I need to share something that happened to me today.

Nine years ago I corresponded with a young man who was a student in a family member’s 8th grade English class. He read the copies of my Broken Worlds Books 1 and 2 she kept in her class library and became enamored with the story. His teacher put him in touch with me and we wrote back and forth for a time, discussing the story and the writing process. He was excited to hear from a real author, and I was happy to find someone excited about my writing. I even used his rather unique name for a character in my draft of the 3rd book in the series and sent him a digital copy to read prior to publication. He transitioned out of my family member’s building as he started High School. We lost touch as he started that amazing/terrible/busy/stressful time of his life. I had not heard from him since.

Today, however, my inbox held a message with an unfamiliar email address and subject line that started with Re:. He reached out, for whatever reason after all of these years, to say hello and let me know he still re-reads the books from time to time. He said he considers the series one of his favorites.

For all of the authors out there throwing their works into the Void–Here’s hoping your stories bring joy to someone someday and you get to have them tell you about it. There’s no better feeling.

For all of the readers wondering about reaching out to your favorite author–Do it. We love to hear our writing is appreciated. The value of that simple validation of our efforts is immeasurable.

For the young man who reached out today–Thank you for your thoughtful email and kind words.

This is why I write.

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