The best of friends
23 July 2021A fan of my books called Christopher dropped me an email recently, and it brought a happy tear to my eye. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, and that you're lucky enough to have found (or will one day find) some true friends in life who have proved (or will prove) the match of Christopher's. Happy weekend, everybody!
"Dear Darren, this is the first, and probably the last piece of fan mail I'll ever write as I'm not normally one for contacting people I don't know. However, I was recently reminiscing with a group of friends and thought that it would be nice to share with you the level of impact your books had on my group of friends.
"Of my group of friends I'm the bookworm, while the rest tend not to read frequently, either due to dyslexia or general lack of interest. By this time I had already read the Vampire Saga, Lord Loss, and Demon Thief, and was struggling to find Slawter and Bec at our school's library. (Our library had a 2 book withdrawal limit and it seemed every time I was ready to read the next book in a series, so too was everyone else).
"Now I was fine waiting my turn like everyone else, but I typically didn't have time every day to check the library for the returned books. Then one day after school, my group and I were all gathered around a bonfire, when they brought up the topic of the Demonata. To which I once again expressed my frustrations with my inability to find the series at the library. Then suddenly, one by one, each of my friends pulled two books each out of their bags, and there in front of us was the entire series.
My friends had originally planned to simply withdraw the books and loan them to me, but after I had described a bit of Lord Loss to them, they couldn't help but sate their curiosity and each took a turn reading the first two books.
"I was never surprised that they would be willing to grab the books on my behalf, though I still to this day appreciate it immensely. But up until that point, I had had no one to talk to about the series (most the bookworms were going through a Harry Potter/Twilight/Hunger Games phase). Your books didn't just entertain me for countless hours, they brought my group of friends together in a way that we had never been before. And to this day, we each still talk about our underground book club and the story of the Demonata. So thank you, for taking the time to write a piece of literature that helped bring me closer to my friends and created a memory I will always cherish."
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