Dead letter orifice

I just received a nice letter from Madison W., an 8th grader at Jefferson Jr. High School in Columbia, MO. Madison had read Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie. Unfortunately, Madison is now nearly a 10th grader. The letter, mailed to me c/o the publisher and dated Oct. 27th, 2009, took a year and ten months to get here. I suspect any reply I send now won't help Madison's GPA. Alas, this isn't a record. I think the latest mail I ever got had sat for three years. Letters sent to authors via the...