Sometimes an e-mail will arrive out of the blue that makes your day. My nephew Nathan sent me one recently. Timing was great.
Uncle Jeff,
I just finished reading Landmoor and it is my new favorite book. I like it even better than Eragon. It was so AWESOME- except for the cliffhanger at the end. Emily just e-mailed me Silverkin. I am looking forward to seeing what happened to Thealos and Jaerod. I really wish they hadn’t stopped prininting the books and I am hanging up a picture of the map I printed off from Silverkin.
Thanks for writing such great books.
Nathan
P.S. My mom is reading it now.
How can you top something like that? Not easily, but my little sister Emily has been punishing herself by reading some of my older work. After finished LANDMOOR and SILVERKIN, she wanted to read the entire MINYA series and has. I think only my friend Jeremy has wandered that far into my warped subconscious mind. So thanks, Sis! Hope you aren’t too scarred by the journey.
Other news: still no word from the agency. I sent a follow-up e-mail two weeks ago and have not gotten a reply so the waiting continues. I did get another rejection letter and in it, the agent said she gets 5,000 queries a year. That’s about 100 per week, which is daunting considering the volume.
I finished reading the book SUPER CRUNCHERS about how data analysis is starting to take over decision making at companies (and does a better job than expert opinion). There was a chapter on how Hollywood is using algorithms to determine which scripts are more likely to succeed. It also talked about Lulu.com and how they did some statistical analysis on bestsellers based on the title of the book. Well, I tried out their algorithm and the title of my new book “The Wretched of Muirwood” as a 41.4% chance of being a bestseller. Apparently just the naming convention of “The __ of __” increases the percentage significantly.
