So I started this topic a few years ago. I thought it was really cool how Jonathan Kellerman replied back to me (and only in about a day or two)…but I must admit, I thought maybe it was just a flaw–like he just happened to be around the computer at the time, because, really, JK is one of the more well-known writers out there with many, many books and he must get a million e-mails a day so the fact that he replied back himself, much less only a day after I sent it, was impressive.
Fast forward three years or so…I sent him another email two days ago, thinking “Well, the last time he was just being nice/I was just lucky in catching him going online”.
Yet I have, two days later, received another reply straight from him, himself…this one much longer, answering questions I asked in the e-mail sent off, and personalized. That just blew me away. He has to be one of the nicest authors I know of to personally reply to all the e-mails he gets. For all I know, though, other authors do this…I’ve only ever written to JK so I have no idea.
And so, this topic: What other authors have you written to and recieved a reply from (as in, a real reply, not some sort of form letter)?
OMFG! I just found out that’s the late Janet Kagan. She passed away on March 1st of this year. That is sad. The world needs more humor, and now it has less. Dammit!
I emailed her three years ago about getting a book signed. She wrote me right back. She also emailed me a year later. She had a computer crash and wasn’t sure if she missed an email from me. She hadn’t - I still hadn’t gotten my act together enough to stick my copy of her book in an envelope and mail it to the address she sent me. She was polite, caring, uplifting, funny, moving - it all came through in her characters.
I’ve never written to any authors as a fan (writing to them to tell them something business related doesn’t count for the purpose of this thread, I’m assuming), but I had a friend who’s had some correspondence with Neil Gaiman in the past. She’s deaf and had originally contacted him with a question regarding the teleplay of Neverwhere. He responded back promptly and the two had a bit of a discussion about it.
Aside from that, there’s his blog, too, and he has a lot of interaction with his fans through that. He seems like a pretty awesome guy.
Scott Adams replied to my e-mail asking why he never covered Garfield Minus Garfield, which is brilliant in how it makes you re-think comics. He said his respect for Jim Davis kept him from making any comment on his work.
Also, the author of my medical ethics textbook. I e-mailed him to lobby for him to change a politically bitchy line, something about the failure of the market in medical supplies, where I told him that medical supplies were not inherently failures of the market but that his example was an example of market intervention. He gave me a long-winded reply about “no such thing as a free market”, and I got him to change the line to something else.
I’ve exchanged several emails with William Bernhardt, who writes the rather comical “Ben Kincaid” series of lawyer novels.
Seems like a very nice guy – actually publishes his email address in his books to encourage feedback, and actually responds personally. Or he did to me – maybe that means he doesn’t have a legion of fans.
I was inspired by this thread to send an email to CJ Cherryh, one of my all-time favorite sci-fi authors. It was filled with shameless fawning. I will let you know if she replies.
I wrote to WH Auden in the late 60s/early 70s. He’d written a letter to the London Times with his address at the foot (Switzerland or Austria, as I recall).
With the brash effrontery of youth I wrote a rambling letter to him, asking his advice on the best way forward for a young would-be poet (thankfully, I didn’t force any examples of my work on him!). He replied with a brief but kind letter, saying that he’d been a teacher while establishing himself in the literary world, and he wished me good fortune in the future. (Alas, my poetical aspirations went the way of my youth).
Down on my luck in the 70s, I sold the letter to a New York autograph house for 75 bucks. It’s one of the biggest regrets of my life that I didn’t hang on to it.
Oh, I forgot: Steven Leavitt, author of “Freakonomics,” replied to a letter I sent him in (partial) defense of Warren Harding against charges that he’d joined the KKK. (Cecil once did a column making several of the same points I made.)
Leavitt replied, conceding not only that the case against Harding as a Klansman was far from airtight, but admitting that Stetson Kennedy was not as reliable a witness as he’d once thought.
Leavitt told me in that note that he would be acknowledging all this in print shortly. And he did.
I received a couple of e-mails from Tom Clancy (or, at least, a person claiming to be Tom Clancy) about fifteen years ago in response to some analysis of the causes of WWII that I argued in a Usenet forum dedicated to that author. As I recall, they said, “Good analysis. T.C.” and “You’re right about the Maginot Line. T.C.”
Wowee. I’d much rather hear from Joseph Heller, Douglas Adams, or Thomas Pynchon.
About six-ish years ago I wrote Stephen King via his website and received a reply. I think it was because I asked him how on earth he could be a Red Sox fan and he’s passionate about it.
I’m a fan of true-crime books (shut up!) and wrote Ann Rule once, she answered me a few hours later.
Slate used to do a feature (and maybe they still do) where they’d have a small group of people (four movie critics, or whatever) who would write about the events of the week. It was in the form of correspondence among the group, but obviously written to be public, too. It was called The Breakfast Table.
One week, it was three siblings; Eric, Daniel, and Jennifer Mendelsohn. (a screenwriter; an author, critic, and lecturer at Princeton; and a columnist, respectively). In an effort to get the ball rolling, Jennifer posed some challenges to her brothers; one was about a recently discovered brain lesion that makes people feel that they have to laugh. Her challenge; what would the Oliver Sacks book about this condition be called?
An answer popped into my head. I clicked the reply link and sent it off.
I got a very flattering reply from Daniel, and he cited me at the end of the week for the funniest thing he’d read in years.
Sue Grafton (snail mail). Personalized and mentioned stuff from my letter, so I know it was read. I get a signed Christmas photo from her every year (not anything special; I’m just on her mailing list).
Barry Eisler, several times. He actually emailed me first. Not sure if he’d still be able to respond personally nowadays; I haven’t tried to email him in a while.
Charlie Huston, several times. He’s always responded to my emails. After he was recommended by Stephen King I expected his email levels to reach critical mass and for him to stop responding, but he hadn’t as of a few months ago. Nice guy.
Others I’ve written to and gotten responses back from: Kathryn Miller Haines, A. Lee Martinez, Rosemary Clement-Moore, Candace Havens, P.N. Elrod, Jeff Somers, Bill Cameron. I’m sure I’m forgetting some.
There have actually been very few authors to whom I’ve written and not gotten a response. One was a big name, so I’m not exactly shocked. The other was, oddly enough, a debut author.
A few years ago I read about space probes using something called aerogel to capture cometary particles without vaporizing them. It’s the same stuff David Gerrold used as worm fencing - essentially barbed-wire fencing - in the last War Against The Chtorr books. So I wrote him asking him if he knew of any other high-tech developments and if I could expect to see Scorpion helicopters coming over the horizon. He replied, saying if he told me they’d kill him. They must’ve done so, because it’s been 15 years since that book was published, and it’s only Book 4 of 7.
I should really write Terry Pratchett, but what to say?
:mad: and I don’t know what all else.