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Back in February of 2018, I received a piece of fan mail from Jaquan. It was partly in braille, a first for me. And it would become the first of many, many missives we’ve passed along over the years. You see, Jaquan is a dedicated, passionate writer. He’s been sending me stories all this time. There have been lags and spurts, but I’ve tried to keep up. Mostly with encouragement and enthusiasm. And every once in a while I’ll stick in a Pro Tip!
That first envelope looked like this:
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A closer look . . .
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For me, receiving a letter from a reader is a privilege, an honor, and an obligation. There was a time, when my Jigsaw Jones mystery series was at its peak, with new titles appearing on Scholastic Book Clubs four times a year, I got a lot of letters. It was almost a problem. I’d get overwhelmed. I tried creating a small brochure, and then postcards, but they made me feel like a robot. For the most part, I’ve made the effort to write authentic responses to each and every letter. That’s partly why I’ve been sharing a sampling of letters-and-responses on this blog since 2008.
Fortunately, I don’t get nearly as many letters as I used to.
Wait, fortunately?
Oh, well!
(Aside: I also suspect that “letters to an author” is not quite the thing it used to be in schools. Particularly snail mail. It’s too bad.)
The writing life has its ebbs and flows, and I’ve been doing it for the past 39 years. Still hanging in there.
And for the past 7+ years, I’ve been hearing from Jaquan. Recently, I received this one, which was a little different from the rest:
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Dear Mr Preller, I hope your doing well i’m a huge fan of your jigsaw Jones series it inspired me to make A series of my own A little while ago I sent books of my of my own for you to check out like my dog detective series I really appreciate the influence you have on your writers like me Young writers like me I know you’re super busy and I just want to say thank you for the inspiration lots of good ideas and thank you again when you get a chance to read them, please give me your honest opinion on my work warm regards Jaquan J, your author Friend ps, thank you again JJ
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Here’s my reply:
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