Have you ever done something that you felt was a stab in the dark yet you did it anyway? Well, about 3 months ago I found myself in that kind of a situation. One night I was up super late because I couldn't sleep and found myself just surfing the web. The topic of the night was Harry Potter. For those of you who don't know me, I guess I should give you a bit of backstory. I would have to say I'm pretty obsessed with Harry Potter. My daily life includes various Harry Potter references, my car is named Griffy (short for Gryffindor), my laptop is adorned with Harry Potter stickers, a Harry Potter banner resides in my bedroom, and heck even my toilet has a Ministry of Magic sticker. Harry Potter was a huge part of my childhood as it was with so many others. So, what does this have to do with a night of sleep loss and web browsing? I stumbled upon a youtube video of a girl receiving a response to fan mail from JK Rowling. The girl was such a mess as she opened the letter, and of course I found myself thinking about what it would be like to receive such a letter. After browsing through tons of web pages I finally stumbled upon the best address where I would have some chance of receiving a response. So many had written that they did not receive responses, but I figured I had a good shot.
Now when writing a letter to JK Rowling there are many questions you'll ask yourself. A very important one would be should it be hand written or typed? I guess you could say I did a little of both. I began by typing the letter. Once I was absolutely positive of how perfect the letter was, I hand wrote it on note paper. What was in the letter? Yeah, like I'd tell you folks. That's between me and JK Rowling! I will say I added a few color doodles to give the letter some spunk.
A week later after I had dotted my 'i's and crossed my 't's, I went to the post office. With JK Rowling written in huge black sharpie on a manilla envelope, I found myself a bit embarrassed that I was mailing a letter to my idol author, so I shielded the name from view. Who knew if I'd even get a response. I could be wasting my time. So I mailed the letter with the crabbiest of postal workers, and left the post office leaving any doubt about if I'd get a response at the door.
3 Months Later
A letter arrived to my FL address stamped with the Royal Mail. $50 bucks says who this might be from? (Or if you are actually willing to bet I'll go for $1,000 seems how I know the outcome.) I guess I had indeed found the right address to send my letter to. Now before we go any farther, do think about how busy JK Rowling is. She has kids after all! After reading over the letter (I haven't seen the original yet, only the scans my parents sent me), I do feel it might have been sent by the Hogwarts students she employs for their volunteer work. After all, I doubt JK Rowling would have spelled my name wrong if she had typed this. I still found this letter to be so awesome. The attached faq sheet was quite a nice touch. Besides her promoting her new book and Pottermore, it was definitely an amazing letter to receive! I am going to send another letter in the hopes I'll receive another one with my name spelled correctly this time. Much better for framing when your name is spelled correctly!
So what did I learn from this experience? Never give up on something that others say is impossible. You don't know that something is impossible until you try. So until next time bloggers I'll be prepping my letters for other authors I find quite enjoyable. I've already managed to track down a way to get autographed copies of my favorite series, Divergent. The internet is a vast oasis filled with information for you to get closer to your desires. Just might take a few sleepless nights to find it.
♥ Mir
My JK Rowling Response Letter
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