Julian Reville

Anyone ever write to your favorite (living) authors?

I read a good bit, usually 4-5 books a week; usually novels, sometimes histories or biographies. This week I got through reading all of James Webb's novels, and finally realized that one character, "Wild Bill" Fogarty, was central in 2 of them, "A Sense of Honor" and " Something to Die For". The books concerned the very beginning and the very end of his military career.

So I went to jameswebb.com to see if there was a book about the middle of Fogarty's career....nope, but James Webb has done a LOT of things, including being Secretary of the Navy. Pretty impressive. There's a "contact us" button, so I sent an e-mail yesterday asking if there might ever be a book about the "in-between" years, and today I got this back:



That's all. No signature. Are all successful authors this cryptic? ANyway, I thought it was kind of funny.

Cees Alons

Julian,

To your question: no.

To your post: who knows, perhaps it's that cryptic because he's already writing on it.


Cees

ChrisHeflen

Seems like you got ripped off.

Jason Seaver

I emailed back and forth with Tom Clancy a couple times. He also used a lot of short answers, but I imagine that he got innundated with emails when he showed his face on a newsgroup.

And TV writers aren't as well-respected, but I thought it was pretty cool when DS9's Robert Hewitt Wolfe knew what I was talking about when I asked him if he also constructed crossword puzzles (different Robert H. Wolfe, evidently).

Jay's Movie Blog - A movie-viewing diary.
Transplanted Life: Sci-fi soap opera about a man placed in a new body, updated two or three times a week.
Trading Post Inn - Another gender-bending soap, with different collaborators writing different points of view.


"What? Since when was this an energy ball movie?" - Overheard during a screening of Takashi Miike's Dead Or Alive
"What the hell religion are you people?" - Overheard during the Captain Marvel serial at SF/29
"If I feel even one bullet hit me, I will rip your lungs out through your nostrils!" - Ron Silver as himself, "Heat Vision And Jack"

James T

I visit the Greg Rucka message board from time to time. I think he reads every thread put out, even if it's not addressed to him. If there is a question addressed to him, he'll usually answer in a day or so.

My highschool english teacher mailed a bunch of poems that were based off the book The Prince of Tides to Pat Conroy. Months later, she said she received a message on her answering machine from him. He more-or-less said he was impressed with the poems and her way of teachings.

Yee-Ming

I never did, but back in college my hall (which is sort-of a cross between a frat/sorority and a dorm) wanted to do Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as its annual musical. The organisers wrote to Roald Dahl for permission, and he sent a handwritten reply granting it. Sadly, he died shortly thereafter (can't remember whether it was before or after the musical was staged though).

Julian Reville

Cees, you might be right about him already working on it. I hope he's a fast writer, as I'm getting on up there in age, and he's 5 years older than I am.

Paul Bond

I guess this falls into the unashamed PLUG department, but I frequent WWW.BAEN.COM a lot. It is a website for mostly Science Fiction books. There is a forum "Baen's Bar" where readers and friends can converse on all sorts of subjects. And most of the authors join in the chat. Some more, some less, all depending on time and interest.

It's not quite the same as getting personal mail, but it is still nice to 'see' the author as a real person.

Bond. Paul Bond.