Heard from Peter Mayer

[pegkerr]

I've mentioned the Minnesota singer Peter Mayer's music before on this LiveJournal; I love his music and have all of his CDs and have heard him in concert several times. I mentioned that a number of his songs made it onto my Winter playlist. I especially recommend his album Midwinter for anyone who has seasonal affective disorder. There is one song in particular on that album, "The Longest Night" that has been an especial comfort. (You can hear a lovely clip from the beginning of "The Longest Night" from the page for this album at CD Baby.)

So I contacted him by e-mail through his website to let him know how much his music has meant to me. I just got a lovely acknowledgment e-mail back from him.

I've gotten some notes by e-mail over the year from people responding to my books, and so I know how much it can mean to an artist/creator to hear from people who have enjoyed their work. I have a friend who is a well-known YA author, who has remarked rather wryly about letters she gets from kids at times. "Clearly school assignments," she says. "Their teacher thinks it would be a marvelous idea to have the kids write to a favorite author and get an answer back--never thinking to include an SASE or to consider the financial and time burden it would be to reply when I can sometimes get hundreds of the things a month. Funny how they dry up during the summer when school is out."

True. So I approached him by e-mail, not expecting a reply, but was very pleased to hear back from him.

Have you ever written to an artist, an author or a musician, just to tell him or her how much you've enjoyed their work? Tell me about it, why you felt the urge to write. Did you get any kind of response? I've sent a number of them myself over the years. Not all of them have responded.

Comments

William Least Heat Moon

[amandageist.livejournal.com]

...who writes the most lyrical, beautiful journeys ever written, of the soul and of the land. Some years ago I was working with an editorial client--a hobby author, doing a travelogue of his bicycle tour across the country (to celebrate his 70th, no less)--who had been inspired by Least Heat Moon's work when I'd pointed it out to him.

I sent a copy of this author's self-published book to Least Heat Moon, with a note of what it had meant to the author--and got a lovely handwritten letter back, with his home address on the return envelope, saying that he appreciated the book and it was in his private collection. This information blew away my client. Least Heat Moon also sent me a gift in return, a chapbook pre-release of a portion of one of his books.

I felt the door was open to begin a correspondence--especially since he'd provided his own return address--but right about then was when I had my third child and had to think about going back to work, and my half-written response to him languishes in my files.

I am glad that my action gave such happiness to my client, though; he died shortly afterward.

~Amanda