I Was Wrong

Question:

Okay so, I don’t really know how to start this letter (this is my first time writing a Fan Letter) so I guess I should just say Hi.. I wanted to write you to say that I am a big fan of yours. I wouldn’t go as far to say that I’m your number one fan or anything like that (how can someone have a favorite fan anyway?), but I do enjoy your writing a lot. I’ve read some of your books, but one of your book(s) stood out to me in particular. The Alice Series. I picked up Outrageously Alice about one or two summers ago at my local library. Originally, I thought there were only five or six books in the series. Boy was I wrong! Then,over the course of a year, I read the majority of the Alice books in record time (I didn’t really set a record or anything, it just seemed like that to me at the time). I wanted to tell you how much the series meant to me. When I first read the books, I didn’t think any of the things that happened to Alice would ever happen to me.

Again I was wrong.

Because,when I read the Alice books, I hadn’t started Middle School yet. When I started Middle School however, I realized that some of the things that happened to Alice can happen to anyone…specifically me.

On another note, I also noticed that your Alice books really helped me through the changes I went through in Middle School. They kinda made the changes feel more familiar and, oh I don’t know, less creepy and strange. Your books also made me feel comfort when I felt sad or upset. I know its strange, but sometimes it felt like Alice was my imaginary friend or something to that degree.

In conclusion,you writing the Alice series was, in my opinion, the best decision you ever made in your writing career. And from one writer (I want to be an author when I get older) to another, you did a good job.

Phyllis replied:

Thank you.  I’m so glad you found the Alice books both entertaining and helpful.  One thing I’ve learned in my life is that whenever you think you’re the only person who feels a certain way, or had a certain thought, there are dozens…hundreds…thousands who have felt or thought or done or said almost exactly what you have felt or thought or done or said, and know exactly what you are going through.