Heather Lende

Prize-winning author of If you Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name

A Fan Mail Sampler...

I just finished your book, what a great summer treat! I live near Tucson, in Arizona. When the temperatures start climbing, I always try and find some relief in books about cooler locations!

Your writing always makes me think... and smile... and get weepy, but in a good way... in case you didn't notice, I very much enjoy it.

Just a quick note to tell you that your book has easily become one of my all time favorites. It was a joy to read and I felt a little sad when I finished reading it.

I just wanted to thank you for your book, "If you Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name", what a great read. I couldn't put this book down. I lived in Alaska, but in the summer if 2006 I went to Florida to visit my sister, and I purchased your book to read on this trip. I would go every morning to the pool (at the hotel I was staying at) and would walk in the shallow end while reading your book.

You really have a way with putting good thoughts into words. I'm an architect but I also write songs so I know something about words too. Thanks for the great gift of your book, it's the best I've read in some time.

I live in Beckum in Germany on a small farm (which is the closest you can get to Wildlife and Rural in our area). I am a more than faithful reader of your column. Reading your articles has made me realise that living in Haines and Beckum is not always all that different. Of course the climate is not exactly the same, within the last years your summers seem to be much nicer than ours (which worries me, to be honest). More than once your articles have brought tears to my eyes, made me scream out loud with laughter or (and that I cherish most) made me feel: Thank God, I am not the only one!

I read your book this winter while sitting by the woodstove at our cabin on Kenai Lake. Your humor and storytelling helped the dark winter go by very pleasantly.

My wife and I along with our two daughters just returned from an Alaskan cruise last Sunday˙ While on the cruise, I also bought a copy of your book If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name and have enjoyed every page. Thank you for helping me bring Alaska home.

I have to tell you how much I enjoyed reading your book. I cried, I laughed, it was excellent! I didn't want it to end. Thank you so much for a great read.

I have to admit that your book caused some friction in my household. I couldn't put it down, stealing every moment possible to immerse myself in your vivid and passionate descriptions. That I should give so much attention to a book rather than to my husband had him complaining that he was suffering from "attention deficit disorder," but now that he is reading your book, he understands why I couldn't put it down.

How long is too dead? My paper has relatively few established guidelines on local news obits, I'm planning to set a few. One of the first has to do with timeliness...