Thursday, June 9, 2011

Authors who email with readers

Have you corresponded with an author you admire? The internet makes this so simple. It's not only easy to write to them, it's easy for them to respond.

The three who wrote back to me were Ann Rule, the true crime writer; Daniel Dennett, the totally cosmic philosopher of science; and Maureen Dowd, before she went nuts. My exchanges with all of them were stimulating and fun, and I admired them for taking the time to write back to me in a meaningful way.

I had a very cool conversation with Daniel Dennett about how consciousness works. And Ann Rule and I had a series of funny exchanges that definitely deserve a separate post. (You're gonna love this one.) As for Maureen Dowd, what surprised me was that she shared her fears readily, as if we were old friends. Odd. No diss from me about our correspondence. It was fun. As for what she's writing today, I can't imagine where the poor dear went off. She morphed into some girl from junior high. Maureen, you can do better, hon.

(I'm not counting contacts with bloggers here but that's been great too. Usually if you write a blogger and you're sensible, you get a response. I can't imagine how the high-volume folks find the time (and energy) to do this. Anyway, that's another avenue the internet opened for us. It's so easy to make contact. I love that.)

Have you corresponded with a favorite author? Do tell. What was it like?