The By Now Standard E-Mail Note
Posted on October 17, 2008 Posted by John Scalzi 9 Comments
I’ve finally gone through and responded to all the e-mail I apparently missed in the last two weeks. So, if you sent me an e-mail in the last two weeks (or even before then) and was hoping for a response but didn’t get one, now would be an excellent time to send me another e-mail on the same subject. Thanks.
Hi John –
I just re-sent a Big Idea proposal from 09/30/2008.
I’m posting here in case there’s some kind of email wormhole between here and there.
many thanks,
Ben
Ben (and everyone else), it’s not necessary to post in comments that you’re sending e-mail. In fact, please don’t.
Yeah, sure. My Nigerian brother-in-law, good friend of president Sani Abachi, keeps trying to contact you, for like the last 176 weeks, about a serious opportunity to transfer some $176,00,000 for him, at hardly any risk to yourself, and you never write back. Not Once!!!!!!
(n.b. I thought about leaving in the typos in this admittedly drunken response, and realized that if I did so it would probably be completely unreadable. Not a big dwonside, but I worried that it would thus impute the hallowed halls of our shared alma mater. Go Maroons!)
John, sorry if I am a little off topic, but I am posting this comment here because:
1. By the very nature of the blog it will get very few comments.
2. Almost every time I post a comment it seems to kill the thread and I am almost the last one, even if I’m in the top 30 and the subject is interesting (sorry about that folks, I don’t know why that is).
3. I have been waiting for weeks for you to post the perfect blog for me to comment on and I’m beginning to think it won’t happen. You’re just not the set up man I’d hope you would be. I know, I know, you’re not psychic.
4. I received, Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded, in the mail today, along with Waiting for Athena, and it is relevant to my story. Which is…
My wife and I are both voracious readers. She just happens to read two to three times faster than I do. We used to read a lot of the same books but that almost never happens anymore.
Lately I have been talking about how great Old Man’s War is but this didn’t have much affect. Then I got a little devious and had her read this blog:
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2008/09/11/whatever-x-day-xi/
She immediately warmed to you and picked up OMW, then Ghost Brigades, and one day when I wasn’t looking she zipped past me and got to The Last Colony before I did.
So now part two of my plan is to get her to read Waiting for Athena (she “aaawwed” when she saw it like she was looking at a baby kitten). Once I explain the collectability of this item and the overall coolness of all things Scalzi, I’m sure I can talk her into letting me buy the signed Subterranean Press editions of all your books. They’ll probably go down as my “Christmas presents” but that works out perfectly, that has been my plan all along.
It is noted that you do not want anyone to post regarding the sending emails. For that reason, I wish to post that I am NOT sending you an email. Time spent reading and then feeling obligated to reply to the email is much better spent in finally turning your attention to creating Agent To The Stars: The Sequel. I love the first book and there are probably minor story themes that could be addressed such as did the assistant turned agent claw her way to become the head of her own agency?
BTW I have not received my Bacon Lib Front newsletter for a few months. Has it disbanded?
Mike, you are not last. I probably killed the thread. Glad to be of service.
WERE hoping. It’s WERE hoping for a response, not was hoping. kthxbai.
I wonder if there’s a widget that can handle this? You know, three states to display, “Caught Up”, “Muddling Through”, and “Way Behind”.
What I may do, actually, is do something where every first-time e-mail gets a form note thanking them for the mail and letting them know that due to e-mail volume, I may not respond personally, or that it might take me a while to respond.
Well, I sent you one a few weeks back and you didn’t reply. Rather than sniffle, I assumed you were busy – and considering how much I’ve enjoyed your books, that was fine with me. I’ll tell you something I didn’t manage to say in the email: every time I’ve been in a science fiction section in a bookstore and seen someone wandering around with that what-new-author-can-I-discover look, I’ve recommended your books. You and Julie Czerneda have been two very enjoyable recent discoveries.