Comments on: Poll: Have You Ever Handwritten a Letter to an Author?

By: TOS

TOS — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 05:01:07 +0000

I’ve written to an author twice. The first was to Robert Heinlein, searching for the name of a story he’d written that I couldn’t find again and could only remember the plot of. Mrs. Heinlein graciously responded with the name of the story and the book it was in.

The second was many years later. I wrote to Robert Ludlum, suggesting that he reduce his use of italics and exclamation marks. He died shortly afterward. I’ve felt a vague sense of guilt ever since.

By: Eric

Eric — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 01:48:38 +0000

In my English class in 8th grade we had an assignment to write a letter to someone, and I chose to write to Terry, and I was ecstatic when he responded. It was made even better by the fact that I was the only person in my class to get a response

By: Doug

Doug — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 01:06:41 +0000

I grew up in Sterling and had read Terry’s books starting in 2cd grade with Sword of Shannara. And when I was in high school, he actually took the time to come to our school and do a writers workshop with a few other students and myself. That was one of the coolest things that ever happened in school. hah
And yesterday, Tad Williams (author of Memory, Sorrow, Thorn series) posted a couple comments on my facebook post which was pretty neat.

By: Jessalyn

Jessalyn — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 21:10:27 +0000

I wrote Terry a letter when I was 15, I was shocked to find a response in the mail a couple of weeks letter. It really meant the world to me as a teenager because I was so devoted to reading and writing, and Terry was my hero Thank you, Terry!

By: Dane

Dane — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 21:00:54 +0000

I actually sent a wedding invitation to Chuck Palahniuk around the time Rant came out. Through his publicist, he let me know he would be out of town working on a movie (I think it was the Choke movie), so he couldn’t make it.

About a week before the wedding, we received a wedding present in the mail from Chuck with a letter sharing the meaning behind it. It was awesome and we cherish it to this day.

This all spawned from a call to his fans to send him mail. In the letter, I wrote him about our impending wedding and the planning going on behind it. He sent everyone who wrote to him an amazingly original care package. I’ve never had an author go above and beyond like that.