...Just a Dog Smoking a Cigarette Outside Pottery Barn

I heard an interview on NPR with Chuck Palahniuk yesterday and he was talking about his fan mail event. This seems like a cool opportunity, so I thought I would share it with you. If you mail Chuck a letter during the month of October, (following strict guidelines) he'll respond with a letter or package. He said that he's been known to send very interesting/unique responses.

The day has finally come! Chuck is allowing you all the month of October to write him letters via his agent at Donadio & Olsen. It's been about two years since the last fanmail window was opened and Chuck has been very busy inbetween. So many of you probably thought this day would never come again. But Chuck has set aside much of the Fall and Winter to answer every piece of mail sent to him. And I can tell you that he's already cooking up some new surprises for the reply mail he sends back to each of you.

Now, as always, there are some very important ground rules Chuck has in place that you all must adhere to. The consequences for not following these rules will be Chuck does not reply to your letter... or even worse, it never gets to him and ends up in a trash basket at his Agent's office.

The Guidelines:

- Letters must be postmarked within the month of October, 2006. I'd encourage people to start writing their letters this last week of September, and then hit the post office the first week of October. Don't do a mad rush in the remaining days of October the way people did last time. The earlier you get your letter sent off, the quicker he'll reply to it.
- No packages are allowed. This includes sending him books you want signed. Letters only!
- Please type out your letters in a clear, legible font. No hand-written notes. No oddly colored ink or papers. Chuck will toss these letters for the ones he doesn't need a map to figure out.
- Return addresses must be made super-clear and be printed on both your envelope AND on the letter itself, and like the letter, be typed out in a legible font. Put it this way, if Chuck can't read your return address, you'll never hear back from him.

Last time around, Chuck asked you all to state your goals. This time around, he'd like to hear more about that, but he'd also like to hear about a recent accomplishment you're proud of. Work, school, a baby...

He also stated that it takes up to four months to respond to some letters -- just
because of that inevitable bulk that comes in the last few days of the window. So to make sure someone gets a response, they should use a mailing address that will still
be valid for the next six months.

Important: Also, remember that the way this works is, you write Chuck your letter. He reads it, responds with his own letter/package, and that's it until the next fanmail window. Every year we do this I get people begging me to let them send a follow-up letter to Chuck to thank him for the reply letter he wrote them. What these people fail to realize is that everyone wants to do that. So you'll just have to be patient with your Thank You letters, or better yet, tell Chuck in person how much his reply meant to you next time you see him read.

Okay, start your engines. Fanmail window opens on October 1st, 2006. Please address your letters to the below:

Edward Hibbert
Donadio and Olson, Inc.
ATTENTION: CHUCK PALAHNIUK FANMAIL
121 W. 27th St. Suite 704
New York, N.Y. 10001

Have fun!