Fan-Tasm

This whole fan mail thing is very new to me, and I think I might have already blown it.

I think I scared away a fan.

Here's the deal — I tried to stay up late last night to work, but got really tired (this need-for-sleep thing is seriously cramping my style…), and instead woke up in the wee hours of the morning, like 4am.  I start working on a Dinosaur Train outline, and up pops an email in my elise@eliseallen.com folder.

How exciting — a chance to procrastinate!

Things got even more exciting when I realized it wasn't spam, but a genuine fan letter from a 10th grader in Australia who said she was never into books, but she had always adored Hilary Duff, so she picked up Elixir.  She read it cover to cover, loved it, and now considers herself a reader, ravenous for more material, including the new Elixir book and Populazzi.

How cool is that?

I of course wrote back immediately.  I thanked her for her enthusiasm, and told her I'd be happy to recommend books to tide her over until the other ones come out.  I also told her that a friend of mine had recently come back from Australia with pictures, and the country looked beautiful, especially the kangaroos.

She wrote back right away that she'd love book recommendations, and told me a little about her life in Sydney, mentioning something about the educational system, and of course more about kangaroos.

Here's where I went wrong: instead of just giving her some book recommendations and being done with it, I got all chatty.  After all, my friends are considering relocating to Sydney for a little while, and if they do, they'll be looking for a school for their daughter.  So naturally I had to ask more about the educational system — what does and doesn't she like?  And what in general does she like best about being in the Sydney area, since it seemed clear from her email that she'd lived other places?  And how about those kangaroos — are they really like the squirrels of the Outback?

She did respond right away, but I could almost hear the frightened quaver in her voice.  "This is all very overwhelming," she wrote, "I never would have thought you'd have actually replied…"  She even added a "ha ha ", which even in writing translated as the kind of nervous laughter you'd use when backing out of a room away from a crazy person, just before running for your life down the hall.

I only realized after how weird it probably was for the girl.  If I'd been in tenth grade and emailed Stephen King (not that I'm comparing myself to Stephen King, believe me), then had him write back instantly and get all chatty with me like we were long lost pals, I might have been a little wigged out too.

Or maybe I'd have been psyched — I bet Stephen King writes awesome emails.

Either way, I'm wondering if I need to temper my enthusiasm for anything shiny that shows up in my inbox, and maybe rein it in a little.  Or at least tone down the kangaroo rhetoric.

Maybe I should, but it's highly unlikely that I will.  I get too excited about people who reach out to me, all of whom have been amazingly cool.  And if I get an email when I'm in the middle of yanking out my hair over a tough scene?  Forget it — I'll gleefully chat until we're besties.

Has anything like this happened to other writers out there?  Have you gotten so charged up about people who reach out and say hello that you come off a little too over-eager?  Have you been on the other side — a blogger or fan who reached out to a writer and was startled to find just how gabby they really were?

And in case anyone reading this is from Australia, like my freaked-out fan friend… tell me more about these kangaroos.  My friend who visited the country said she saw ones at a wild animal preserve that rolled over and showed their bellies like dogs, waiting to be rubbed.  Can you attest to this?  Because if so, this is seriously something I need to experience.