I had a lovely thing happen to me this morning. I got a message from a “fan”. The delightful thing is that I don’t know this person at all. They said how much they enjoyed my book, Beast-speaker, and said they’re looking forward to book two. Now, I’ve had similar messages before but this was the first one from a complete stranger. A complete stranger!

On one or two occasions I’ve sent a little message to an author whose work I particularly value. Each time I’ve had a moment of hesitation when I’ve thought, “Hold on. Is this just a little bit stalker-ish?” Thankfully, each time, the recipient of my little epistle was gracious and friendly. (Phew!) Now I know what it’s like to be on the receiving end, and it’s great. Maybe, once you’ve had as many books published and have as many fans as Stephen King has, you become a little more matter of fact about it all but at the moment bluebirds are definitely chirping on my shoulder.

I often struggle with the thought, “Am I kidding myself? Should I be persevering with this writing game or not?” And then along comes something like this morning’s email, or someone says something encouraging, or I sell another copy of my book, and I think, “Maybe I’m not so bad at this, after all!”

I remember meeting one of my author heroes at a writing thing a few years back. I was so excited. I lined up with all the other star-struck sycophants, clutching a book I’d just bought for the author to sign. When I got to the table I said something to the person (I probably gushed a tad bit) and was immediately struck dumb by the author’s acerbic, slightly biting reply. Ok, I’ll be honest with you: they were just plain rude. My little balloon of giddy happiness popped and all the joy immediately left the room. I wanted to apologise for wasting their time but I thought that might sound sarcastic (which it was) so I didn’t.

Later that day I told myself the person was probably tired, or hormonal, or had a whiffy tummy from eating something off at lunch. And, I promised myself that when (if) I ever had fans of my own, I would do my utmost to always be gracious and kind. So far it’s going well but, then again, I’ve not yet been inundated on a large scale.

Have you even written some fan mail? Have you ever received some fan mail? Am I allowed to be a bit thrilled or am I in danger of being overcome with hubris? I value your opinion.