Author Fan Letter Blog Tour - Molly Harper

Dear Ms. Harper,

I still remember the first time I saw Nice Girls Don’t Have Fangs. I was in B&N, and the title caught my eye; nice cover, good blurb, so I picked it up. Little did I know that what was inside would begin a one-sided love affair with your books.

Nice Girls has the funniest vampire transformation story I’ve ever read: the heroine gets fired from her job as a librarian, heads to Shenanigans with the gift card that was part of her termination package, has a few drinks, her car breaks down on the way home so she starts walking, gets mistaken for a deer and is shot by a drunk hunter. Left for dead, she is turned by Gabriel, the vampire she met in Shenanigans.

Jane is the kind of snarky, funny yet caring friend I want to have. Hell, let’s be honest here, she’s got the kind of personality I wish I had. Gabriel is, in turns, sexy and clueless. And who ever thought I’d fall in love with a vampire named Dick Cheney? As secondary characters go, he’s one of my favorites. Jane’s best friend Zeb, her grandmother’s ghost, and her dysfunctional family, including a mother that insists on bringing her casseroles, all keep me in stitches.

The Nice Girls series is one of my favorites and holds a prime spot on my keeper shelf.

You had me at Nice Girls, but then you went and wrote a contemporary - And One Last Thing...

I loved it!! Such a funny divorce scenario: Heroine catches her husband cheating, writes all about it in the company newsletter, and e-mails it to everyone - friends, clients, and family. Bravo! And One Last Thing… has everything I like in a contemporary romance – a funny, sometimes crude heroine, a cantankerous hero who looks like Wolverine (yum!), and a gay BFF (okay, he's her brother, but I think that's pretty awesome that her brother is her BFF).

I’m really hoping this won’t be your last contemporary. As I say in my review – this book is exactly the reason I love reading contemporaries – it’s pure entertainment from start to finish.  This one sits on my keeper shelf right next to the Nice Girls books.

But, you weren’t finished with your domination of my literary soul:

You went and started a series about Werewolves. Naked Werewolves. *wiggles eyebrows* And they’re funny. Sexy too, but laugh out loud funny. I chuckled and snorted  my way through both books until my husband told me he couldn’t hear the TV over my laughter.  I summed up How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf in my review:  You've got the funny, the sexin', a love triangle, a dog in a sweater, and a borderline obsession with meat products. How can I go wrong with a book like that? I think this is where I admit that you have your own section on my keeper shelf.

So, here’s the thing:
I read because I want to be entertained. I don’t want to know the specifics involved in sailing around the world in an 1800’s schooner, or how to track a serial killer using GPS, a paperclip and dryer lint. I’ve got three kids and a stressful day job - I want to immerse myself in the characters and live vicariously through the pages of the books I read. Your stories do that for me: every time I open one of your books, I’m immediately transported into an alternate life where the characters face challenges and overcome obstacles, and I’m fully vested in the outcome without actually having to do it myself. (I think as a wife and mother you can understand where I’m coming from here.)

Thank you, Ms. Harper, for sharing your stories. If you look up the term "auto-buy author" in the dictionary - I've pasted your photo there.

With vampire wishes and werewolf dreams,
All the best,



In case you missed it, yesterday's Author Fan Letter was from The Book Reading Gals, and tomorrow's letter will be at Katidom.  A complete list of participants can be found here.

Authors - To Stalk or not to Stalk?

I had the opportunity to talk to a fellow blogger recently about blogging in general, and one of the topics we chatted about was whether or not to contact authors when we post reviews of their books. My friend e-mails the author and says "hey, just wanted to let you know I liked your book and here's my review", or just "I like your work".

I have to be honest with you - I didn't think we could do that. I mean, yes, of course I know you can do it, but I always saw it as "bothering" the authors; I didn't think they wanted to be disturbed by fans. I guess my thought is that they're in the public eye and therefore are bombarded with ridiculous requests and communication, and get so much mail that they don't have time to write, which is what they'd really like to be doing. I recently saw a note from an author that said "Readers, please keep the e-mails coming, I appreciate each one" and that really surprised me (in a good way).

So now I'm conflicted. Currently, if I write a review, I post it here and Goodreads and that's it. I don't @ the author on twitter and I don't e-mail them my review. I've seen so many say "I don't read reviews of my work" so I suppose I figured it was pointless. If I'm being perfectly honest (and totally nerdy), I get very nervous when I do contact an author for whatever reason. I recently sent a favorite author a request to sign my copy of her book. It took me months to psych myself into doing it, and I started the e-mail with "Please feel free to say no without feeling guilty, I'll totally understand if you can't..." <---I've done this about 3 times and I'm still freaking nervous every time :)

I started this blog because I love to read romance and I wanted to communicate with other like-minded readers - I never in a million years thought I'd have the opportunity to interact with authors as well; it just blows my mind.

Am I wrong about all of this? Should I be sending authors my favorable reviews of their work? Do they want e-mails from fans or is it a distraction? What are your experiences?