AHHHH!!!!!

So Rice brings in the mail about fifteen or twenty minutes ago. He starts going through it and says, "Maggie, why are you getting a letter from England? Do you know anyone in England?"

Uhh...

"Maybe it's from your cousins?"

"Then why are they sending it to you?"

"Maybe it's for a shower or something?" Which frankly doesn't make any logical sense, but it's the best I can come up with.

So I open it. I look at the beginning:

11 July 2005

Dear Marguerite,

My husband and I moved house last summer..."

So I'm thinking, "What is this? A chain letter? And why would someone send me a chain letter from England?"

So I jump to the bottom. It's signed "Robin McKinley".

Yes. That Robin McKinley. You know, author of Beauty, Sunshine, Deerskin, Rose Daughter, The Hero and The Crown, etc.

She expalains moving and how it comes to be that she's answering a letter I wrote her just over a year ago. And it's kind and sweet and lovely. And I'm so touched. I never expected her to send me a reply. Never in a thousand years.

So I give a little shriek, "AHHH!" and Rice says, "Who's Robin McKinley?" So I go to my shelves and push a bunch of books at him. "I've never read her," he says. "Your loss," I say as I jump on the love seat glider in the living room and try to stay calm and read my letter. It takes a few times before what she says really sinks in.

That's right folks -- if a writer affects your or touches you in some way, write them. They may very well write back.