The flattery of fan-art

I'm sitting in my office looking up at a 1950s style movie poster hanging on my wall. It was created by someone who read Barefoot on Baker Street (I originally wrote 'by someone who read my novel barefoot,' then realised my mistake!) and loved it so much it inspired them to create this piece of fan-art. I love it! How flattering to think someone was inspired by what I had written, especially as Barefoot itself was born out of by my own love of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's work.

Being a writer can be a tough, lonely process and by putting work out there, you open yourself up to a lot of rejection and criticism - both of which can be hard blows to take. But it's always important to remember the people who said yes, the five star reviews and those who loved what you created enough to get in touch, send in photos of themselves holding your novel, create fan-art or talk about you in their podcast. I could paper a wall with rejection letters but I'd rather frame and hang something fun and positive, something that reminds me there is much love out there for the sentences I have strung together and turned into books. What next I wonder? will someone write their own Barefoot fan-fiction? Oh I do hope so...