Letter from Beth
Todd,
First off, I wanted to say, as many others have, I’ve noticed, that it is really awesome that you personally answer fan letters. There’s nothing quite like getting a form-letter from your favorite author to dissapoint you, sigh. Though of course, there is a reason for it, we understand. Either way, kudos to you. Anyway. Just basically wanted to write and say hi, and gush about being a fan and what not. I’ve been reading Pern for quite some time, I don’t feel the need to start counting years, but quite some time. Recently I went a bit more series-obsessed and bought the Dragon lover’s Guide, etc. (Took me forever to find, as the guy who worked at the Borders that day wasn’t particularly useful in finding the book.) Now I can cross-reference as I read, huzzah!
I myself, write, or attempt to, but I often find myself afflicted with that ever-so-common plague… procrastination. Perhaps I should force myself to write more, but it often seems that when I force myself to write, I don’t get the result I want, vs if I write when I have the urge to. I figure if I get something written by the time I’m 30 I’ll be good… that gives me quite awhile.
On a final note – and perhaps a bit of a strange one. Recently, my roommate and friend, went to LosCon in LA with his girlfirend and a friend. Well, he came home, and said something to the effect of “Oh, so I was talking to Todd McCaffrey today,” in his nonchalant kind of manner. (he doesn’t read the books, no big deal for him) I don’t really expect you to remember, as you do lots of cons, etc, but yeah, he was a tall guy with red hair, likes to talk. Had a girlfriend with him, red hair-likes to talk, and some friend of hers, who supposedly knows you? He mentioned you guys were chatting after the con. This is his story anyway. My point? Not much. Just basically that I’m jealous, and I was curious if you remember.
Well, enough babbling for now, before I take up too much space-or rather even more space,
Thanks for your time,
Beth
Hi Beth!
Yes, indeed I did meet your roommate at Loscon31 and his lovely girlfriend. But don’t be jealous, just be sure to come to Loscon32 next year!
I shall certainly try to answer my fan mail but I suspect it will end up being one of those success problems — if I get really successful, I’ll be too swamped with fan mail to answer it. Conversely, if I don’t get really successful, I’ll be too busy with a day job to answer fan mail. Right now, I’m getting about 8 e-mails a week which is manageable.
One of the reasons I answer the mail on-line is that I hope it will give others a chance to read the questions I’ve already been asked and the answers I’ve already given — so that I don’t have to repeat myself endlessly.
A couple of ideas for your procrastination problem:
1. Join a writer’s group. You’ll learn a lot and start to work toward deadlines.
2. Commit yourself to writing and submitting a story once a quarter to the Writers of the Future. They pay well and everything is read by a published writer.
3. If world-building is a problem, consider fan fiction. Obviously if you write a story set in someone else’s universe you can never expect to sell it but there are a number of places where you can work on the craft of story-telling without having to tackle the issue of world-building. A number of very good authors have started out this way. Just remember that if you’re writing in someone else’s universe, you’ve got to acknowledge their copyright and be very careful about not doing anything illegal.
If you’re looking for more Pern reference, try to track down a copy of “The Atlas of Pern” (sadly, out of print). And for visuals, you can’t go wrong with Robin Wood’s “The People of Pern” (which I think is also out of print).
Cheers,
Todd