The only titles I can come up with are lame plays on "How They Were Found" so this is the title.

Day 8 — Your favorite internet friend:

Hey Matt B,

This is our realm, on the web, blogs, email, etc. This is where our friendship started and the place it sizzles and stuff. I remember how cool it was the way we “met,” me emailing you about your books and you being all HELL YEAH DUDE I’M COMING TO MUNCIE FOR IN PRINT. Okay, I might have added my own spin to your words, sorry.
But Yeah. I’m so thankful for the opportunities you’ve given me, with the Collagist, but indirectly with my own writing and other things, like Vouched.

More importantly though, you’ve been just a cool dude. I know you are busy writing a sweet novel and editing a killer journal and being a good husband, and it means a lot when you do things like go out to breakfast with me or write me 12 paragraph emails. You show me that dedication to writing doesn’t have to be a removal from a dedication to being a good human being.

My good friend Layne wrote a sweet blog post about the “artistic temperament.” I immediately thought of you, both wondering your reaction and seeing you as an example of an artist who defies such typing. I’m thinking WOOOOO, the contemporary writer needs to be hard-working and friendly, like Matt.

With the way communication is today, I think it takes both effort and good people skills to do meaningful stuff. By this I mean, emailing is pretty easy, but a few sentence response is way different than several paragraphs. Talking to you about your process and your dedication really gets me stoked about doing my own word hustle. Basically what I’m saying is that for someone who writes stories that can give people nightmares, you are a super nice dude, and thanks.

Yeah, you are my favorite internet friend, as per the rules of this letter writing challenge, but I am glad our relationship can go beyond that. Thanks for all you do for me.

KEEP IT REAL
Tyler