Once again, thank you for writing
Many readers of this blog have written to me in the past few weeks to thank me for the book. This is my turn to thank you. This may sound trite, but it’s not: professional reviews are important, but what really matters is hearing from individual lonely people.
For a long time, when writing Lonely, I thought, “Maybe it is just me. Maybe I’ll write this book only to realize that I’m the only one who feels this way.” Every time I get a note from another lonely person, I realize that’s not the case.
I didn’t expect this to happen, but this blog is serving the “mirroring” function I wanted the book to serve. I wrote Lonely to help other lonely people feel less alone, and now other people are writing to tell me that my experiences aren’t at all unusual — meaning that my own experiences are being reflected back at me.
Thank you if you’ve written in. And I want to assure everyone that all emails sent directly to me stay with me, and go no further.
This entry was posted on Monday, April 19th, 2010 at 1:36 pm and is filed under the category First Time Writer Stuff.
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2 Responses to “Once again, thank you for writing”
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Before I ever even heard of your book, I used to say to my husband sometimes, “I’m lonely.” That was the best way I could describe my feeling—not depressed (which is why meds never worked for me), not sad—lonely. Thank you for confirming my feeling.
No, it’s definitely not just you. I’ve realized for a while that I wasn’t unique in being lonely, but what has surprised me while reading your book is how familiar the symptoms and behaviors you describe are. It’s been a bit eerie, actually.