Emilie Richards

I love that! I signed up for Sharon Kay Penman's mailing list a few years ago and left a note saying how much I loved all of her books, and especially how much I like the hero in her medieval mysteries, and got a really sweet email back about how she did too.

Of course, I was too tongue-tied to say much in response...

That's cool....almost as good as getting a fan letter addressed to YOU!

That is always the coolest when the author take the time to write back their fans. I still have a standing relationship with an author I "met" that way. I didn't realize it at the time I bought his book but he was actually self-published...the novel wasn't the best written but it was a nice story...it made me cry. The Shade of the Maple by Kirk Martin if you're interested.

When my daughter was a 'young' teenager -- fourteen maybe, she wrote (snail mail) to her favorite author, Johanna Lindsay. Ms. Lindsay wrote a detailed personal (snail mail) letter back to her. To this day, my daughter has the letter and the envelope framed and on the wall of her home office. It made quite an impression on her then, and still does. Not only because Johanna Lindsay is a famous author, but because she took the time to write back to a young teenager, and not only told her about some aspects of her life as an author, but also answered the questions my daughter had asked her.

I think that's great, not just that you got an email in reply, but that you signed the guest book in the first place.

Too often I've enjoyed a book but shied away from letting the author know I appreciated their work. I keep forgetting that as I age, so do my favorite authors. In fact it came as quite a shock when I discovered that a couple of them had passed away.

Well no more procrastinating! I'm going to start sending out fan mail to my favs today! And hopefully, when I become someone's favorite author, I'll get fan mail too.

A few years ago, my father told me that he was in regular contact with a woman who wrote romance books and after speaking with her about me, he suggested I email her if I had any specific questions about the industry. When he told me the woman was Maggie Shayne I about died. But, I did email her and she gave me some excellent advice. The first one I took? Join RWA. hehehe So, I know how you all feel.

brainstorm77 said:

Wow that is great to get advice from a writer like her

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She's a very nice woman, personable and funny. From what my father tells me she's very energetic. My husband and I both read her book Twilight Hunger and loved it. (Then again, I spent 7 years in Maine, so I paid very close attention to her details on the setting and she did a good job too!)