Thinking of that, it's pretty amazing that I got this postcard. It's dated 24th August '72, and says, "Dear April, I loved your story about Herman the frog. I read it aloud to my daughter, Ophelia, who also loved it. I read it to my secretary, Hazel, who giggled. Lots of love, Roald Dahl." What's even more amazing is that Dahl took the short story I sent him when I was 12 - carefully printed on wide-ruled paper- to lunch with the editor of a children's magazine. She contacted me later and asked if she could publish it. It was about a six-foot-tall frog who loved peanut butter.
If I ever got a copy of the magazine, I lost it years and years ago. I had a vague memory it was called Puffin, but I was never able to find it on Google. And I was sure I had it wrong. After all, Puffin is a book publisher.
But I've been asked to write about how Roald Dahl helped make me be a writer for the LA Review of Books. And somehow today I hit on the right combination of search terms and found out there was a magazine that featured children's writings called Puffin Post that was put out by Puffin in the 1970s. And they also published Roald Dahl. That has to be it. I just sent off an email to Puffin Post (which folded but has since been resurrected).
I am beyond excited to think I might see my old story again.
