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Dear Nancy Copyright 2008 by Nancy Rue Requests for information should be addressed to: Zonderkidz, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rue, Nancy N. Dear Nancy : answers to letters from girls like you / by Nancy Rue ; compiled by Marijean S. Rue. p. cm. (Faithgirlz) ISBN 978-0-310-71496-5 (softcover) 1. Rue, Nancy N. Juvenile literature. 2. Authors, American 20th century Correspondence Juvenile literature. 3. Rue, Nancy N. Sophie series Miscellanea Juvenile literature. 4. Rue, Nancy N. Lily series Miscellanea Juvenile literature. 5. Girls Miscellanea Juvenile literature. 6. Friendship Miscellanea Juvenile literature. 7. Adolescence Miscellanea Juvenile literature. 8. Girls Family relationships Miscellanea Juvenile literature. 9. Girls Religious life Miscellanea Juvenile literature. I. Rue, Marijean. II. Title. PS3568.U3595Z48 2008 813'.54 dc22 2008017710
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations from THE MESSAGE. Copyright by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers printed in this book are oered as a resource to you. These are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement on the part of Zondervan, nor do we vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmi ed in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. Zonderkidz is a trademark of Zondervan Published in association with the literary agency of Alive Communications, Inc., 7680 Goddard Street Suite 200, Colorado Springs, CO 80920. www.alivecommunications.com Art direction: Merit Kathan Interior design: Melissa Elenbaas Printed in the United States of America
my office. Sometimes, when I was feeling guilty, I would put it inside the closet or cover it with an afghan. Then, one day, I realized it had multiplied like some kind of amoeba and suddenly there were two laundry baskets to be shuffled around or hidden under afghans. And when those little storage baskets lined with fabric came on the market, some of them started appearing in my office as well. I was running out of afghans. Each of these baskets was filled to overflowing with fan mail. Some came in big batches from one of my publishers, and some showed up in my P.O. Box. Some made their way to my home address, usually from people who lived in Tennessee and had managed to look me up. There were letters on that grayish paper with the big lines written in shaky, blocky handwriting, and letters on lovely stationery written in I-just-learned-how cursive. There were pictures of readers, some actual photographs, and some self-portraits in crayon, pen, marker, and even sticker collages. There were long 7
For a long time, there was this big laundry basket in the corner of
Dear Nancy,
descriptions of the plights of nine-year-old girls, short missives to the tune of I like your books; they are good, and pleas for just one more installment in this or that series. There were also plenty of suggestions about my writing what character should do what, how I should have ended such-and-such book, where Id gone terribly, horribly wrong with this or that story, and, of course, what I should write next. I love them all. I love mail! I absolutely pore over the letters my readers send me. I love to read them. Its as though youre all right there with me, as though I can see your beautiful young faces and hear your high-pitched kid voices telling me everything I always wanted to hear about my writing. I love to write for kids, because youre so generous, and you state things in the plainest terms: I like this. This is great. I LLLLOOOOVVVVEEEE your books!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!! If everyone had that kind of encouragement, wed all be cranking out novels, let me tell you! And I really do mean to answer every letter. Otherwise, why would I keep them? If I didnt intend to write back, Id just read them and say, Thats nice. Whats for lunch? and toss them, right? But I did keep them. I kept them for years. I kept them until my daughter grew up and got a masters degree and then came to work for me and said, Mother! These poor kids! What is the matter with you? My daughter and I have a very special relationship, as Im sure you can tell. Anyway, Marijean (thats my daughter) was a great assistant, and she made sure that no note went unanswered. She spent an entire summer going through the baskets, organizing the letters into piles according to subject, and then sending a general apology letter that many of you received. Then, when a new letter came in, Marijean read it out loud to me as I was writing the next Sophie or Faithgirlz book and said, Shall we tell him/her ______? and I would say, I
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love that! She typed it, and I signed it, and it ACTUALLY went into the mail (with a stamp and everything). After doing this for a while, Marijean noticed that a lot of kids ask the same questions. And when I travel and teach workshops, I notice that kids always ask one or all of the following questions: Is it fun to be a writer? Is it hard to be a writer? How did you become a writer? There also seems to be a general interest in my childhood, the type of food I like to eat, whether I have pets, kids, or a husband, and my favorite Scripture verse. When I really got into writing for tween girls about the hard stuff you have to face sometimes, I started getting mail that had a lot of questions of a different kind hard questions, questions that you wish you had someone in your life you could ask, but its just too weird to try and get that information from your mom, your youth pastor, or your teacher. And it was one thing when I was letting the Youre super-duper great! letters slide without so much as a postcard, but girls needed to know the answers to the hard questions. Finally, it hit me like my black lab when he hadnt seen me for a week. If Im not good at writing letters, but Im good at writing books, then I should answer the letters with a book. Duh. We found all the really good questions and whipped up what you now hold in your hot little hands. In this book you should find: all the information about me you could possibly desire; the must-knows about those astonishing, amazing girls, Sophie and Lily; all kinds of tips and tricks for being a writer; stuff you did NOT want to ask your school nurse about your body;
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Dear Nancy,