In Which I Win Books And get A Fan Letter!

 I’d like to share with you a happy-making thing I received this week. A few weeks ago, I entered the competition for the celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the Ranger’s Apprentice series. I’ve written about this a number of times on this blog - here is a link to one of my posts. 

https://suebursztynski.blogspot.com/2018/04/a-to-z-blogging-challenge-2018-f-is-for.html

The series is written by Aussie children’s author John Flanagan. 

Anyway, I clicked the link, entered and forgot about it - how often do I win anything? 

Readers, I won. A few days ago I got an email informing me I had won! Today, my lovely nephew Mark picked up the big, heavy box of books from the post office and left it at my door. I’m going to curl up with the first book tonight. I’ve read several, but not all, and it was a while ago, so a reread is in order. 

Here is the box, just after I opened it.

And I had another happy-making thing. I received fan mail about my novel! The young man wanted to know if there was a sequel, and had some ideas for what I could write in future books in the series. He is, by the way, a primary school student and  Wolfborn is YA, so I assume he is a very mature lad! Good on him! 

His first suggestion was not bad, so if I do get a chance to write it, he will get an acknowledgment. Meanwhile, I’m working on something else. And I have 60,000 words of a prequel where I froze with writer’s block. The main problem is the lack of a villain. You have to have a villain in fantasy! 

Anyway, thought I’d share with you. I have not had some good days recently, with family in hospital, so these two events were much needed.