I just found this old copy sitting on an old flash drive and thought I should upload it here. This is the letter that inspired this story.
Mr. Anthony
I know you are used to getting letters full of puns and full of praise for your novels, but this one is a little different. I am writing today to tell you that your novels, the Xanth series in particular have helped my friends and I through the most difficult time of our lives.
A few months ago, a very dear friend of ours passed away. It was a sudden and violent thing, and it has deeply affected all of us. She was a great fan of Xanth, and had all of the novels. I’m writing this with her boyfriend next to me, and he’s still clutching The Isle of View that she had recently purchased. Because of how things had occurred that caused her to pass away, we all fell into a deep depression, many of us coming close to doing unthinkable things.
Her BF spent a lot of time with her family and started going through her things. Her parents let him take her few Xanth novels, and he shared them with us. We each have one. I personally have A Spell for Chameleon . We started reading them, and found in them all things that reminded us of our friend, and the good times that we had once had together.
The books brought us back to life. I just wanted you to know that your novels aren’t just punish interpretations of a magical world, they are magic. I know that if she was still alive today, Katelyn would agree with us.
Her name was Katelyn Alyssa Brown, and she was a huge fan.
She is sorely missed.
Thank you for your time.
That was written in Dec. 2005. Two weeks later we got a special print of the book, Isle of View with a dedication handwritten to Kat. We still have it.