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March 12, 1990 Dear Jack (and Carolee!). So good to hear from you. I do appreciate your letters in more ways than one: it renews my confidence in writers of working-class origin. It makes me happy to know there are people who will writer letters in this day and age when a lot of folks don't even writer anymore, let alone for a friend, and it makes me want to continue the rewriting stage of my second novel, which always seems difficult. (either you think you aren't capable of writing anything or that the first draft is so awful you can't improve it) So you and Carolee give me couarge. Reminds me, that one of the four main characters inthe novel is Coralee, named after a women I used to work with in a NYC hospital. She was brave and very sweet, and we lost touch. I hope someone is making he happy somewhere. I recall that she and I and another psychiatric tech. marched down to the basement engineering office one day to present a petition to rehire a harrassed worker. Haven't thought about that in years.

• I have gone back to my practice of getting up at 4AM to write. It keeps me sane.