Insomnia and the products thereof

I suffer from insomnia and find myself lying in bed next to a dead asleep human who wakes if I even think about moving solving all the world's problems and writing imaginary letters to different people. Weird, I know. However, a brain full of words never stops thinking. So last night while tossing and turning, I wrote a little letter to the one and only Nelle Harper Lee.

She's only written one novel, and as you may have noticed, I sort of like it. Everyone has some token or piece of memorabilia that they would almost kill for. If you ask my husband, he wants a signed Derek Jeter game bat (only valued at $3,500).

My "Derek Jeter bat" isn't something that most people would want, but it's something that I can't imagine being lucky enough to own. I would love to have a first edition signed copy of TKAM. I would put it in a special place in my house and look at it every day....literally.

The cost of this fine piece of literary history.....a mere $24,500. Take that, Derek Jeter. I still want it, but know that I'll be doing good just to get a signed copy at all, which brings me back to the letter.

See, I want to write to Ms. Lee and tell her, as I'm sure many others have done, about how she has changed my life, quite literally. Her novel has changed the way I interact with people, and how I teach the 100 or so students I encounter every day. Think about it, how amazing to know that because you have a gift for writing and because you chose to put your gift to use, a countless number of lives were changed or affected. Her novel brought the intolerant South's views into perspective in 1960. She forced people from the South to confront their own attitudes. It would be my dream to do the same in some way. Isn't that what every writer wants- to impact lives and change people?

I want to ask her so many questions about the creation of Mockingbird. I want to know if she modeled Scout after herself and if it's true that Capote was the inspiration for Dill's character. I want to get her take on how her upbringing in Monroeville inspired the setting. Who was the inspiration for Boo and did she have a Calpurnia in her life? I'd like to mail her a copy of Mockingbird in the hopes that she would sign and return it. My dream is to talk to her in person over a glass of sweet tea or lemonade, but the likelihood of her even answering a letter is like a shot at the moon.

Having said all this, I'll be posting my letter to Ms. Nelle Harper Lee in the future. Until then, I'm going to scour the Internet for her mailing address...yeah right. If any of  you have insight as to how to get in touch with her, pass it on.

I'm crazy, I know. Just let me dream :)