Thursday, January 01, 2009

A Nice End of Year Letter

A blast of fireworks over Muckle Bousta. Rather a surprise for the seals, I imagine...
Happy New Year, folks! Very nice to make it into another year, and very much looking forward to some big changes and developments in the next 12 months. I'll be turning 40 this year, a milestone that has come to mean a lot for me and the way I envision the coming years. I'll happily keep you informed as things develop (and I'll thank you every day for being here and being interested). I won't try to say too much else right now. I would like to post a lovely letter I just received from a reader from Sweden. I've taken his name out, but kept everything else...

My name is J and I'm 18 years old. I live in Sweden. I got Acacia for Christmas and have been occupied by it for several days. I enjoy this type of book and I hope that the story reaches the movie theatre. As I said I have been reading it since I got it and I finished just now. The book is very well written and it was really hard to read because of the large amount of emotions that burst out of you. The last 40 pages made me skip lines (that I then had to re-read) to get to the finish faster.

There are two reasons that I now write to you. First I want to thank you for this fantastic and heartripping (if that's a word that exists) story and world that I have had the opportunity to visit the past 5 days. The other thing is that I want to ask you when the other book is being released, I can't wait for it to happen (especially after finishing the first book so recently).

Finally , I want to excuse my English and once again tell you how much this book affected me, Thank You! -J

No, J, thank you. As a writer, I'm nothing without readers to bring the words I write to life. I owe more to folks like you than you probably imagine, and I couldn't be happier to be reaching readers across age, language and national borders. I'll do my best to be worthy of it.

I hope the new year treats you well, and I hope it sees you reading The Other Lands before it's over!

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2 Comments:

Blogger Mark Lavallee said...

A great letter, David, and one well deserved. I can't imagine how powerful it is to not only touch people with your words, but to be able to do it all around the world.

Over the last year, participating on this blog, and the forums, and in personal discussions online and with my friends, Acacia has come up time and time again. And each time, it's the same complements that get paid to you: wonderful well thought out plot, excellent motivated and dynamic characters, believable and interesting dialog, rich settings... the list goes on.

Personally, I have found Acacia to be one of the books I reference back to during this plot and structure class I'm taking. It's easy (or easier) for me to apply concepts in my mind right back to something I've read before, and I think it's funny that I find Acacia is generally in the forefront of my mind. It's telling to the impression that the book made on me.

Anyway, great letter, and a great way to start the New Year!

10:53 PM  
Blogger David Anthony Durham said...

Hey Jax,

Very glad to hear Acacia lives on with you! And, yes, this was a nice way to start the new year.

Let's hope it's a good one!

-David.

11:18 AM  

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