Anyway, I won’t bore you with the details of my previous existential crisis. （Again, not sure you’ll even end up reading this.） I’m emailing you because I wanted to tell you that I loved your book. I thought Deko was one of the most interesting protagonists I’ve read in a long time. Do you plan to write a sequel? It ended on such a cliff-hanger with Deko, delirious and battle weary, finally reaching Ceradon but getting attacked by a life leech as soon as he touched the city gates! Did he survive? Did he die? I’ve been wondering this for two years.
I’m sure you’re inundated with messages thanks to your new website and contact form, but I hope
FROM: N.R. Strickland <[email protected]> TO: Lily G. <[email protected]>
DATE: May 14, 10:42pm
SUBJECT: Re: You have a website!
Lily—
You hope what? Did you mean to leave that sentence unfinished?
Either way, thank you for your kind message. It was really nice and surprising to read. You’re wrong in assuming that I’m inundated with emails. Yours is the first email I’ve ever received through my website, and to be honest, I thought you were someone sending me hate mail. You’re probably the only person who ever visits the site, other than my agent, who made the site for me.
I’m glad that my book served as an inspiration for you and your career. That’s probably the only way my book has ever inspired another person.
To answer your first question, no, I’ve never been stuck on a subway when it was 92 degrees outside. However, I did once find myself locked inside of a loo on a submarine in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Long story.
To answer your second question, no, I don’t plan to write a sequel. I don’t think of myself as an author anymore. More like a one-hit wonder, sans the hit. As far as I’m concerned, The Elves of Ceradon was written in another life, back when I was 22 and naive and thought I’d be the Black George R. R. Martin. Did Deko die lying there at the city gates? Did a Ceradonian elf come to his rescue? I don’t know. I’ll leave that up to your interpretation.
Wishing you luck in life.
——NRS
FROM: Lily G. <[email protected]> TO: N.R. Strickland <[email protected]>
DATE: May 15, 7:13am
SUBJECT: Re: You have a website!
Dear Mr. Strickland,
Oh my God. I had no idea I actually sent that email to you. I wrote it in a delirious, dehydrated state, right before I literally fainted. I was serious about that hot subway. Reading over my email, I can tell just how out of it I was. And I didn’t even finish it! I’m mortified.
And shocked?? I can’t believe that you actually read my email and that you replied. I was honestly starting to think that maybe you didn’t exist. I’m the only person I know who has read your book. Whenever I mention it to people, they have no idea what I’m talking about, which is really disappointing, because they don’t know what they’re missing, and I love my copy too much to loan it out. I have no idea where I’d find another if someone didn’t give it back. It looks like the book went out of print only a few months after publication.
I’m sorry to hear that you no longer think of yourself as an author. I didn’t realize how young you were when you wrote Elves. That’s so impressive. When I was 22, I was hiding from my roommates in our senior hall suite so that they wouldn’t force me to go to parties.
Your reply came at just the right time. It’s exactly the energy booster I need for my job interview later this afternoon. I’m taking it as a good omen.
Sincerely,
Lily G.
FROM: N.R. Strickland <[email protected]> TO: Lily G. <[email protected]>
DATE: June 12, 11:01pm
SUBJECT: Re: You have a website!
Lily—
Apologies, I’m over a month late. So you’re saying you emailed me when you weren’t in a clear state of mind, literal seconds before you fainted. That’s mad! I hope you were okay afterward. And I have to be honest, getting an email from you in the first place makes a lot more sense now. I guess someone would have to be a little delirious to go out of their way to email me.
I’m glad you love your copy of Elves so much that you wouldn’t let anyone else borrow it. And yes, Labyrinth Press closed its doors the same year I signed my contract. They were able to print a few copies of Elves beforehand. It wasn’t an ideal career start, but I’ve come to accept my path. Again, not an author anymore.
How did that interview go?
——NRS
FROM: Lily G. <[email protected]>
TO: N.R. Strickland <[email protected]>