Greetings,
I really like the title I came up with for this book. Letters To My Stranger Loves. It actually expresses what I was trying to do perfectly. So, what was I trying to do? Let me tell you.
I have been writing since I was a kid and sometimes, I write about people who I don't even know. As I got older, I sometimes wrote about people I don't know who I also happened to have crushes on. Yes, that's right. This book is all about my celebrity crushes. Well, it's not ALL about that. Let's just say it was inspired by them.
One day, I thought about all the things I'd written about people I don't know and for some reason, I started thinking about all the famous guys who made my heart flutter, even if it only lasted for like ten minutes. I started to make a list, and the list got quite long. So, I thought that I should write about all these guys and make a new book. Although, to say I wrote about them directly is a bit misleading.
In a few cases, yes, I did write about the actual person who I had in mind. Other times, I was inspired by something they did, usually a role they've played, if they were an actor, or a song they wrote, if they were a musician. The point is that, a lot of the time, these guys were simply a jumping off point for my inspiration. Somehow that made it much easier to write. And it makes it much harder for anyone to guess who these poems are about. I mean, I barely remember in some places and I'm the one who wrote all of them. I did make a list of names and matched them with the poems, but I may or may not have misplaced it. Who knows? Maybe I am meant to forget.
If I may point out a few of my favorites, they would include, "Tell Me With Your Eyes", "Gentle Traveler", "Mysteries", "Sunburst" and "Wondered Love". I suppose I could name a few more, but I don't want to influence any readers on what they might choose to like themselves. But, indeed, these ones are quite good, in my opinion. Apparently, these "loves" of mine were extra inspiring.
The point is that this shows how I am willing to open myself up to any kind of inspiration. I understand that the concept of this book may seem a little odd to some people. Possibly even pathetic. I mean, I can imagine someone reading this thing or even just hearing what it's about and saying, "Oh, please! Just get a real boyfriend!" Because it's that easy, apparently. I'm not saying that a real boyfriend isn't better than an imaginary one, or whatever, but still.
In short, I'd say this book is rather gentle and sweet. For the most part. There may be a tad bit of negativity here. I mean, there are all sorts of reasons why crushes go away. Sometimes we grow out of them and move on. Sometimes said crush does something just plain dumb and it makes you stop liking them altogether. Such is life. However, collectively speaking, this is probably the calmest book I've ever written, which is a nice shift from some of the things I had to write about in its predecessor. Perhaps, I needed the change. This book has some great stuff and some okay stuff, much like all of my books. But overall, I think Letters To My Stranger Loves is a pretty good one.
Love and full moons,
Becky the Writer
