The internet is a wonderful thing—and so is the publishing industry. In my many, many years as a writer and editor, I’ve made the acquaintance of a great number of wonderful people. But that includes many I have yet to meet in person…or, as we write on the internet, “f2f.”
I just lost one such friend this week. Cancer claimed her. I am very sad. I loved her for the wonderful, dear friend she was. And yet I never met her face to face.
Penny Adams was first an editor, later a publisher. I met her while I was “wearing my writer’s hat” (as opposed to, for example, Deb, and Lori, each of whom I met when I was working in an editorial capacity). Of these latter two, I have met only Lori face to face, and only because she took a trip to South Florida and scheduled a visit with me as part of her itinerary.
Deb and I go back pre-internet. We started writing snailmail letters back and forth, at first about the manuscripts she was submitting to the magazines I was then editing, but later the letters got more and more chatty and personal. When we both finally had email, we switched from postal letters to electronic ones, and we have long since been writing to each other every day.
Lori and I exchange plural emails daily—one long one in each direction every morning and then brief catch-ups later.
Penny—the one who just died—and I exchanged daily emails as well, one every morning until Tuesday of last week, when she became too ill with the cancer and could no longer answer me. I kept on sending her my morning missives, however, till Monday morning, when I was informed that she had passed on to the next world Sunday night. It was less than a week since she had been informed that her illness was widespread stage 4 cancer.
She was a dear friend—a daily emails and occasional phone calls, sometimes-on-Facebook friend. I am missing her terribly already.
And I never did meet her face to face. There’s the internet—and the publishing industry—for you. Rest in peace, Penny. May your soul—and your cancer-racked body—be finally at peace.