I don't really like to write letters to people I don't know. I don't feel any need to try and interact with people I look up to. I figure they're so high up there, they don't need me interfering. Plus there's always the awkwardness of that caste difference. What would Stephen King have to say to me? I haven't published one novel, and he's killed an entire forest.
But there was one author I felt like he was accessible enough to write to--Barry Lyga. He's the guy who wrote "The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl", the one that made me think about "Blood: I Live Again" (which I consider one of the best things I wrote and made me sorta famous, at least in the Blood community--it even got me mentioned on Wikipedia). And he made a sequel to it from "Goth Girl"'s perspective.
One thing about B:ILA, is that Sophia (the goth girl) was always somewhat mysterious. We only ever saw her through the main character's eyes. We never knew what she was thinking, what her room was like, what motivated her. I would never be able to write a story from her perspective. But Lyga, who wrote something almost autobiographical (like me) was able to.
So as writer to writer, I dared to ask him how to do that, along with some praising words about how awesome it was that it felt like I was reading my own book. He responded a few days later. I didn't really expect him to. I don't even know why I wrote the letter. I never do stuff like that, and it's not like I'm ever going to go back to that universe.
But it delighted me, not that I turned this page in my career, but this guy was awesome enough to respond and respond in kind. Mr. Lyga, you are awesome.Labels: Barry Lyga, research, teens