Are you a fan?

I'm a bit of a fangirl when it comes to authors I love. I admit it. Since I'm a writer myself, I know how much a well-timed email or review or ranking can help on the days when the self-doubt monkey climbs on your back and won't let go. While I think I'm a pretty picky reader, sometimes a book will grab hold of me and keep me up all night reading. When that happens, invariably I try to contact the author. Not la Nora - though she's given me more late nights than anyone - since I figure she's had enough appreciative strokes to last a lifetime. But if the author's someone sort of in my "sphere" I'll definitely reach out to them and let them know how much their book moved me. Especially if this is an author that does that on a frequent basis. Not too many authors knock it out of the park every time but some do. And I do my best to reciprocate what they've given me - an awesome bang for my buck, so to speak - by sharing my thoughts with them.

By and large, the authors I've written "fan letters" to have said they really appreciated them. Writing can be a tough, lonely business and it helps to know someone's out there waiting for your next book. I hope my praise can help them just as other people's praise has helped me return to the keyboard. It's good karma to send nice thoughts out into the universe. It also helps you build relationships. I've made a few friends just because I shared with them how much their books meant to me. And let me tell you, there are a few authors that elicit my fangirlishness to an extent that rivals a groupie at a rock concert, except I keep all my clothes on. (TMI? LOL)

Right now, the two authors who most rock my socks are Olivia Cunning and Cara McKenna/Meg Maguire. And yep, I've written both of them fan letters in the past week.

Which author(s) are you a fan of? Do you let them know how they've made you feel after you finish one of their books? Does reading their work ever make you want to try that much harder with your own writing?