I had check out his side jonathankellerman.com that he upkeeps himself, and, at “communicate” figured on a whim that I’d email him with thoughts and fan feedback. Not only was there an email, but also a P.O. box that he said you could send his books to and he’d sign them.
Not bad, I thought…but deep down, I figured that he wouldn’t REALLY read the email if I sent it…or reply back. I mean, the guy must get a million emails a day. And I always assumed authors had someone to do that for them. Like a form letter answerer or something, only in email form. It was my first time ever emailing anyone I thought of as a celebrity, and, for those of you who don’t know who he is, Jonathan Kellerman is a bestselling author of mystery…with a notable main, continuing character of Alex Delaware in most of his novels.
So I composed an email and sent it off. Included in it was my doubts that JK would actually see the email but “if he does then…”…and here I switched to addressing him in first person presuming he would read it.
Anyway, two days later (yesterday) I recieved an email from him. The email was not the same one I sent it to, but a different personalized one (The email I sent it to was Submit@Jonathankellerman.com, this one was his own name at the same place).
So I guess it really was him right?
"Dear Christopher,
The real JK has indeed read your letter and is replying. Thanks for your
kind message and for your support. Writing’s an isolating job and I always
appreciate hearing from satisfied readers.
Best,
JK"
I kinda feel bad now. Hope I didn’t offend him. Heh.
Do you really think it was him? If so…well, that’s pretty cool.
Just wanted to share. I debated putting this in Mundane but figured more people might know who JK was in CS.
Yeah, I think it was him. Many authors have websites, and the ones who won’t/can’t respond individually will usually say so, and they’ll put up a FAQ or something. Nobody’s feelings are hurt and fans understand.
I’ve received replies from several authors*, and I never doubted that it was really them. If the website includes their e-mail addy and invites correspondence, I think you can be sure that the responses are personal.
Christopher Moore, Douglas Preston, George R. R. Martin (pre Song of Ice and Fire), and Dan Simmons
Did you ask him to stop writing books in which the killer turns out to be a bunch of people involved in some sort of conspiracy? A bunch of people whom you may not have even been introduced to in the bulk of the book, and are therefore left with a feeling of “Oh, that was interesting” when you’re done?
Yep. That Doug Preston. I questioned his use of a word in Cabinet of Curiosities. He explained it very nicely and I felt like an idiot.
Dan Simmons responded to a question I had about the ending of the Hyperion novels. Again, I felt like an idiot. I just couldn’t believe he’d end the saga like that. :smack:
I wrote an actual, physical letter (typed, not handwritten) to Garrison Keillor once. I had just finished one of his books, and was impressed, and thought I would tell him so. So I sent a letter.
A few weeks later, I got back a standard form letter signed by a publicist or somesuch, talking about the volume of mail he gets and how he can’t read every letter and sometimes he does. So I thought that was the end of it.
A few weeks after that, I got a hand-addressed letter with the Prairie Home Companion logo as the return address. Inside was a card (looked like it had been torn out of a larger sheet) with a poem he composed. It had a short message at the top, with my name, and was signed at the bottom in the same handwriting as the address on the envelope. He spoke at my college and I got a book signed by him some years later, and so can confirm that the previous signature was his as well.
I was a big Susan Cooper fan when I was about 10. My friend and I both wrote her brief letters inquiring about various elements of the story. For whatever reason, she wrote me back but not him. So he decided to track her down. He found her number in some Who’s Who book and called her to her home in Boston.
What we did not know is that she had recently been through an acrimonious divorce.
I got e-mail back from Marley & Me’s John Grogan. I was going to challenge him on the “Wold’s Worst Dog” thing, since I thought I’d lived with the World’s Worst Dog™. I had to admit that Marley won, though. In spades.
Besides being very funny, Mr. Grogan is also very nice.
I got an E-mail from Bruce Campbell a number of years ago. (He’s written a couple books, it counts!) He has a website and, at least at the time, if you E-mailed him with a question not answered on his website, he said he would respond. I asked him some mundane question about an old role of his and sure enough, got a response within a day or so.
…I had no idea who Jonathan Kellerman was when I started reading this thread. But when I read your description of his work, I thought, :smack: oh him!!!
Well, no…but I do notice one thing I am not particularly fond of with most of his books. Not really that, but he seems to “kill off” a main character in a book often and then have them not really die at all but appear at the end really alive.
Granted I’ve only read the first five AD series books, he’s already done this twice in Silent Partner and Time Bomb.
shrug
It’s not that imporatant…I just feel sometimes like he’s taking the easy way out and being unfair in a way to the storyline. Although I must say, he does explain with reasonable ways how the said character IS still alive after thought (or even seen or pronounced) to be dead.
Heh, I now I just have to hope that nobody will go to his site and email him the link to this topic. :o Talking behind his back like that.
Seems a lot of you had luck with corrasponding with authors.
Sounds like the real deal to me. I’m a big fan of both Jonathan and Faye Kellerman’s works, btw. Faye’s main character has been Peter Decker and his wife Rina, but she’s done a book or two featuring Peter’s eldest daughter who is now a cop too (Decker is a cop). I really like the Alex D-Milo Sturgis friendship too. Hmm… maybe I’ll go to his website and email him myself - I’ve always wondered if he is ever going to follow up on characters in “The Butcher’s Theater,” which was set in Israel. Very bloody but also quite good.
I’ve gotten personal responses from Sue Grafton (snail mail; could’ve been an assistant, but it had her signature at least), and Julia Quinn (email). For non-authors, I’ve gotten personal email responses from Cam Clarke (voice actor) and Chris Classic (rap/hip-hop artist). In both of those cases, I’m pretty sure it was him.
The word was provenance, in talking about antiques. He used a different word – something close to provenance but not provenance. It was used more than once so I didn’t think it was a typo.
Anyway, it turns out that the word that he used it was correct.
I wish I could remember the word he used. I don’t have the book anymore.
Never read it, but from what I’ve read on his site, he’s had the main character of TBT in a AD novel. (Don’t remember which one, sorry–Actually now it’s going to bug me so chances are I’ll go and look up what book it is and come back in here and tell you. :p)
I do have that one on my list though.
You should e-mail him. Now that you know in a few days it’s probable he’d write back. I’ll probably keep his e-mail for the rest of time. Hahah.
Haha, just thought (you don’t really have to do this, I’m just meandering and kidding around) that you could link him here to tell him where you got the info from to send him a note. That he has “good reviews for emails” Bwhahahaha.
Authors must appreciate e-mail. Quicker and cheaper than responding by snail mail.
I have a nice letter from T.E.D. Klein around here somewhere. I wrote him a fan letter after reading The Ceremonies. Turns out we had a mutual friend. Well, his friend – for me it was someone I’d been briefly introduced to, but it added a personal touch to his response, and I was tickled.
I have a typed postcard response from Stephen King, and I know he never read my letter and didn’t dictate the response, but I don’t think fans are even getting that much from him lately. This was after The Stand, and I gave him casting suggestions for the movie. (Nope, Molly Ringwald wasn’t my idea.) The card responded to what I wrote, but it had to be from one of his busy secretaries.
Like a form letter answerer or something, only in email form. It was my first time ever emailing anyone I thought of as a celebrity, and, for those of you who don’t know who he is, Jonathan Kellerman is a bestselling author of mystery…with a notable main, continuing character of Alex Delaware in most of his novels.
