Dolores Monaco

I grew up the daughter of a brutal “self-made” businessman with little regard for higher education and those fortunate enough to obtain it. (Ha! I got it anyway and still rejoice in the riches that education continues to impart to my solitary days — well, I DO live with two sweet cats, too.) At age 14 I was reading The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, the Kiplinger Newsletter, the Kiplinger Florida Newsletter and heaven knows what other business publications to which my father subscribed. And I did get an M.A. in Theatre with a specialty in costume design and construction for the professional theatre as a more practical outlet for my inclinations than simply studying acting might have been. SO: I really appreciate what I surmise is a very large financial investment you have made in your website. I applaud your sagacity as well as your splendid creative accomplishments in writing.

For one thing, your website is most helpful in ferreting out your novels that I do not already possess. God knows none of your works escape from my Keepers shelf but remain there for a second, third and — anyway, I trust you get my drift. I already have 19 of your works on that Keepers shelf and can hardly wait until my next Social Security check arrives on the 3rd of June so I can acquire more.

And yes, I am that 82-year-old lady living alone with two sweet cats who needs your delightful works for what has already been a rich, satisfying (though NOT painless) life. The splendid literary quality of your writing helps enormously to keep my avid brain in tune. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!

And, uh, please keep producing. Perhaps I should add that I also deeply appreciate your attention to scholarship in the English Regency period. Your have certainly done — and no doubt still do — your “homework” in researching and studying its history. Personally, even as a teenager, I felt something missing in Georgette Heyer’s novels — YES!!! SEX!! And you do that crucial area of human life so beautifully!