{"id":3483,"date":"2026-08-07T06:05:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T13:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/?p=3483"},"modified":"2026-08-04T17:43:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T00:43:45","slug":"why-e-mails-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/2026\/08\/07\/why-e-mails-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Why E-mails Matter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

First a word to the wise.  If you\u2019re going to send me an email, one you actually would like me to read, don\u2019t begin by saying, \u201cI hope you are doing well.\u201d That\u2019s the way all the spam emails start\u2014the ones from The Great Plains Book Club, The involved Readers Book Club, and countless other equally bogus book clubs.  Two of those so far today, but it\u2019s early hours.  There will most likely be more, but the point is, I don\u2019t get past that first sentence on those without hitting the delete button.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for real emails?  They come in, I read them, I answer them, and I keep them. I\u2019ve just reviewed my correspondence with a lady named Chris. Her last name has been redacted to protect the innocent. She formerly lived in Louisiana but now lives in Maryland. My first correspondence with her occurred back in 2014 where we were sorting out her then-current location. Later we went through a series of notes back and forth about autographed bookmarks.  (Sorry I\u2019m no longer doing those.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I was reading through one of her notes from 2020, here\u2019s what she said:  \u201cIf you want to kill off another character, how about Marliss?  LOL –  The character we love to hate!  I think it would be interesting to see how Joanna would handle a homicide investigation of someone she dislikes.  Would Joanna have to force herself to care, and to be professional and do her best work?  Plus, Marliss would probably have made lots of enemies.  Then again, you’d have to bring another busybody to Bisbee.  Just a thought.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did that suggestion from her rattle around in my subconscious for the next five years until Marliss ended up biting the dust in The Girl From Devil\u2019s Lake<\/em>?  At the time I wrote that scene in the book I could have sworn that was all my idea, but maybe not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year I learned she had a daughter who wants to be a writer and who also was expecting a baby.  It occurs to me that her writing will end up having to wait a year or so or maybe more. She also sent me a recipe for ginger snaps which I have yet to try making, but which sound delicious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also learned that she\u2019s a member of a book club.  I\u2019ve never belonged to one of those. I\u2019ve spoken at a few over the years. The ones I visited to focus their attention on literary fiction which, as Tony Hillerman told me once, is where nothing much happens to people you don\u2019t like very much.  I write books to tell stories. I\u2019m not interested in the symbolism involved. On occasion, what someone else might see as symbolism is just me finding a way to complete the chapter I\u2019m currently battling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as I said, Chris does belong to a book club, and this year when it was her turn to host, instead of asking members to read a single book, she suggested that they choose whichever one of my books they wanted to read.  And that\u2019s the photo that\u2019s featured here\u2014Chris\u2019s book club have just finished discussing any number of my books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It turns out that a few of the members had heard of my books before, but most hadn\u2019t.  As a result Chris did me the favor of introducing my books to a whole new group of readers, and believe me readers, both old and new, are my bread and butter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So thank you Chris Nolastname.  I hope your book club members are still reading!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First a word to the wise.  If you\u2019re going to send me an email, one you actually would like me to read, don\u2019t begin by saying, \u201cI hope you are doing well.\u201d That\u2019s the way all the spam emails start\u2014the ones from The Great Plains Book Club, The involved Readers Book Club, and countless other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[33,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-writing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t