FAN MAIL WEDNESDAY #350: Amelia Sends a Summer Code!

June 15, 2026 / / No comments
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Often when I receive letters from readers, I am aware of an adult’s presence somewhere in the background. Perhaps suggesting the letter, helping to make this connection happen, going out and buying stamps, and mostly just sharing and fostering an enthusiasm for reading. I’ve been there. We want so desperately for our children to love books, to love reading. Usually that adult is invisible. But I can sense there’s a great teacher at work in there somewhere, gently guiding, or an entire family that celebrates books and reading and writing. I see them at book festivals. Mom, Dad, three kids with big eyes and bagful of books. On rare occasions, I hear from them directly. 
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Hello James,
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My daughter, Amelia, just finished 2nd grade and finished all of your jigsaw jones books. She wrote you a letter but we’re having trouble finding what address to send it to. Could you please let us know so we can mail it to you? Thank you!
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And, from an appreciative Mom, thank you for the very entertaining, wholesome and educational book series! We started reading them out loud a year and a half ago for our bedtime stories and they were perfect as Jigsaw was learning about the same things as my daughter and she LOVES anything detective related! It’s hard to find a great book series that’s age appropriate and encourages reading at a young age and we found your stories so much fun! Thank you!
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A few days later, I received a letter and a secret code in the mail. I’ll type out the letter, as the pencil is tough to read in this format: 
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Dear James Preller, 
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Thank you for writing the Jigsaw Jones books. My name is Amelia and I have just finished 2nd grade. My favorite part was when he solved the mysterys. My favorite character is Jigsaw and Mila because my short name is Mila. 
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I have read them all!
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Thanks again for writing them. 
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From Amelia (Mila)!
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And Amelia, a detective herself, included a brain-busting Summer Code and a nifty illustration!
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I replied . . . 

Dear Amelia,

Wow!

I love your Summer Code — thank you for that — and your illustration of Rags. You are so talented.

When I was your age, and even younger, I used to draw all the time. And then came horses.

I could not draw a horse to save my life. They all looked like sick water buffaloes. Ack! And in response, I did the worst thing anyone can do: I gave up. I stopped drawing.

Defeated by a horse.

I can’t believe you read ALL the Jigsaw Jones books. Are you sure?

I’m going to include one in the mail for you, since I think it’s hard to find. It originally came with a mini tape recording device that played six snippets of dialogue from the book. It was a special deal with the Scholastic Book Club. Crazy, right?

But even without it, the book stands on its own. Hopefully you’ll like it.

And if it’s true that you’ve read that hard-to-find book, too, then I’ll gladly give you one bazillion dollars!

(No, not really.)

I’m happy I helped you along on your reading adventure. You are just beginning and there are so many great books out there fo you to discover. Even now, I feel that same excitement every time I read a new book. The world is a vast and beautiful place —- we are so lucky to be alive to enjoy it —- and books are part of that pleasure.

I love trees and birds and mountains and ice cream and readers like Amelia and librarians and music and dogs and . . .

On and on and on it goes.

Have an amazing summer!

Wait.

Do they even have summers in Minnesota? I’ve heard about your winters. Brrr!

My best,

James Preller

Category: Fan Mail, Jigsaw Jones / Tags: , , ,

PHOTO DUMP: School Visits

June 9, 2026 / / No comments

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I’ll be honest: Sometimes I look at photos that I receive from school visits and it’s a little bit stunning. There I am, speaking to all these kids, dancing as fast as I can. It’s such an honor — a privilege that I don’t take lightly. And, yes, there’s pride, too. I’m good at this. I may not be able to fix a car or figure out the television, but I can talk books and writing with young people and keep them happy and engaged and, for some of them, even inspired. 

Below is just a random assortment of shots with no particular rhyme or reason. A variety of settings. Sometimes it’s a cozy visit with kids on the library floor, or some bigger with older audiences in an auditorium. And everything in between. 

The one type of photo I’m missing here is from all those one-on-one moments that take place after a talk, or during smaller “cookies & conversation” sessions. Just me and some kid, an author and a reader, talking. I love those unscripted moments.

For the majority of an author visit, I am broadcasting. That’s the nature of the arrangement. I am putting out signals and messages. But in my real life, and as a curious writer, I am much more interested in receiving. The give-and-take. 

Lastly, again: Please consider me for an author visit to your school, no matter where in the country that might be. I love it when a school district teams up and can offer me 3-5 days of visits (at a discount). I’ve never figured out how to promote visits; I’ve always gotten work (and much needed revenue) via word of mouth. Unlike most authors, I have a range of age-appropriate books for readers PreK-8. And by virtue of being old as dust, I do bring a lot of experience to the table. Thanks for the thought. 

Anyway, enough of that!

 

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AND IT’S A WRAP!

GOODBYE TO THE 2025-26 SCHOOL YEAR. 

Write to me at [email protected] and we can discuss the details to see if I’m the right fit for your students.

