I liked his books well enough for many years. I encountered "For Love of Mother-Not" first, and it was just a good, fun, interesting story. And I loved Pip! But it wasn't until several years later that he graduated to being one of a handful of favorite authors, and funnily enough it didn't have a thing to do with what he'd written, it was something he did. A friend of mine had been threatened with legal action by Anne McCaffrey, because she had McCaffrey fan art in the same gallery as art she'd been selling for profit. She was really devatstated by getting legal threats from sombody she'd admired so much, even though it's true she was violating copyright with what she was doing. Well when I heard about that, I was pretty worried. I had a drawing I'd done of Pip in my gallery, and I was selling art, oh no!!! So I emailed to Mr. Foster, and the response I got back totally made my day. He'd taken the time to answer me personally, whem most authors wouldn't have, and he assured me that he wasn't going to sue me for drawing his characters, in fact he felt flattered that I'd done so. (I wish I still had the response, but I lost that email account several years back.) He's a wonderful writer, and I always will enjoy his books just for themselves, but it gives me a warm feeling to know that if I'm buying his stuff, or reccomending it to a friend, that I'm supporting a nice, decent human being who cares about his fans. | |