We are both a force of nature, trying to carve a life for ourselves in a field we both love dearly, that saved us when we were young, and still is, even though things in the industry are very different. You adjust more quickly than I do. Because you’re always so optimistic. I love having dinner with you at that Mexican restaurant this summer. I’ll see you next summer!

Well, that fairy tale book about two sisters is so changed, she won’t know it. I wrote it for her, but in the end, it’s not for her. Still, I gave her a lot of books about her and our childhood and those she knew about!

I have been privileged to know you for thirty years and have always been impressed by your brilliance, your work ethic, your sense of humor—your courage. I don’t think you have lost your passion for your art, it is just muted a little bit right now. You are tired, but will bounce back like you always do. You are a fighter. When that fairy tale book about two sisters is published I’m sure your sister will be smiling down from heaven. You will be smiling too.

A Kobie Roberts fan! I’m so delighted to hear from you! Those books, I can tell people now, were highly autobiographical. In fact, when I finished writing “Thirteen” I wondered why my mother didn’t leave me by the side of the road. I had the oddness of growing up as an only child until age 10, but before that my older sister kept me in line before she left home. I wrote a trilogy about those years, called the Sister Trilogy, similar to the Kobie books: My Sister the Meanie, My Sister the Traitor, and My Sister the Creep. You can find them on used book sites. The new book will be a while coming out and is very different. Thanks for your kind words!

Waaaay back in the 80s I picked up your novel “Thirteen” from Hoys 5&10 in Stone Harbor, NJ, to read on the way back home to PA. I finished it by the time we pulled into the driveway and squealed with delight when I saw there were others in the series. I’ve kept those books with me through several moves and they still sit on my bookshelf: waterlogged, torn, stained. I still find myself quoting from them and I’ll be 50 in a couple weeks. (“On me like a duck on a June bug” is one of my favorites.) I never found another author that understood what it meant to be a teen and trying to navigate through school and the dreaded popular crowd.

I’ll be eager to read the book about the sisters.

I hope your health and luck gets better.