You know, I have often said, publicly and privately, that there is nothing in the world that comes close -- not by a million miles -- to making a connection with readers.
It happened this week, several times, too -- so I must be accumulating good karma. Or maybe the cosmic scorekeepers haven't been watching me too closely.
But you know how last week or so, I mentioned something about the rush of hearing from kids who'd never read a book before in their lives, but read -- and loved -- my first book, Ghost Medicine?
Well, one of those very kids I was talking about was able to get a copy of in the path of falling objects at his bookstore, and he tore through it -- then sent me the following:
"I just finished in the path of falling objects. All I can say is it was the best book I ever read. I could not put it down."
Then, today, I get an email from a professional reviewer who told me that she'd never had a response on her reviews from an author until mine. Heck... I try to thank everyone who says something about my work... [gulps] even if it's not that good [haven't gotten a bad one yet].
And... this is ultra-cool: I was able to send some goodies to Fond du lac High School in Fond du lac, Wisconsin, to help them celebrate Teen Read Week. I did it because I'd met the librarian (I think...) at ALA in Chicago, so I arranged to have an ARC of in the path of falling objects sent to her, at her request. Well, she and her school really like the book... so how could I not offer to send some goodies to them for Teen Read Week?
Also, the terrific team at Feiwel and Friends helped out by sending them a bunch of my books for the kids.
Yeah... we do things like that.
It's all about the kids.
So, without further comment, here are some pictures of how I was able to play along with Fond du lac High School's celebration of Teen Read Week, 2009 (I LOVE stuff like this)...
