My regards to Mr Vonnegut

You know I am weird and most of you are probably thinking I might even be a little bit crazy. Just to reinforce that belief, I have another idea. You all know that the people I believe have had the greatest impact on my life, outside of my family, are Jimmy Page, Neil Young, Vincent Van Gogh, John Steinbeck and Kurt Vonnegut. I have decided to attempt to email these gentlemen and thank them. Well, all except Vincent and Mr. Steinbeck. We'll have to figure out how to get the message to them. "Phone Call with the Afterlife" Uh...Afterlife? Yeah, this is Paul Gavin. May I please speak with Vincent Van Gogh? Yes, the artist. How many Vincent Van Gogh's are there? Oh really, four hundred thirty-seven? Hmmm...I never would have guessed. Oh...he is? Great! Well then...Oh, hello Mr. Van Gogh. Right, Vincent. This is Paul Gavin, twenty-first century blogger...blogger...BLOGGER...One that blogs...a writer...almost. Yes, I just wanted to call you to thank you for your inspiration. No. Really. You truly were a genius and I love your work. My favorite? Starry Night. Really, hmmm. Never would have expected that. Anyway, I do have another question, but...Are you sure? Okay...do you need both ears in the afterlife. Sorry, you said it was okay. Well, sure. I said I was sorry. Uh...is John Steinbeck, twentieth century American Author of "The Grapes of Wrath" and "East of Eden" around? He is? Okay...I'll hold...getting a line to the afterlife is a bitch. Really, Vincent - thank you, bad jokes aside, you really mean a lot to me and I just wanted you to know. No probs. He's back? Great. Hi, Mr. Steinbeck, this is Paul Gavin ... Props to Bob Newhart for inspiring the "Phone call with the Afterlife". Anyway, you get the picture. So, I got this idea and I started looking around. Turns out that all of my inspirations are very private people. I searched and couldn't find emails or contact information for any of them. I did locate an email for "Joe" on Kurt Vonnegut's web site. Here is a copy of the email I sent. Yes, I do send the emails. Why? You ask. How can I send emails to people I don't know? Why not? What could possibly happen? Other than getting served with another restraining order. (By the way - that's a joke. I've never had a restraining order against me). Joe, Although I was some what of a late comer to Mr. Vonnegut's work, I am a great admirer. I have always wanted to be a writer, but I never acted on the desire. That changed when I read "Jailbird" in 1998. Even though it took another two years for me to get started, I finally sat down and wrote a novel because of one line that I read in that novel. I believe the one line in "Jailbird" is the most eloquent thing ever written. Forgive me if I am not completely accurate with the following quote, but it was a borrowed copy that I actually returned for some unknown reason. But the essence and what I remember goes something like this - "the fighter plane took off and shredded the sky - it happens all time". After I read that, I felt what was in me and I knew I had to express myself with the written word. Because of the profound affect these words had on me, I was compelled to write and self-publish my novel, "Web Site" on lulu.com almost three years ago. Since then, I have become an avid blogger. Currently, I am blogging my second novel, "The Break" at "Misadventures of a 42-year old writer wannabe". Because I am grateful to those who have inspired me, I have written about this on my blog and I probably will write about it again in the future . The people I credit the most for inspiring me are Jimmy Page, Neil Young, Vincent Van Gogh, John Steinbeck and Kurt Vonnegut. Because your email was listed as the contact on vonnegut.com, I assume that you have some interaction with Mr. Vonnegut. I would like him to know how much his work has meant to me, so may I impose upon you to deliver this message to Mr. Vonnegut? Kindest Regards, Paul Gavin Technorati Tags: Fiction, Online Book, Chapter, rebeleyeball, Paul Gavin IceRocket Tags: Fiction, Blook, Chapter, rebeleyeball More stories from Paul Gavin. Info on novels Paul Gavin's Storefront. Copyright (c) 2006 Paul Gavin. All rights reserved.