Category: Resources-Inspiration

Last week I shared the first of two letters from author Norma Fox Mazer I received growing up. After the first letter came, I kept it nearby for inspiration when I was writing, and somewhere around the hundreth time rereading it—in high school by then—I decided to write an essay about how the letter encouraged me. What follows is an excerpt from that essay.

One of the things that has influenced my life most has been a half hour of a stranger’s time and a thirty-two-cent stamp. It all goes back to middle school when—just as Joseph Heller said—“I wanted to be a writer when I was in sixth grade—of course I wanted to be one without working at it.” Back then, if I wasn’t writing or reading, I was probably asleep. I had read every book by Norma Fox Mazer I could find. The characters in her books spoke to me, and I often wondered how she knew what I was thinking. When I came across her address one day, I wrote a letter to her, carefully picking each work, never expecting an answer back.

 

Two weeks later the long white envelope arrived. Ms. Mazer explained to me the details of her books, told me what inspired her, and answered my questions about writing. Most importantly, she instilled in me confidence that someday I can be an author as popular as she is, if I work hard enough at it and am truly determined. I reread the letter until the paper became thin and turned a milky yellow…

 

…and then I wrote a second letter. I sent her the full essay, and her response is below. I’m sharing these letters now for the next of what will surely be many generations of Norma Fox Mazer fans.

Do children’s book authors make good role models? They certainly make good ones up—Atticus, Katniss, Haroun, and Matilda to name a few—but what about the writers themselves? In my experience, the answer is yes.

With children’s books it seems there is a special, collaborative relationship between writer and reader. Children are not just the audience but the inspiration; their playfulness and honesty, a book’s fuel and feature. When that relationship extends off the page and writers engage with children through school visits or the web, for example, the benefits go far beyond publicity, and children go from being inspiration to being inspired themselves.

When I was young, there was no real web yet, nor email, just fan mail, and I wrote to just one person. This month marks the second anniversary of the passing of that person, the wonderful author Norma Fox Mazer. In remembrance of her, the following is her letter responding to my fan mail.

Though undated, the postage mark indicates the letter was sent in December of 1995 when I would have been in the eighth grade. Receiving this response had such a significant effect on me that I found myself returning to read it repeatedly for encouragement. Convinced of the importance of writers interacting with young readers, I’m delighted to see that Norma Fox Mazer’s example is carried on by one of her own children, the author Anne Mazer, who not only blogs, but regularly posts on Twitter.

Later this month, I’ll share an essay that this correspondence inspired as well as a second letter from her. In the meantime, I’m focusing on her advice to “read, read, read” and to “just write and see where it takes you.”