Author Fan Letter: JOSH LANYON

A draft of a letter found in the recently renamed law offices of English, Sheridan, and Doyle:

Dear Mr. Josh Lanyon,

We here at English, Sheridan, and Doyle have recently become aware of your numerous novels, novellas, and short stories; and the preponderance of characters therein named after ourselves and our associates, such as Devlin, Marlowe, and Crisparkle.

Given our litigious careers, you may be expecting this to be a cease-and-desist notice--and we were seriously considering it--but after reading your books, we have reconsidered. Instead, we have become what the intrawebz refers to as "fanboyz" and would like to offer you representation, pro bono publico. See the following for our reasons:

• Variety Although most well-known for your contemporary mystery series (the Adrien English series in particular, which our own senior partner, Mr. English, particularly enjoys), you write in a wide variety of genres such as fantasy, paranormal, romance, adventure, and even non-fiction. Furthermore, your novels are set in many different locations and time periods: WWII Los Angeles, contemporary Los Angeles, a fantastical city that resembles Los Angeles... all right, so maybe the settings don't have THAT much variety. The point is, there's something in your books for everyone!
  
• Smart As Mae West once said, "It isn't what I do, but how I do it." All the settings in the world wouldn't matter if your books weren't smart, full of witty dialog and intelligent characters. But they are, and we like this.
  
• Bibliophilic In almost every story you write, there is a writer or reader who loves books. Nuff said.
  
• Characterful In addition to being smart, your characters are multifaceted. They seem like real people. People we like! People we want to be friends with! People that we root for and characters that carry us through to the end of the story.
  
• Entertaining Regardless of whether your stories are comedic or have a more serious tone, they're distractingly entertaining and enjoyable to read.
  

Because of the above, we are willing to read over all your future manuscripts with an eye towards avoiding legal infractions. Before we begin what is sure to be a fruitful partnership, however, we would like to raise one issue that's bothering us: you have many cop and PI characters, but why so few lawyers? We are very literary and intelligent, and are a vast source of entertaining storylines, as proved by The Practice, Suits, and John Grisham. Think about it.

Sincerely,

The partners of English, Sheridan, and Doyle

The Author Fan Letter Blog Crawl is hosted by Kassa at three am and celebrates authors every day in June. To read yesterday's letter, visit Babbling About Books, and More! Tomorrow, make sure to check out I Love Books.

Author Fan Letter Blog Crawl

Thanks to a great idea from Kassa, this month we're celebrating our favorite authors with a Fan Letter to Author Blog Crawl.  For a complete list of the participants, click on the button above.  Smokin' Hot Books posted her fan letter to Josh Lanyon yesterday, and be sure to check out Rain on the Roof's letter tomorrow.  But, for today, I decided to kick it a little old school with an author I wish was still writing...



Dear Sandy Hingston,

It's rare that I read several books by an author and they all consistently draw me in, make me care about the characters, make me laugh, and make me swoon, but nearly every book by you that I've ever read has done so.

The first book by you that I read was How To Kiss a Hero, which a was delightful!  I instantly identified with Nicola, and "Bollocksing Brown" was an awesome hero.  The novel was more of a coming-of-age tale for Nicola than anything else, with her learning to be independent and accepting of herself through fencing.  But the setting--a girls' school in the Scottish Highlands--and the characters were fantastic, and the romance between Brian and Nicola felt so organic, that it easily became one of the best romance novels I'd ever read.

Then I waited years--YEARS--for the series to continue, which it finally did with The Suitor.  At first I wasn't too sure about this one, as stuck-up Katherine wasn't exactly my favorite character out of the four who girls who shared a room in How To Kiss a Hero.  I was (and still am) hoping to see the other two girls' stories.  Be that as it may, this book was completely different from How To Kiss a Hero, but still drew me in with the frothy romanticism of Alain's attempts to woo Katherine.  I loved his poems!  And I loved when she ran away to France to be with him!  Again, I thought this book was about adventure and finding oneself, even though Katherine did it in a very different way from Nicola.

After The Affair, I hoped you were back to publishing regularly, but instead I was saddened to find out on the intrawebz you were dropped by your publisher.  Yet I still expected you to get another publishing contract--instead, you seem to have given up writing all together.

I understand how an experience like that would have turned you off of publishing for good, but I think it's a shame to lose such a gifted writer just because a few people in a whole industry were assholes.  To me your books were what every historical romance should be--the past coming to life with a great story and a unique point of view, with adventure and romance and comedy and sadness all included.

And just so you know, if you ever do decide to publish again, I will be waiting for the next book--even it takes another ten years.

Sincerely,

Tasha B.

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