Monday, May 10, 2004

Huge In China This weekend I got an email from my biggest, most loyal fan.  He calls himself "Joe," though I'd bet that's not his real name, and he lives in China.  I've been hearing from Joe for a few years now, when he periodically checks in to see how I'm doing and if I've written anything new.  He's a big fan of my writing.  Not the blog writing, but instead the few short stories I've written. Turns out that years ago during the mid-nineties, Joe was taking an English class in China.  One of his textbooks contained a short story written by yours truly.  Not that I had any idea that someone in China had taken the liberty to use one of my stories in a textbook without telling me, but apparently they had.  Well, Joe really liked the story.  Liked it enough to remember my name (at least they gave me credit, right?) so that a few years later when he had internet access, he searched for my name online to see if there was anything else I'd written.  He managed to find my old website, saw that I was the guy who'd written that story he liked so much, and wrote a long email asking if I had any books or whatnot available of anything else I'd written. Probably much to his disappointment, I had to tell him that I'm not a professional writer and that I have no books to my name.  Just some short stories that I'd posted online. But that didn't deter Joe, and so every few months I'll hear from him and he almost always asks if I've written anything new.  Unfortunately the answer is usually "no," because I'm not exactly Stephen King prolific in the short story arena.  The email he sent this past weekend had an attachment, though.  Joe is a teacher also, and he sent along a picture of him and some of his students.  You can click on it below to get a bigger image. Joe is the fourth from the right in the blue shirt.  The background is the country school he teaches at. You know what the strange thing is?  I've forgotten which story it was he liked so much.  It's probably one of the ones linked on the left, but I honestly can't remember which one.  Soon as I finish this post, I'll reply to his latest email and ask him to refresh my memory.  Might also ask him if he's found a copy of that textbook.  I'd just about kill for a copy. Related link: The short stories I've posted to this site:  you can try and guess Joe's favorite 5:04:31 PM     |

© Copyright 2005 Alex L. Mauldin.