An Authorly Experience by Marilyn Levinson

We write our books and send them out into the world. Sometimes we hear from people who are reading them because they tell us so on Facebook. Or they're kind enough to review them or send us an email. But what about the people we never know about?

Yesterday I called my service provider because my WiFi had died three times in the previous twenty-four hours. I got someone rather quickly and I explained my problem. I won't go into the details but it wasn't the warmest of exchanges. I said I was happy to speak to a supervisor whenever he or she could call me and explained that my WiFi was very important to me because I was a writer.

"You're a writer? What do you write?"                                          

"Mysteries," I told her. 

"I love mysteries," she told me. A minute later she said, "I think I read some of your books." I wondered about that but then she mentioned Murder the Tey Way, a book I'd written several years ago. 

Then came a bigger surprise. She told me that when she went to help at an Egyptian orphanage (she is Egyptian and living in the U. S.) she brought my children's book Rufus and Magic Run Amok and used it to help teach the children English. 

Wow! I was thrilled to learn that one of my books had traveled so far, and she was delighted to be speaking to a real live author! We went on to have the warmest of conversations. This is one phone call I'll remember for a long, long time.