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Dear Reader,
I'm on vacation this week and some of my friends have graciously offered to fill in for me while I'm gone. Today's column is written by Lois Geller, author and President of Mason & Geller Direct.
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
www.DearReader.com
Today's guest columnist, author and President of Mason & Geller Direct, Lois Geller...
Do you remember how you got on the Dear Reader email list? If you're like me, the answer is lost in the mists of antiquity. Last year some time?
All I remember is that some dear soul forwarded a Dear Reader review and I liked the featured book (and bought it) but I liked the review just as much. Suzanne is fun to read and I felt as if a friend was talking to me. So I emailed her and told her so.
She emailed me back and we chatted almost daily through cyberspace and then one day she emailed that she was coming to New York City and would I mind if she dropped by the office to say hi?
Would I mind? Of course not!
My office is a pretty busy direct marketing advertising agency (Mason & Geller: I'm the Geller) and at the time we were in a great building at the corner of Madison Avenue and 39th Street. Suzanne walked in tentatively and I loved her right away: long blonde hair, big smile and homemade chocolate chip cookies! The aroma floated down the halls and into offices and soon our whole staff was in our boardroom munching away and listening. Suzanne and I chatted away as if we'd known each other since grade school.
I get to do a lot of public speaking about marketing and when Suzanne told me she planned to do a lot of speaking, especially at libraries, we talked about that. She was (and is) very easy and pleasant to talk to. When I got her Dear Reader letter the next morning, it felt as if she was writing just to me.
A lot has happened since then: Suzanne's Mom passed away, my 94-year old Mom got weaker so I moved our office to Hollywood, Florida just to be near her (everyone came along and we're happy as clams down here in hurricane country.) Then I got breast cancer and went through the operation and radiation - doing fine now - and through it all, Suzanne and I continued yakking online. (She's as easy to write to as she is to talk to.)
Soon, I hope, I'll be able to ask her to come over from her home on the other side of Florida for a nice visit. In the meantime, busy as I am, there's so much to be thankful for: my Mom, my wonderful staff, terrific new apartment and the new office I can't wait to show Suzanne. It's in a quiet marina with zillion dollar yachts out front, ubiquitous palm trees dropping real coconuts and birds flying about. Sometimes an ever so solicitous ibis ushers me from parking lot to office. Hope Suzanne brings cookies.
Lois K. Geller loisgeller@masongeller.com
Author of, "Response: The Complete Guide to Profitable Direct Marketing"
I'm a Japanese reader,and for that matter, a pretty long timer of Ms. Beecher's Book Clubs. (BTW, we in Japan always go by using the family names to communicate with each other in public, and allow me this Japanese formality.)
I just happended to read this email. And,wow, what a touching story it is between the two of you--Ms. Beecher and Mr. Geller !
Your story, Mr. Geller, certainly reminds me of my good old days spent as an exchange student from Japan to the States a long, long time ago. Quite likely, well before many of Ms. Beecher's Book Clubs readers were born, let me tell you, I was in your country as a student ! How about that?
I like(d) your story every descriptive way, Mr.Geller, and your impressions of Madam Beecher
when you first met. Did I also understand you to say that you "got breast cancer" ? and that you "went through the operation and radiation - doing fine now..."?? Please, do take the very best care of yourself, and keep having a positive thinking attitude as in your email writing.
We are told thousands of times being a positive thinker and meeting with people like-minded certainly enhance the chances of our own lives being constantly uplifted, thus making our bodies highly immnue against all sorts of viruses. That also applies to me.
I like to read Ms. Beecher's selections of books, and her books teach us a lot about how to make the greatest value (even, virtue !)of our living.
Thanks somuch, Ms. Beecher, all the way from Japan. Kindly be advised that in a remote place such as Chiba, in Japan there's one great admirer of Suzanne Beecher and all of her Dear Readers from around the world.
May you, Beecher-san, continue to have an excellent health and enjoy a professional living !
May all Readers (and certainly, Mr. Geller) be blessed with happy living and working !
Will stay on base...
Kiyoshi Nagata
Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan
/msn-1
Posted by: Kiyoshi Nagata, from Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan | October 02, 2005 at 11:29 PM