Got this note a few days ago from a friend — the fan of my books I mentioned in a recent post who treated me to dinner in St. Louis:
My grandfather defined “well known” as meaning that everyone who knows you, knows you well…
I was talking to a colleague in my latest venture, the other day, while we were both in Boston for a meeting. Somehow it came up that I’d worked at the Mill. She said “Oh! If you’ve worked there, there’s a book you should read!”. I said: “I’ve read it”. She said, “Oh, no, this one is hard to find”. I said: “… and it was written by my pal John Sundman, late of D.G., now a fireman”. Good fun watching the jaw drop.
Apparently she knows you too: $reader2. Best wishes from both of us.
[signed]-$reader1
In fact, I’ve also been to dinner with $reader2 –in Menlo Park, California, six years ago. Our dinner party included Dear Wife, $reader2’s husband, and KFJC disc jockey Ann Arbor, who has read portions of my novels on her legendary radio show “Dancing in the Fast Lane.” (I got in touch with $reader1 after she sent me a check in the mail for 9 autographed copies of Acts of the Apostles to give to her friends — that’s how much she liked it. (Buy ten books from me, and I’ll get in touch with you, too! Maybe we can go out for dinner sometime!) I don’t recall how Ann Arbor & $reader2 became friends. I vaguely recall that my books were the catalyst, but I’m not sure about that.)
It is nice to be “well known” as a writer, to have passionate fans who become my friends. And it’s fun when people meet & randomly discover they share an interest in my books. I kinda wish the fan club had a few more members, but hey, as Ray Davies murmurs on “Muswell Hillbillies”, the best Kinks album ever, “it’s so lovely to be wanted. . .”
(In preparing this little post I wasted an hour trying to find a youtube clip of Rocky & Bullwinkle where Rocky finds a message in a bottle and Bullwinkle says “Fan mail from some flounder?” and Rocky says, “No, this is something really important!” before they cut to a commercial. Anyway, that’s it for me in this sketch. For something really important you’ll probably have to wait for the next post from Stearns or Harold.)