia's Kitchen that much. I read a ton of books that make me say "Ohmigod! That book was amazing!" But I never get around to actually telling the author how much I liked it. Even if I did get around to letting the author know my feelings, I would do it by e-mail. It always makes my mom really happy to get such nice letters from fans but it wasn't until a few days ago that she turned to me and said, "Who even sends fan mail? It never even crossed my mind when I was a kid to write the author." She even called my aunt to ask her what she thought. She never thought about writing the author either. What do you think about fan mail? Have you ever written fan mail to an author? Have you ever received fan mail? When you were a kid, did you think about sending fan mail? More later!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
7 comments:
Faith,
What are the last few books that made you say "Ohmigod! That book was amazing!" Inquiring minds want to know.
For the record, getting fan mail is the BEST part of writing children's books. Now that I understand how amazing it feels to read a letter from someone who loved my book, I write to authors I admire all the time.
So keep the fan mail coming! Snail-mail, e-mail, whatever. It's a great feeling to know I've connected with a reader.
When I was a kid I read a lot of books, and I wanted to write one, but I never sent a letter to an author. I thought authors were too busy, and why would they want to hear from me, anyway? When I was a teacher, my students wrote to an author and now I can't even recall who or why. (terrible!)Now that I'm a working writer, I send fan mail when I really love a book. Usually I just say thank you and I tell the author something I liked about their book. The last few fan letters (e-mails) I sent were to Audrey Niffenegger, John Green, Ned Vizzini, and Brenda Ferber. And my favorites are John Green and Brenda Ferber, because they wrote back. :)
I have to confess that I sent a fan letter to Valerie Bertinelli in 1979. I covered the envelope with stickers and addressed it in big bubble letters with my Fiddle Sticks markers. I was a little crushed when it came back to me return to sender.
If I could go back in time I would send a fan letter to S.E. Hinton for The Outsiders, a book I read over thirty times during my childhood (and countless more since then), and one to Constance Greene for Beat the Turtle Drum (that's the book that your mom read to me at bedtime when we were little).
It never occured to me to send a fan letter back then but I'll bet both those authors would have really appreciated it. I think it's fantastic that there are kids who are so moved by Julia's Kitchen they feel compelled to write you mom a letter. Go Brenda!
I love you,
Aunt Micky
PS- I'm so excited to see Sammy as Oliver in his school play tonight!!!!!
Fiddle Sticks markers! I loved those!!
Hi everyone! I never knew there you had a blog site Brenda! Well I'm here just to write a little comment.. First of all, the Ferbers are totally talented in writing. All of these blogs are extremely well written. Second, instead of e-mailing or snail-mailing (?) I would like to send fan-mail to you in this comment. I love Julia's Kitchen and I'm very excited for the next book you will write!
Hi Amy! I'm so glad you found the blog. Faith is also making me a myspace at www.myspace.com/brendaferber. You should check it out. She's so talented. :-)
Thanks so much for your fan comment. It means a lot to me!!
Post a Comment