Emerson Ward Mysteries

Show of hands: Who wants to be on “Oprah”? Who wants their book mentioned as Oprah’s selection of the month? (I do, I do!)

The benefits of being on Oprah’s show are manifestly evident to anyone who’s ever heard of Spanx. I dutifully send a press kit out to Oprah’s producers every time one of my books is published, but they’re not clamoring for me to come on the show.

I heard recently, however, about a woman who wrote Oprah a letter every day for a year, and eventually got booked. I didn’t get details, so don’t know if it was the woman’s persistence or what she wanted to talk about that convinced Oprah to invite her on. But I thought, “I can do that.”

So began The Oprah Project. I figured I could send her a postcard showing the cover of my last book (which does cover subjects worthy of her show, like much-maligned single dads, child porn and other goodies), with a one-line handwritten note. Something like, “Will Smith would be great as Jack” (the name of my protagonist), or “Single dads get short shrift. Ask me why.”

Sending out a card every day isn’t as easy as it looks. Turns out I ran out of pithy things to say after a month. And there were several days I was out of town. And a few days I just plain forgot. But I’m determined to keep sending them, however irregularly, for a year. Or until I run out of stamps.