Most were, tho the streets were less urban than I expected. Some of the house numbers did not exist, and actually could not have, situated as they were between existing houses.

Got me wondering about the people who wrote those letters. How long did they live in those houses? Where are they now? And how many, if any, were figments of Stan’s (or Flo’s) imagination?

It was a fun experience for my 15 year old self. Gave me something very like a sense of participation. Unfortunately, when I became a professional, I saw that many fans who’d had letters published took that fuzzy feeling WAY too far. They began thinking of themselves as somehow part of the creative process.

One letter I received during my time on FF was somewhat typical. It was evidently the second letter the guy had written about a particular story. I had no memory of the first, but he’d apparently completely missed where I was taking my tale, and, according to the second letter, had written to show me the error of my ways. He wrote the follow-up to express his pleasure that I’d followed his advice and saved the story.

Of course, he clearly had no idea that the second part of my story was finished months before he saw the first. Like so many readers he assumed the books were completed only a week or so before they hit the stands.