This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Have you ever been so inspired by an author’s work that you wish you could tell them exactly how much they have impacted your life? In this series, Literary Love Letters, we do just that – share open love letters to inspiring authors. Today Lindsay Jill Roth, author of What Pretty Girls Are Made Of, writes to Jojo Moyes.
Dear Jojo,
In your successful literary career, have you ever come across a writer who strung together words that you thought couldn’t possibly go together, but halted your reading by their cleverness and beauty? Or a story that brought you to giggle out loud just as many times as it poured tears down your face? The “I wish I’d thought of those stories” writer, whose books you wish were thousands of pages because you don’t want the fictional worlds to end? I bet you have. I have – and that writer is you.
I’ll admit here that I have a “thing” for time-focused books – or whatever you’d call it. The desire to understand what happens to families or objects after decades (The Girl You Left Behind) and I’m a sucker for the best of love stories (Me Before You), but it’s about how they’re written. You’ve become that name that I throw out whenever a friend needs a book to read, because your words are universally adored and I know that recommending your work will reflect well on my literary taste! I’m also a journalist turned writer (still with a day job!), so I smile thinking that we’ve shared a similar path – though mine in writing is burgeoning.
Having just published my first novel, I can only dream that others will talk about the messages in my work(s) like I talk about yours. Thank you for inspiring me to write a novel where every word is perfectly placed and not a sentence is wasted. Through your stories, you are a teacher, and I will always be an excited and open-minded pupil to whatever is next for you.
With admiration,
Lindsay Jill Roth
Follow Lindsay on Twitter.