Fan Mail & the Writing Gods

I've started getting what I'm going to call fan mail. Emails mostly, from people who read ye olde blog of monsterrificness and are interested in reading the book or asking advice or sending me links about kewl monsters.

I love you people. And I am floored.

It's funny, because we all hear the same writing advice, don't we? "Write for yourself," They say. "Don't write what you think some imaginary audience is going to want to read. Write YOUR story."

And to a certain extent, They are right. And although I'm not entirely sure who They are, I suspect They are Glow-in-the-Dark Ninja Writing Gods, but I can't substantiate that statement.

Yeah, I have no idea where I come up with these things either. But moving on.

It's quite strange to go from writing for yourself to realizing all of a sudden that people are listening to you. And they have OPINIONS. I've been trying to prepare myself for the negative ones, because I know they will come. I know some of them will be well thought out, justified, and delivered with respect. And then there will be others that, um, AREN'T. I'm as okay with that as I'm going to get. But I never thought to prepare myself for the fan mail. And every time I open one and read that you are excited about my book, or you loved something on the blog, or you saw some hilarious thing and thought of me even though we've never met, I get this dizzy, elated, my-head's-going-to-pop-off-my-body-and-pinball-around-the-room kind of feeling.

So thanks. Let's all collectively thumb our noses at the Glow-in-the-Dark Ninja Writing Gods. Because clearly, they don't know everything.