The Time I Wrote A Fan Letter to Tamora Pierce
Over the weekend I decided it was high-time to give my office a good spring cleaning. I don't get to utilize the space as much as I'd like, because it inevitably becomes a holding area for whatever items/papers/Goodwill donations that we haven't managed to put away/file/drop off yet. So Saturday seemed like a good day to get the extra junk cleaned out, file all of the important papers, and finish putting up the decorations I'd been procrastinating. (I hate hanging things up unless I'm absolutely sure of where I want to put it, so it takes a while!)
As I was going through my stack of wall hangings, art, etc. to decide what would fit in the office, I came upon this:
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| The letter! Yes, I framed it. |
This might just look like your average, run-of-the-mill email, printed (on a horrible, late-'90s era printer) and framed...but this is SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT.
This was the response I got when I wrote a fan letter to author Tamora Pierce.
This was the response I got when I wrote a fan letter to author Tamora Pierce.
I've always known, even from a young age, that writing would be part of my future in some way. But it wasn't until middle school that I got my first real validations of my dream from people outside of my family.
The first person who really encouraged me to write, was my seventh grade English teacher. She was the absolute best! I still try to visit her whenever I pop back to my hometown.
The second person is actually someone I've never met, but who took the time to respond to my middle school self's earnest questions about writing and publishing: Tamora Pierce.
For those who are unfamiliar with Ms. Pierce's work, she writes a collection of YA fantasy novels set in the fictional Tortall universe. The novels are usually written as trilogies or quartets.
Before all of the Katniss Everdeens and Tris Priors, there was Alanna of Trebond.
Pierce's debut was the first book in "The Song of the Lioness" quartet (published in 1983), featuring Alanna - A girl who disguises herself as a boy, so she can take her twin brother's place as a page and train to become a knight. Coincidentally, her brother takes Alanna's place at a school devoted to magical training. (That's all I'm going to say, you'll have to read for yourself to find out what happens!)
Fun Fact: The Alanna series actually started out as an epic novel for adult readers. It was on the suggestion of her literary agent that Ms. Pierce split the novel into a quartet and geared it towards YA readers.
If you love fantasy and strong female characters, you'll love Pierce's novels.
Not only did she receive my fan email, (and let's face it, I was probably fangirling pretty hard after discovering her email address), but she took the time to send me a response with sincere, relevant advice on starting out as a writer. Granted this was still early in the days of "official" author websites, and she probably had the tiniest bit more time to do something like that than she does now. Her current website now includes a handy FAQ section that addresses many beginning writers' questions and questions about her books.
Out of all of the advice given in her reply, it's the final paragraph that has stuck with me all these years. Through the times when I let others convince me that writing wasn't a "smart" career choice, through the years when there were events in my personal life that I had no control over and I felt like I'd lost my voice, and even now that I'm becoming more confident as a writer - submitting entries to competitions, seeking out critique groups and beta readers, even taking the chance that someone out there would want to read this blog.
Every so often, I've gone back to my letter from Tamora Pierce and read again:
"Above all, be persistent. More than anything, this is what will make a difference to you. It is what will change you from a bad writer into a good one and from an unpublished writer into a published one. Being willing to try new things and experiment also helps, but persistence is the most important quality anyone needs. It means that even if you don't finish everything you start, you keep on writing. Sooner or later you'll get fluent enough that you'll be able to finish more pieces of work. Persistence means that the more words you put on paper, the better you'll get at using them so they'll speak more clearly for you. Be persistent in spite of what others may say. You have to believe that the thing that makes you want to write knows better than they do--and better than you do--what it's doing. And while you're sending things out to publishers, be persistent about writing new things, because the more work you send out, the better your chances are of being published."
So, thank you again, Ms. Pierce. Thank you for taking the time to write back to an unsure middle school girl who wanted nothing more than to be like the brave heroines in your books (specifically Daine, but we won't get into that right now). Or at least, to have the confidence to create heroes and heroines of her own.
Interested in learning more about Tamora Pierce and her works? You can find her official website HERE.
**UPDATE (5/17/16): After second guessing my own memory of when I actually sent my original fan letter to Ms. Pierce, I did some digging in my old email account (can't believe I remembered the password). I found that I was finishing out middle school when I wrote it, actually sent the letter early in high school, and received a response from Ms. Pierce about 9 months later. There, now I feel better. :)
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| Hello, Ms. Pierce! (Photo courtesy of the Tamora Pierce Twitter page) |
For those who are unfamiliar with Ms. Pierce's work, she writes a collection of YA fantasy novels set in the fictional Tortall universe. The novels are usually written as trilogies or quartets.
Before all of the Katniss Everdeens and Tris Priors, there was Alanna of Trebond.
Pierce's debut was the first book in "The Song of the Lioness" quartet (published in 1983), featuring Alanna - A girl who disguises herself as a boy, so she can take her twin brother's place as a page and train to become a knight. Coincidentally, her brother takes Alanna's place at a school devoted to magical training. (That's all I'm going to say, you'll have to read for yourself to find out what happens!)
Fun Fact: The Alanna series actually started out as an epic novel for adult readers. It was on the suggestion of her literary agent that Ms. Pierce split the novel into a quartet and geared it towards YA readers.
If you love fantasy and strong female characters, you'll love Pierce's novels.
 |
| (Photo courtesy of the official Tamora Pierce website) |
Not only did she receive my fan email, (and let's face it, I was probably fangirling pretty hard after discovering her email address), but she took the time to send me a response with sincere, relevant advice on starting out as a writer. Granted this was still early in the days of "official" author websites, and she probably had the tiniest bit more time to do something like that than she does now. Her current website now includes a handy FAQ section that addresses many beginning writers' questions and questions about her books.
Out of all of the advice given in her reply, it's the final paragraph that has stuck with me all these years. Through the times when I let others convince me that writing wasn't a "smart" career choice, through the years when there were events in my personal life that I had no control over and I felt like I'd lost my voice, and even now that I'm becoming more confident as a writer - submitting entries to competitions, seeking out critique groups and beta readers, even taking the chance that someone out there would want to read this blog.
Every so often, I've gone back to my letter from Tamora Pierce and read again:
"Above all, be persistent. More than anything, this is what will make a difference to you. It is what will change you from a bad writer into a good one and from an unpublished writer into a published one. Being willing to try new things and experiment also helps, but persistence is the most important quality anyone needs. It means that even if you don't finish everything you start, you keep on writing. Sooner or later you'll get fluent enough that you'll be able to finish more pieces of work. Persistence means that the more words you put on paper, the better you'll get at using them so they'll speak more clearly for you. Be persistent in spite of what others may say. You have to believe that the thing that makes you want to write knows better than they do--and better than you do--what it's doing. And while you're sending things out to publishers, be persistent about writing new things, because the more work you send out, the better your chances are of being published."
So, thank you again, Ms. Pierce. Thank you for taking the time to write back to an unsure middle school girl who wanted nothing more than to be like the brave heroines in your books (specifically Daine, but we won't get into that right now). Or at least, to have the confidence to create heroes and heroines of her own.
Interested in learning more about Tamora Pierce and her works? You can find her official website HERE.
**UPDATE (5/17/16): After second guessing my own memory of when I actually sent my original fan letter to Ms. Pierce, I did some digging in my old email account (can't believe I remembered the password). I found that I was finishing out middle school when I wrote it, actually sent the letter early in high school, and received a response from Ms. Pierce about 9 months later. There, now I feel better. :)
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