Category: School Visits / Tags: , , ,

FAN MAIL WEDNESDAY #349: “It Was Interesting, Reading a Book Where the Protagonist Sucks”

June 8, 2026 / / No comments

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All fan mail is wonderful. A connection, a gift. I’m grateful for every letter I’ve received over the past decades. But sometimes a particular one comes out of the blue and takes my breath away.
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And, oh yeah, I loved this line, “It was interesting, reading a book where the protagonist sucks.”
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Meet Veronica.
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Good evening,

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For my English class, I had to watch a Ted Talk where this guy went around thanking everyone responsible for his coffee. He thanked the barista, he thanked the men who grew the coffee, he thanked the woman who conducted the pest control where the coffee was stored. He wanted to recognize the thousands of people who put in the work to make something as simple as a cup of coffee. His story inspired me to write this email, to thank you for writing the Fall.
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I know that it was written over a decade ago, and that you’ve written much since. But, while at the library, I picked up your book. I read the back cover, which intrigued me, and brought it home. 
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It was interesting, reading a book where the protagonist sucks. I don’t see it very often. I’ve heard that writers are encouraged to make their characters likeable and someone the readers would like to relate to. After I learned that Sam had a kind of friendship with Morgan, I almost put the book down. I couldn’t bear to continue. How dare he play such a role in the harassment when he could see what it did. 
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At the end, I was in tears. It’s a rare thing. The worst part was that Sam sees his wrongs after it is too late. No matter what he does, who he apologizes to, Morgan will never hear it. It’s heartbreaking. I’m worried I will make the same mistake.
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What I’m trying to say, Mr. Preller, is that your book moved me. It made me feel something. I wanted to read it again. And for that I want to thank you. I thank you for writing, in my opinion, a great book.
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You should be proud of your work.
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Veronica
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I replied . . . 
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Veronica,
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My goodness, what a letter.
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What a gift.
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You are a special human being. Not just that you read my book, or even that you felt it, but that in an act of pure kindness, you wrote to say so out of the goodness of your heart. Amazing, really.
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Today I’ll walk around with thoughts of you in my mind, inspired to be a little better, a little more grateful to one and all.
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I’ve mentioned it before on this blog, but the Irish have an expression, “Flowers for the living.” That we don’t have to wait for someone to die before we say something nice about them. I do try to keep that in mind. And now, thanks to you, even moreso.
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Thanks for the flowers.
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As for my unlikeable protagonist, Sam, I wrote from that perspective a few years after writing a book titled, Bystander. In that book, there’s a bully and, weirdly, I found myself feeling sympathy for him. That book is not told from the bully’s perspective. At that time, there was a lot of anti-bullying sentiment out there, appropriately so. But here’s the thing: Bullying is a verb, an act, not a noun. I don’t really believe in “the bully,” strictly speaking. Walt Whitman’s, “I am large, I contain multitudes.” The so-called bully might be a gifted athlete, kind to his grandmother, sweet with animals, a musician, funny and charismatic, etc. But in this one area, he is making some poor decisions. Not to gloss over the very real damage that he might cause. We are each responsible for our actions. But no one should be defined by the worst thing they’ve ever done. 
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I wanted that complexity to show in Sam’s character, even though that’s uncomfortable and even confusing at times. 
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Have a great summer, and feel free to write again if you wish.
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My best,
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James Preller
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P.S.  Check out the Japanese cover!
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This is the beautiful, haunting cover of the Japanese translation of my book, THE FALL. I love it so, so much.

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Category: Fan Mail, The Fall / Tags: , , , , , , , ,

BEFORE & AFTER: The Map!

June 5, 2026 / / No comments

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I’ve posted about this previously, but to quickly catch you up: Every book in my new middle-grade wilderness adventure series, THE SURVIVAL CODE, will feature a map. The first two books, Wildfire Rescue and Snow Blind, are coming out in Spring, 2027. Two more titles are coming in 2028. And beyond that? Complete & total world domination!

There are my first books with maps and I’m pretty thrilled about it. Just a cool milestone. 

After I handed in the manuscript, my editor asked if I could pass along a rough sketch of a map. So I gave him this thing of beauty:

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Basically, the things are in the right place. But: Yikes!

Fortunately, a highly skilled illustrator, Molly Fehr, who specializes in this sort of thing, took over from there. (Note: Vivienne To is doing all the rest of the interior illustrations, and she’s insanely talented in her own right.)

After some minor back and forth, Molly arrived at this: 

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Okay, I’ll admit it. This is an improvement.

THANK YOU, MOLLY!

