And I love his books. But, he answers email with the subject “fan letter” very quickly and gives a personal response. My sick friend mentioned that she knew him personally, so of course I did name drop.
When I asked him to send Lolli an ebook and that she didn’t like SF, his response was very fast.
Here it is: I have the perfect book of mine to send Lolli…PREDATORS I HAVE KNOWN. It came out in March and it’s non-fiction…all about animals. I was wondering how to get her an ecopy…now I know. I just need to know how to get it to her Kindle, since it would be coming from me and not Amazon.
Alan
How cool is that? Does anyone want to touch my hand and brush against the greatness?
Holds arm out for people to touch Lolli told me that Alan’s wife is a cat lady, well, I’m a cat lady, so there is another connection to greatness.
I emailed him back and told him that I had just ordered the Kindle and that I should have it for her on Friday and promised the info. His reply was fast and kind.
I’ve written to authors in the past and always got a reply, but usually the reply was so generic that I thought it was a form letter or from a staff member. Its OK with me, I just figure they are busy writing books. (well, there was that one time when I scolded an author because his hero was picking up the brass after target practice with a revolver…that was a personal and almost instant reply)
I’m seriously impressed with Alan as a person who cares about his fans. I get to call him Alan because that’s how he signs his emails to me
Miller, would it be OK with you if I sent Mr. Foster a link to this thread?
I knew a lady that was a personnel manager for a large department store. One of her employees was retiring, and she when to their house to do some of the paper work for the retirement.
Anyway she noticed some books by ADF on the shelf, and as she was an avid SF reader she commented on them.
Turns out this couple was ADF’s parents. :eek:
She got a personally autographed book from ADF a couple of weeks later.
So besides being a great author, he is a class act.
What grades do you teach? I was thinking that you were a high school teacher? If so, suggesting ADF might be a good thing for them. Anything to get them to read. He’s got a huge section in the local library. This could also be a lesson on how to get a library card. Maybe that wouldn’t work so well, because of the problems with getting rides to return books. Does the school library have fiction?
I have never read a Judy Blume book. And now that I’ve googled her, I understand why not. I didn’t learn to love to read until middle school.
Can someone please change my title to say that Alan Dean Foster is a class act? That’s really what I wanted to say, but the words failed me.
I’ve written to a few authors, and one gave me a generic reply, but most replied with very thoughtful letters. Now, perhaps someone else wrote the letters, but they certainly seemed to be from the authors themselves.
He has a talent for that. I loved Midworld and *Sentenced to Prism *more for the unique settings than the actual plots.
But the first book of his I ever read was Splinter of the Minds Eye. I didn’t know or care anything about him. I was just a total Star Wars freak of a kid and the softback had some awesome artwork. It wasn’t until later I realized that he had written it.
He’s always good for a read. I loved the Icerigger trilogy, and most of the Spellsinger books. For a once-off light read, I recommend Glory Lane, Quozl and Cyber Way. Glad to hear he’s a nice person as well as a decent author.
He also wrote the Star Wars novelization (even though it was credited to Lucas).
Probably the oddest thing I’ve ever read of his is WWE’s Hulk Hogan biography. Of course, it’s credited to Hogan and ADF only gets the “with” credit, but you know that’s usually a crock and he must have done most of the actual writing.
