Zoos and Fan Mail

     Today I went to the zoo! It was fun, but it made me realize how lame I am. I honestly prefer domestic animals to wild ones. I totally wanted there to be a Domestic House Cats exhibit, or a Dog exhibit, or even a Common Rodent exhibit. I did like the naked mole rats though. They all looked wrinkly and dead in their plastic tubes. It was pretty cool. And it was fun hanging out with my Latin buddies and my Mom, who chaperoned. And honestly, I really enjoyed the two hour bus rides to and from the zoo. Probably my favorite part. Just people watching in the city streets, and then admiring the pretty houses on the outskirts of the city, and then admiring the farmland on the outskirts of the outskirts.
     From my desk right now, I have a view out my front door window, and I can see the trees in the yard of my neighbors across the street, and they're turning orange and yellow and red and it's so pretty! We're two days into fall, and the weather is beautiful, and I'm getting that warm fuzzy Autumn feeling I always get this time of year.
     So last week, I mentioned something about having a really interesting thing to write about, and then for some reason I never actually DID write about that really interesting thing, so I will do that now.
     A while back, I sent a letter to one of my favorite authors, Sharon Creech, telling her how much I love her book Absolutely Normal Chaos, and that I wanted to be a writer like her, and about a week ago, she replied to my letter! I was so excited I could hardly contain it! Here's what she had to say:

"Dear [VaughnDL],

Thank you for your beautiful letter. I do understand about not wanting to read other books of mine (though Heartbeat and Ruby Holler have similar "snarky" characters...)

And you are already a writer-- that I can see-- and I hope one day I'll be reading your books. 

xx Sharon Creech"

     She also included a signed bookmark. I was practically jumping up and down when I saw the letter on the kitchen table waiting for me. And now that I got such an awesome letter from her, I'm going to try and write some more letters to other authors. I love knowing that the writers I look up to appreciate hearing from me as a reader. It's really cool. 

                                  -VaughnDL