WRITERS messages for interested fans--

Over the past years, one co-worker would post her mail correspondence from writer Janet Evanovich in the staff break room bulletin board. It was a newsletter called "Plum News" (of course, named after the writer's series protagonist Stephanie Plum) and checking the author's website, I see it is up to volume 13 now.

The newsletter is a fun product with personal family fun info (pet news, anyone?) aside from promos about the newest Evanovich book to hit the book shelves. Now, Evanovich does produce books with a cheetah's running pace so a newsletter is a good idea, however, others need to reach interested readers too and I've been the recipient in some instances. You may definitely put me in that camp but move me over to the email category as those are my only messages after shooting off an email to an author.

My most recent messages have been a series of emails--blog updates, actually--from writer Kwei Quartley ("Update from KweiQuartley.com") in Ghana doing research for an upcoming novel Children of the Street. It is a new book to feature his series protagonist Darko Dawson, who does reside in Ghana. The other writers I've received upcoming book updates include Julia Spencer-Flemming (e-newsletter "News from the Kill") and Sara Paretsky.

This is a fun practice and I'd suggest anyone really interested in a certain author or their work to sign up for email alerts if available.