That Note from a Fan
Fans.
They’re the second great joy in writing. I can spend months or years exploring a story and falling in love with every twist of the road my characters are on… and even after that, I also get to hear from other people who like it too.
A couple of weeks ago, The High Road got the kind of response that can keep a writer awake at night. It’s a review from a long-time Bookbub reviewer. Five stars, compliments for the characters and the excitement and the storyline, all the things I’d blush to put straight into a blog. And then this line in the middle of it:
But for the fact that I’m literally dictating this review to my husband from my hospital bed I could go on and on with praises.
Wow.
It’s the first time I’ve received something like that. One of those moments when a tale intersects with someone else’s real life story, and I hope does some good. I know—and I profoundly hope—that “hospital bed” doesn’t mean this reader is coping with anything serious. But the thought of connecting to a reader in any moment like that at all, it’s downright humbling.
I’m used to writing for myself first. I see possibilities, characters, techniques, and I want to dig myself in deep and bring them to life around me. The feel of a scene’s mood building up to drive it along is home to me, more than any “real” place and many people I’ve ever known. That’s the level of passion it takes to lay out fifty or a hundred thousand words that feel like they’re worth writing.
But it’s bigger than that. It needs to be.
That’s the hope that every writer has when we first put show our parents how put we crayons to paper—that someone else can share in the joy of it. It’s what we tell ourselves, every now and then, when houses catch fire or disease spreads and we wonder if the world still needs a storyteller. That a good story for the right reader can bring hours of honest happiness, when all our lives hang balanced between hope and pain.
Humbling.
Thank you, to that reader out there. I wish you a world of health and good fortune to keep that hospital stay short. And I’ve got some hard questions to ask myself, about how I can dig deeper and write faster to bring you books worthy of that compliment.
Thank you.
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