Mail Call

Dear Mr. Cottonwood,

Before i read you book, i hated reading. I hated everything about it.
Than i saw this book in the library and discided to give it a try. I
read it and in 2 days i was done. I loved your writing. You inspired me
to start reading! I just wanted to thank you for writing the book
Babcock.

Ross

Babcock was published 13 years ago and has been out of print for many years. The book got good reviews and was on a lot of best-of-the-year lists, but it was a commercial failure, selling fewer than 5000 copies. Most of those copies went to libraries, however, and so the book is still in circulation and, from the evidence of this and other letters, still being read.

I'm in the middle of preparing a podcast of Babcock. It's a post-Obama novel, written before anybody (including myself) had ever heard of the man. I guess I was ahead of my time. You'll see what I mean when the podcast comes out in a few months.

Be nice to somebody today. Maybe they had a sad weekend. Pay them a compliment they didn't expect. It'll make their day, and it'll improve your own feelings, too.

Thank you, Ross, for making my day.