It's also my 400th post on this blog. That's cheating a little, because some of the posts were imported from an old blog. But, hey, still a cool number. The Blogoversairy for this blog will be in a few weeks, too.
But enough housekeeping (quite literally. I have used all the Lysol wipes. ALL OF THEM), last week Susan Cooper came to Porter Square Books in Cambridge. She was promoting her book Master of the Revels, about the man who invented the Boston Christmas Revels. I honestly neither knew, nor cared, much about that--though it ended up being interesting. One of Susan Cooper's books was My Book as a kid. The book that got me interested in Shakespeare as a twelve-year-old. The one that introduced me to London. The one that got me onto the stage. The one whose influence I see in my life, and in my writing.
That book is King of Shadows. It makes me smile every time I see it on a shelf. A few summers ago, I wrote to Susan Cooper to express my love for this book.
She wrote back. My first author-contact, and she's been full of encouragement ever since.
For the past couple years, we've exchanged sporadic letters. We've both moved, and when I landed near-ish to her home in the North East, I hoped one day I'd get to meet her.
Dreams come true.
And even though it's kind of a simple thing, this photo will forever serve as a reminder of that for me.
That, and when I told her my name she said, "Oh, yes! I owe you a letter!"
You never know the influence you have in the world.
