GalleyCat has been running a competition to find the best story of breaking up over a book. I thought we might turn that on its head. I know of at least two couples that got together over one of my novels. Kelley and I were able to connect because of books:
Books--the ones Kelley and I had read, the ones we wanted to write--drew us to the place where we would meet, and made it possible for us to understand each other when we got there. We were born only nine days apart, but also eight thousand miles, on different continents and to different cultures. Our meeting and life together should have been one long cultural car crash, but though there are times when our common language puzzles us extremely, books have formed for us a parallel universe, a world where we learnt the same things at the same time from the same characters, though sometimes with distinctly different flavours.
I bet there are a zillion readers out there who fell in love (and/or lust--hey, it's all good) over a poem or a novel. I think it would be fab to hear some of them.
To lure you into sharing your story, I offer a prize: a copy of And Now We Are Going to Have a Party: Liner Notes to a Writer's Early Life (if you already have one, hey, it's almost Holiday Season...). I'll put the name of everyone who contributes in a hat (okay, a bowl or a box) and pick one at random.
(** EDIT: The competition will be open for one week, until Thursday 16th October at noon. Winner to be announced Friday 17th.)
