Nikki Loftin

Archive for January 27th, 2010

Love Notes to Authors

I just finished reading Betsy Lerner‘s The Forest for the Trees: An Editor’s Advice to Writers, and it spurred me to action. I decided, after reading her incredibly funny and depressing chapters about how disappointing and heartbreaking getting published can be (and here I thought the being unpublished part was sucking eggs), I had to speak out.

I love books. I love them so much there aren’t enough of them in the world for me to read. (Well, not enough of the kind I like, then.) I love them so much I must write MORE of them even though it is the most maddening process — the Chinese water torture of professions. Secret? Sometimes I even tell the books I love them. “Oh, dear, sweet Novel. You are the most wonderful book ever written. I will keep you forever, read you until your covers fall off, memorize passages, tell everyone of your charms.” And then the Novel and I smoke a virtual cigarette.

But do I tell the book’s authors how much I love their babies? Almost never! Shame on me!

So, this week, I decided to start my 2010 Valentine’s Campaign: Making Love to Your Favorite Authors*.

No, not the sex kind. Most of my favorite authors are probably like me, frumpy middle-aged women desperately trying to find time between appointments and homework help to write something thrilling. I’m talking about the “personal touch” kind of love. The Swedish massage of emails.

The fan letter.

I started yesterday, with a fan letter to Nan Marino, whose debut middle grade novel Neil Armstrong is my Uncle, and Other Lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me, knocked my (and my son’s) socks off.

I’ve decided to concentrate my love on debut authors if I can, since I think they must be most like me — insecure, lonely, eating massive quantities of chocolate to keep them this side of the loony bin — and I know I need more petting than a neurotic cat. But I’ll also send love mail to those authors who have changed my life but never knew it.I’ll let you know who as I go.

Have you ever written an author love letter? To whom? And did they write back? Inquiring minds want to know.

*I wanted to title my post this, but was afraid it would get me listed on a bunch of p0rn sites, so…