Category: The Survival Code, the writing process / Tags: , , , , , ,

FAN MAIL WEDNESDAY #348: The Sometimes Disappointing Business of Children’s Publishing

May 25, 2026 / / 2 comments

 

 

 

 

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Here’s another letter from a reader who enjoyed EXIT 13: The Whispering Pines.
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It kind of kills me, because there’s a sad story here, one that I suspect is fairly common in contemporary children’s publishing. I was asked to write two books in a new series for Scholastic. They came to me with the title, “Exit 13,” and a plan to feature the first book in Scholastic Book Fairs. They owned the concept. Beyond that, I did most of the heavy lifting. I was grateful for the opportunity. It was also a return to my publishing roots, since that’s where I first good my start. 
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I was pleased with the first book. I thought I accomplished something.  This was a fun, fast-paced, genuinely mysterious story. And it was well-published, too, featuring great art by Kevin Keele. 
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Of course, that first book had no advance promotion, no buzz whatsoever, when it appeared in Book Fairs next to some of the most popular books in the business. I gather that sales were disappointing. And before the second book came out, Scholastic had decided to pull the plug. There would be no third title. The series was dead on arrival, with no time to reach an audience. Honestly, all things considered, it would have taken a near-miracle to succeed.
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Hey, publishing is filled with tough decisions. It’s a business. They are in it to shift units, make cash registers sing. I understand how it works. Maybe they were right. But in my heart, I felt like that series could have been something. I had hopes!
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Oh, well. You move on. And occasionally answer a letter from a reader. 
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Hello Mr. Preller,
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My name is Ella _____ and I’m a 4th grader at South Dakota ______ Elementary and I really like your book Exit 13 The Whispering Pines. I like your book because I like how mysterious it is with the creepy man that Willow has a crush on until she starts to think differently about him. I also like how Ash goes into the forest with Willow to find their dog Daisy the goldendoodle.  I also like the part when they are in the pool that is not filled and the wolf comes when Willow isn’t there and she’s getting a drink while Ash and the girl are in the empty pool. A question I have  is why was the snake in the janitor’s cart? Another question i have is how did the dad fall and sprain his neck during the fire alarm? Mr. Preller thank you so much for reading my paragraph about your book Exit 13.
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I replied . . . 
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Dear Ella,
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Good morning! Thanks for your patience. I’ve been covering a lot of ground lately — drove from Albany, NY, all the way to New Orleans and back (almost 3,000 miles!), then to Long Island for a school visit to speak to 7th graders who all read my book Bystander, and then yesterday at a local school to talk to students, PreK-5. 
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So, finally, at last, a quiet morning at home. It’s overcast and rainy and my dog Echo is looking at me, wondering when we’ll go out for a walk. I’ve patiently explained that he’ll have to wait until I finish this letter to Ella in South Dakota.
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He just doesn’t get it. 
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Thank you for reading EXIT 13: The Whispering Pines. I’m glad you enjoyed its overall creepy, mysterious vibe. There’s a sequel, EXIT 13: The Spaces In Between, that I think is even more exciting. Anytime I write a story, there’s a degree of setting things up in the beginning: introducing characters, the setting, the situation. It’s always going to be a little slow at first, by necessity. With this book, I hoped to sprinkle in enough strangeness to keep the reader involved until the plot reveals itself and the action picks up. If the reader doesn’t care about the characters, then it’s not going to be a good book, period. For the second title in the series, I was able to launch right into it. In the process, I stumbled upon a device that worked really well. I found a way to put both Ash and Willow in peril — but separately. Then I was able to alternate chapters between them. Just when Ash was in trouble, I’d cut to Willow, get her in danger, then cut back to Ash, and somehow maintained that pace for about six chapters. It worked out really well, I think. I have a new series coming out next year, THE SURVIVAL CODE, that’s basically a wilderness survival series, and I use that device again to, I hope, great effect. Keep your eye out for them in the future.
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So here I am, 65 years old, a published author for 40 years, still learning new things. That’s one of the best things about this job. 
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By the way, I once had a goldendoodle named Daisy in real life. Now that she’s gone, I put her in that book. 
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You asked about the snake. Is it two-headed? I forget. To me, it was another odd element, part of the motel’s creepy backstory that I hoped to further develop in future books. Alas, Scholastic, my publisher, did not have an appetite for more, a decision they made before the second book was even published. It’s like a new TV show getting pulled after only a few episodes; it’s hard to build an audience when you don’t have time to grow. Oh, well. In Book #2 I do get to hint at some of the forces at work, and possibly an alien presence. The ground is poisoned, if you will. Weird things happen there. A rift in time and space. 
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The father hurt himself during a late-night fire alarm. Wakened in the middle of the night, in a strange room, he simply stumbled and fell. It served to keep the family in place for a bit, though of course we later learn that leaving was never an option. 
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Okay: Echo is really giving me the evil eye right now. I have to end this letter, get out of my pajamas, and start the day. Ella, I really appreciate hearing from you. Thanks for reading EXIT 13. You might also like my book Blood Mountain, where I have a brother and a sister and a dog (Carter, Grace, and Sitka) lost in the mountains. It is realistic fiction, unlike EXIT 13, but it shares many of the same qualities, including two parallel plot threads that occur at the same time, jumping back and forth in alternate chapters. In that book, I strive for similar creepiness and a general feeling of dis-ease and danger. Not exactly scary (do you know my SCARY TALES books?), but quietly unsettling. 
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What can I say? I like that stuff. 
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Anyway, time to go!
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James Preller
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P.S. Here’s a few from a winter walk. I love that dog!
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Category: EXIT 13, Fan Mail / Tags: , , , , , ,
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