Excerpt from unfinished story

[Deanie]

I imagine it was difficult to rein Vic in. She is known to get a bit 'crusty' with her word choices.

[Dan M.]

So last Friday night, I sent Craig Johnson a link to this story. And what do you know...early Saturday morning he wrote back. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Hi Craig, long time fan here. I've been kicking this idea around since watching the recent interview with you and several other authors including Lee Child on How To Write A Mystery. No, I'm not asking you to write my idea for a Longmire story. Maybe almost as annoying though. Seeing the interview cemented the thought to go through with this. A while back I wrote a story about what would it look like to have Walt and Jack Reacher meet up. It was meant to be a short story, but kind of took on a life of its own and ended up being more of a novella. The first nine chapters are Reacher, the rest including the epilogue is Walt. I'm sending you a link. I know, annoying. It's not like you don't have anything to do. Anyway, it's on a fan fiction website. Whether you read it, or answer this message or not, we're good. I'm still going to be a fan looking forward to Daughter of The Morning Star. Have a great weekend. (link to story)

CJ: Hi Dan, thanks for the offer and I'm intrigued but I try not to read other people writing about my characters in that it becomes confusing for me? Hope you'll understand. ��

Then Saturday night I wrote back to him and the next morning he answered again.

Me: Hey, thanks for the response. I do get it, and I expected that might be the case. Just know I had fun writing the story. Thank you for indulging me even this much!

CJ: You bet!

I'm tickled that he wrote back, but I wish he'd a least peak at it. Not sure what I'd expect him to say, if anything. "Hey, you didn't have Vic dropping F-bombs. That's not Vic."

[Deanie]

He "trys" not to read other peoples writing about his characters....I'd bet he peaked. :-) And if he did I'd bet he thought/said "that's pretty darn good!"

[Dan M.]

Thanks, Deanie. I was surprised, not only that he wrote back at all, but that he wrote back as quickly as he did. If I ever get to talk to him in person again, maybe I'll be able to remind him and see if he did "peak".

[Deanie]

I think peaked should have been spelled peeked. Nevertheless, I bet he did........