First Fan Mail

I was going to blog about the fabulous Donald Maass workshop that the Toronto Romance Writers (TRW) held on Saturday. And I will because it was both exhausting and exhilerating -two things a writer's workshop should totally be. If you're not completely wrung out by the time you finish one of these sessions you have not been listening to the speaker. But more about the workshop in future. What has absolutely thrown me for a loop and is pre-empting that blog post is getting my first complimentary fan mail on ILLEGALLY BLONDE today.

A fellow author in the TRW bought Illegally Blonde on the weekend and sent me such a lovely - really, really lovely - email about how much she enjoyed reading it. The best part? She stayed up very, very late to finish it because she couldn't stop reading. I swear, those words are like manna from heaven to a writer. And she's recommending it to others too. More manna. And totally unexpected. For some weird reason I never expected to get comments from readers. And fellow authors? Yikes - that's like scary. Really. Those guys can see so much - good and bad! Besides, people are busy. It takes a lot of effort to go out and find a book and then read it and then to actually sit down and write something to someone expressing your enjoyment of a book? Colour me amazed. I think it might just be my favourite part of this whole journey to publication so far. Feedback from readers is like the gravy on an already fabulous bowl of poutine (I don't like cake and icing that much so my analagy had to go to one of my favourite Canadian dishes, okay?) And if those readers are also writers it gives it a special flavour too. Writers can be some of the most critical readers and the credo usually goes if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all. So when a compliment is given it is very special. And very much appreciated.

So, fellow writers and readers, remember if you can take the time and you feel you can honestly say you enjoyed reading something send a note (email, twitter, Facebook comment, whatever) to the author. It totally makes all the hard work worthwhile.