Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
I have been a fan since I read Alan Mendhelson, The Boy From Mars when I was 13 years old in 1985 from my School Library. Over the years following I read everything I could find of yours and eventually the librarian at the public library had to teach me how to use the inter-library loan system to find an elusive copy of “Young Adult Novel”.
The other week I was thinking about the Dada Ducks and the ongoing story of Kevin Shapiro, Boy Orphan. So I did the sensible thing one does in the 21st Century and opened up Google and typed in “Kevin Shapiro”.
Much to my dismay I saw no mention of the epic about our favorite boy orphan, but instead page after page of Phish Archivist, Kevin Shapiro. Not to be daunted, I tried again, I typed in “Kevin Shapiro ” <- see the space? and google suggested a series of searches the first of which was "kevin shapiro phish" and the second was "kevin shapiro boy orphan"
Eureaka! So I did the relevant search hoping to find an archive of fan written Kevin Shapiro stories.
The first hit is a link to a now defunct Livejournal archive, and surprisingly the second link is to a post by me in 2004 of my Kevin Shapiro story “Kevin Shapiro, Boy Orphan Turns Over a New Leaf” which is also archived here on the P-Zone!
I just find it interesting on how google relates search results, and the surprises you can find while searching. Have you ever done a “vanity search” on yourself and found something surprising?
I am cordially yours,
— Christopher
Yes, I did a ""vanity"" search on my name, on Google, and was surprised to find I was a writer of some kind of oddball fiction. This was surprising as, at the time, I was a minor employee in a factory that manufactured kosher orthopedic shoes in Binghampton, NY. I googled further, and one thing led to another...I began a correspondence with this kid who was studying to be a Naturopath or chiropractor or something in Canada, and....well, you see the result.
