Has anyone else taken notice of a trend, lately, in which books are pitched as “a love letter to [this, that, or the other]”? Like, it’s not just a novel set in a city or country, it’s a love letter to that place. No mere story featuring a certain food or cuisine, but a love letter to that gastronomic experience. That character’s journey of self-discovery via an ‘80s pop musician’s body of work / a genre of film / online gaming / illegal goat racing? A love letter to some past or present obsession that made the author the particular brand of weirdo they are today.
As someone who has neither received nor can recall writing any actual love letters (that one epistolary novel from my authorial youth, may it rest in pieces, doesn’t count), I’m not best qualified to decide whether these vogueish descriptions are accurate, misleading, or running all up and down the spectrum in between. What I do know is, they’ve got me thinking:
If the works of Deshipley were letters, what – or who – would be their loves?
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The Wilderhark Tales = A Love Letter to … True Love
Sure, I could try to break it down book by book – like, “The Song Caster”, love letter to adventure; “The Sun’s Rival”, love letter to the moon; “The Seventh Spell”, love letter to having met Edgwyn Wyle in “The Stone Kingdom” and needing another novella with him in it, pronto. But as a series, the fairytale magic of True Love™ is the heartsong of it all. The love of a princess for her spell-breaking prince; of minstrels for music; of lonely souls for their place in the sky. It’s as cheesy as it is frikkin’ deep, y’all.
The Outlaws of Avalon Novels = A Love Letter to … the Merry Men
By which I mean not only Robin Hood and his legendary band, but also:
– Friendship and
– Bromance and
– Found/chosen families and
– Sherwood Forest and
– Benevolent crimes and
– Renaissance Faire players (especially the ones trained to wave swords about for show).
“An Avalon Christmas Carol” = A Love Letter to … Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”
Or a fan letter, at the very least.
“Truly Great Words Never Die” = A Love Letter to … Having Fun with Unusual Words
Likewise, to the founders of Save-a-Word Saturday, who are as much to blame thank for the very existence of this little ebook as I am.
The “Inspired” Novels = A Love Letter to … Imagination
…Or so I wrote in the blurb for their companion journal, before I knew it was cool. ‘Tis only true, though. Imaginary friends. Imaginary worlds. The real-life power that ‘just pretend’ can wield. There wouldn’t be an artwork out there worth calling a letter o’ love without it!
“Date Due” = A Love Letter to … Books and Murder
(Make sure to pronounce the latter with a few extra U’s and R’s, for best effect.)
“So Super Dead” = A Love Letter to … ???
I just… I don’t even know. Sometimes the muse frolics down a path of pure absurdity and all you can do is follow, stopping to pluck the dark, decaying flowers along the way. A labor of love? Absolutely. A letter of love? That may be taking it a bit far.
“Deathsong of the Deep” = A Love Letter to … the Kraken, Of Course!
Which isn’t to say that my tentacled lad was given nearly enough page time, because he was NOT. Something about an entire novel of nothing but Kraken killing people and singing to himself being slightly less compelling than the tale of Molly Worth, Captain Crow, and the crew of the Painted Lady. Like that’s an excuse.
“The Once and Future Camelot” = A Love Letter to … Arthuriana
Most specifically, to the ‘Camelot crowd’ I sorta-kinda met in my Outlaws series, but whom I didn’t truly come to know and grow to love until I began unearthing their full story. Heck, some of them even got letters addressed to them by name on this blog (search ‘Letters to Camelot’ in the sidebar), and I’d assuredly compose even more, if Writer Me weren’t lying unconscious somewhere inside my skull. The legend of Camelot’s fall is, as I’ve often labeled it, the absolute saddest tale ever told, and my emotional wreck of a self is Here For It, body and soul.
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Have you encountered any memorable ‘love letter’ descriptions in your media, recently? If your favorite books were love letters, they would be to what/to whom? If you’ve read any of the Deshipley love letters listed above, which most deeply touched your heart and why? Share all in the comments!
Yours with love,
~ Danielle
Ever On Word 
“The Kraken, Of Course!” Hehe…
Now that you mention it, the concept of things being “a love letter to such and such” has been popping up. I can’t think of any specific times that I’ve seen it though. A lot of my own stories would be love letters to having fun with unusual words…or to food.
Any love letter to fun with unusual words is one I would totally cosign ^_^
I feel like most of my stories are love letters to fairy tales, heh. Or sometimes historical periods. And definitely sometimes Arthuriana!