Reader letters, and not being able to reply
I read every letter that arrives; I can't answer them all. I wanted to explain why.
About two hundred letters arrive a month. I read all of them — that is true, not an exaggeration, because reading is faster than writing. There are many I cannot answer, and I am sorry for it.
The hardest are the letters about a loss. One of the books happened to land in someone's grief, and the reader writes to say so. Two lines back doesn't feel right; I sit down to write a long reply, stop halfway, and end up sending nothing at all. Admitting that is more honest.
This is why signings matter: there the answer, however short, is face to face. And I have learned something else — most readers are not waiting for a reply. Writing the letter is the letter. Posting it is the full stop.
A short letter every two months
News of new books and printings, signing dates, and now and then an unpublished page.