In Praise of Readers

A highlight of the publishing process

Years ago, at the beginning of my writing career, one of my favorite books was Carolyn See’s Making a Literary Life: Advice for Writers and Other Dreamers. Carolyn advised that after finishing a book that particularly moved you, one took a piece of your best stationary and wrote a personal note to the author. Such beautiful advice in our yesteryear before emails and texts, before we began to live our lives at the computer or on our phones.

Within the past twelve months since the launch of Blackbirds Forever, I’ve been touched by the texts, notes, and emails I’ve received from readers. I’ll be the first to say that this book was a “hard” book to read. I suspect any immigrant story isn’t easy unless you enter with a certain privilege that most immigrants do not have. But the fact that this novel touched those who were impelled to send me a communication has been heart-warming. As another writer said on Facebook in the past few weeks: “this is the gravy of writing.”

Indeed.

The first note came from a man who just celebrated his 102^nd birthday. He lives in Southern California as part of the Dorland Artists Retreat where he has lived for much of his life. Forever Blackbirds reflected an aspect of his childhood. When his father died unexpectedly during the Great Depression, he and his brother, by necessity, had to help their mother make a living. He said that his mother, like my protagonist Marta, made many kuchen each week in their small town. On Saturday, the sons delivered the kuchen to folks in the community who requested the pastry for their Sunday morning meal. While the boys also did everything else they could to help support their small family, delivering the kuchen was their Saturday task.

A text from San Diego related how his now-deceased wife had come from Ukraine. He said that the stories she told him about her village life and rituals seemed true to the novel. He went on to say that there was something sweet in reading the novel and remembering her stories were echoed in my novel.

Flying south on a plane, I had the good fortune to sit next to a woman from Minnesota who was interested in Forever Blackbirds and accepted my card with the book cover and my email. She told me that she was very connected to her church. When she read about Pastor Kinski, a fictional character in the novel, she was furious that anyone who called themselves a Christian could be so short-sighted. She said she was particularly happy with the ending after she finished reading the novel.

After presenting the novel at San Diego Writer’s Ink this past September, a longtime friend sent me a note saying that the novel took him back to his Iowa upbringing with his grandparents. It reminded him of his grandmother’s kitchen and what it was like to live in a small town.

When I received these various communications, I was filled with the warmth of deep emotion. Suddenly, all those hours of classrooms and teachers, of writing groups and revisions, of peer and editor feedback, of book promotion and publicity—they surrounded my work like a silk cocoon, all of the effort was suddenly and inexplicable worthwhile! I said to myself, “Ah, this is the gravy that comes from devotion to a dream.”

I share this with you now, dear readers, to say how absolutely meaningful your presence and effort at reading books means to an author. I argue with those who say the pudding is in the number of sales. No, no, I say. It’s when someone is so touched by your work that they take the time to reach out and let you know. My question to you: have you ever been inspired to send a note to the writer? Did you do it?