Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Brushes with fame
How often does this happen to you? You’re reading a book (a memoir, it has to be a memoir for this to work), and you come across something that’s really funny or really meaningful to you, and you think to yourself, Hmm, I can totally relate to that. I should write to this author and tell him/her how much I enjoyed that particular anecdote/turn of phrase.
If you’re me, this happens a lot. And if you’re me, you never actually go through with contacting the author, because it’s a long way from the bed at night to the computer the next morning and by then the moment has usually passed, or because you talk yourself out if it by thinking, Why would a busy, famous, best-selling book author care that this particular passage resonated with me, someone he/she doesn’t even know and probably couldn’t care less about?
But when it happened to me again last night as I was reading this book, I suddenly wondered, What would happen if I actually sent that e-mail? I mean, I’m a writer, too. I may not be a famous book author, but you can find my cleverly crafted prose on newsstands around the country, and that’s pretty much the same thing, right? (All right, it’s not. But it’s close.) Besides, I know firsthand how much writers like to receive praise about their writing.
So this morning, I sent the e-mail that I should’ve sent a dozen times before. And what do you know? The author himself wrote back within a couple of hours (via Blackberry, which is how I know he’s famous, because only famous people like Sarah Jessica Parker and Al Gore have Blackberries) with what I choose to believe was a heartfelt expression of gratitude for my comments. (I’m ignoring the part where he asked if I might be able to pimp his book in my magazine.)
Not only did this little exchange totally brighten my day, but it also made me want to go back and write to all those other authors (on the short list: Toby Young, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Dave Eggers, Haven Kimmel) whose words have touched me and let them know how awesome I think they are.
How often does this happen to you? You’re reading a book (a memoir, it has to be a memoir for this to work), and you come across something that’s really funny or really meaningful to you, and you think to yourself, Hmm, I can totally relate to that. I should write to this author and tell him/her how much I enjoyed that particular anecdote/turn of phrase.
If you’re me, this happens a lot. And if you’re me, you never actually go through with contacting the author, because it’s a long way from the bed at night to the computer the next morning and by then the moment has usually passed, or because you talk yourself out if it by thinking, Why would a busy, famous, best-selling book author care that this particular passage resonated with me, someone he/she doesn’t even know and probably couldn’t care less about?
But when it happened to me again last night as I was reading this book, I suddenly wondered, What would happen if I actually sent that e-mail? I mean, I’m a writer, too. I may not be a famous book author, but you can find my cleverly crafted prose on newsstands around the country, and that’s pretty much the same thing, right? (All right, it’s not. But it’s close.) Besides, I know firsthand how much writers like to receive praise about their writing.
So this morning, I sent the e-mail that I should’ve sent a dozen times before. And what do you know? The author himself wrote back within a couple of hours (via Blackberry, which is how I know he’s famous, because only famous people like Sarah Jessica Parker and Al Gore have Blackberries) with what I choose to believe was a heartfelt expression of gratitude for my comments. (I’m ignoring the part where he asked if I might be able to pimp his book in my magazine.)
Not only did this little exchange totally brighten my day, but it also made me want to go back and write to all those other authors (on the short list: Toby Young, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Dave Eggers, Haven Kimmel) whose words have touched me and let them know how awesome I think they are.
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