Date: 6/5/2022 11:58:11 AM
jved

DietDrPepper,

Once again, I'm sorry for the delay. However it's 6-3-22 and I just today received your answer.

It's unbelievable how inconvenient the JPay system is making it for prisoners in Florida (always been here. Florida, that is) to communicate. Their plan is probably to make it such an annoyance, unless you're actually one of the prisoner's contacts on their tablet. We don't even get our actual letters from friends and family anymore. Instead, everything is mailed to one address, pictures of the letters are taken, and then they are sent to the tablet.

Well, enough of my complaining.

I was definitely happy to see your reply. After some time had passed, I thought perhaps you had misunderstood my dry humor of questioning your reason for wanting to communicate with a prisoner in the first place. I was just glad to see that you've stuck with me.

Hold on, let me reread that.

Okay, you actually stated it a little differently. It's actually easier to accept it as a compliment the way YOU said it. So, thanks.

At any rate, I've never been able to read any of the other blogs on the website, but I have taken the time to read four or five prisoner autobiographies to get an idea of how different mine is going to be. On my Author's Note page, I explain the three main reasons for my story being rather different (the third being because of WHEN I started serving my time). That's where your interest in history kicks in because the prison scene has really changed quite about since around 2000.

I certainly appreciate you thinking I deserve some encouragement. It definitely helps to know that attempting to write a book isn't a complete waste of time. Obviously, the vast majority of my fellow prisoners are not going to agree with my viewpoint on things. However, the few comments I received on my blog were not enough to inspire me to start any serious (if you can call it that) writing.

Then one day some fellow inmate handed me a book he had gotten in the mail and said, "Here. I think this is something you would really like to read." I have since labeled it as my book of inspiration. Not only did I thoroughly enjoy the author's sense of humor throughout her memoir, I was amazed at the fact that the book had become a bestseller. She spent the last chapter telling about a book signing tour she went on.

So I'm sitting here thinking how all these hundreds of people were standing for hours in line to have her sign their books. If there are that many people out there who enjoy this crazy stuff, then obviously I must have an audience as well. Hence, I've been working on MY book ever since.

Although I must admit, it does take me a while to get my wording right.

So am I correct in believe there is some form of connection between your researching history and your atypical hobby of cleaning 100+-year-old gravestones at the cemetery? I must admit it does sound a bit interesting. The author of the book I just mentioned included a few pictures of oddball situations in her life. One of them was a picture she took of herself at a cemetery. Understand now, at the time, she was in her early teens and was going through a stage of reinventing herself with a Gothic wardrobe, black lipstick, heavy eye shadow, and a look that said, "You don't want to get too close to me. I've got dark, terrible secrets."

At any rate, under the picture of her leaning forward against a gravestone with her head propped on her hand, it reads: "Pro tip: Your faux-Victorian, emo self-portraits in graveyards will look slightly less stilted if you take off your Swatch watch first."

Well, I certainly hope our characteristics of being non-typical/atypical will work to our benefit in the interests of staying in contact. And always remember, if you're as impatient as I am about getting returns on your messages, you can always become a contact on my tablet. Hope to hear/read back from you soon.

Eric