Sunday, February 6, 2011

Day #117 The power of a thank-you note

A woman named Linda R emailed me out of the blue Saturday.

Here's what she said:

Dear Ms. Stewart,
I wished to send a quick note so that I might express my pleasure in reading your mystery series with Biscuit the librarian (which I am) and Marmalade (I have 5). I just ordered A Slaying Song Tonight (even though it's not part of the series). I look forward to reading it when it arrives. I did order it through Doggie in the Window Publications.
I just finished Indigo as an Iris. I found your Orange as Marmalade through a used paperback store in the town where I live. I enjoyed it because the librarian wasn't doing extraordinary things (whether extremely clever or dumb) and the cat was doing the extraordinary things. I appreciated the concept of the gratitude list - although my mother instilled the idea of being thankful of what we had at the end of the day. I do hope your Biscuit & Marmalade series will continue.  I look forward to the next one.
And, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to your Mystery Matters author interviews (via link from your website).
Although I'm not into bees (allergic to wasp stings), I will enjoy following your blog.
Thank you again for your wonderful stories of Biscuit & Marmalade.
Sincerely,
Linda
What I know she didn’t realize is that I’ve been in a carefully-disguised blue funk for the past two months, wondering if I could ever possibly write another mystery, wondering if I had any stories left.

But seeing my books through her eyes, I realized that I do still want to discover the rest of the saga. So, I will write that next book. And the one after that. Bob wil lbe going into beekeeping (naturally!)

Thank you, Linda. And please know that an allergy to wasp stings has nothing to do with honey bees. I wish you plenty of honey, and if you email me your address, I’ll send you some of mine (as soon as I get it from the bees) as a simple indication of my deep gratitude for your kind words.

BEEattitude for Day # 117:
       Blessed are those who take the time to give thanks, even though they may never know what a blessing their words are.

One thing Fran is grateful for right now:
       Linda    

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