Amy Sue Nathan

Liberated

Since I’m doing a lot of editing, which entails a tremendous amount of reading – my TBR pile sits untouched.  I have listened to five of David Sedaris’  unabridged books on my iPod though, and yesterday, I browsed through both iTunes and Audible for fresh new voice.

I came upon Jen Lancaster.

I’m not sure what I was expecting.  I wanted a light listen…something entertaining that would hold my interest through 35 minutes of Incline 10 Intensity 6 Ellyptical torture or a rousing round of weight machines and freeweights.   I have found that listening to a good book is like having a good conversation without doing any of the talking — I listen while I clean the kitchen or the bathroom.  I listen in the car.  It’s likely that had I sat down to read any of these books I would not have gotten much done in the way of chores or exercise.

I’m only about two hours into the seven-hour Pretty In Plaid right now – but – I’m impressed with the writing so I looked up Jen Lancaster online.  And how about that – she lives in Chicago.  So do I. I completely believe in famous-by-association — and this completely works for me.

What struck me on her site in the “Contact” portion was the honesty.  Now,  her memoir is frank so I shouldn’t have been surprised.  But the site actually says that she can’t or won’t or doesn’t write back if you email her.  Oh, she loves hearing from you, it says, but just don’t expect anything in return.

I waited for a moment to see if I was offended.  I was not.

I like to write to writers and I thought this was much better than wondering if she was going to write back or waiting for an email because I assumed that an author would respond.  I reply to anyone who writes to me directly about something I’ve written, but then again I’m not her and everyone is different.  I’ve written to other authors and had no response and been a little put-off.  My time is also valuable – I always write in praise of a book – so authors who do not respond always go on the Don’t Read Anymore of Those Books list.  But with Lancaster she puts it out front.  And in a way, it was liberating.  I made the decision to send off an email knowing she would not respond.  Whether she cares or not that I like the book doesn’t really matter to me, what matters is that I said what I wanted to say – which was that I thought she infused a lot of through-provoking things into a light-hearted book – and that I appreciated the good writing.  Done.  Not checking email for a note from a well-known author.  My karma for this one is all about just letting someone know I like their work.  It has nothing to do with me at all – except that I’m probably now on some massive Jen Lancaster mailing list.  And that’s OK with me.

I’m a candor junkie — and although I’d prefer to be able to brag about a personal email from another author (because many do write back and some are actually friends of mine), I’m willing to give up the glory.

Just this once.