Dear Mr and Mrs Eddings,
Given the amount of fan mail that I expect you receive, I don't imagine that you recall a letter from Charlie Meigh, last year, telling you (among other things) of a group of UK fans (the possibly misnamed 'websters') leaving our computers and the comfortable Internet Eddings discussion forum of alt.fan.eddings and getting together for our own version of an Alorn Council. This went ahead, last November, and was a rip-roaring success; much beer was drunk, there was poor-quality and off-key singing, we shouted at one another about how to pronounce the word "Riva", and my team won the Great Eddings Quiz (one of the prizes, you may be amused to hear, being a small blue stone).
This event was so successful that we have decided to hold another; July of this year will see a slightly larger group of us descend on the small town of Badby in Central England for more of the same. The first event was christened "the Eosian Council", in remembrance of Alorn Councils, and has sparked off a series of small events around the globe in the same vein, and lots of amusing discussion about what to call them. The first Australian event (should that be EVENT?) was called "the Valesian Council", and there have been numerous others.
Once again, we would like to extend an offer to you to attend as Guests of Honour. I suspect that this offer will be declined; as you said in your reply to Charlie's letter, "I've been where I'm goin'". (Your reply was read out at the first Eosian Council, and generally marvelled at). The unlikelihood of your attendance is compounded by the fact that (much as last time) our budget is tight (to say the least) and would be stretched way beyond breaking point by return transatlantic flights. However, your names will no doubt be invoked in absentia (they were last year; honestly, you've never seen someone toasted as much), and if you could find the time to pen us a letter to be read at the meet then we would all be deeply appreciative. Would it also be possible to prevail upon you to sign some bookplates for us to give away? The batch last year went into books to be given as prizes in the quiz (I failed to pick the copy of the Rivan Codex from the bag and was thoroughly annoyed by this!) and are treasured still by winners.
I admit that this letter is computerised (although this may not be a surprise, coming from a denizen of the Internet); although I can handwrite things, my writing has never as yet attracted the description "readable", so I shall spare you the effort of decoding it, and type and print this letter.
We'd be happy to send you an account of the weekend, should you wish to hear about all the debauchery being enacted in your name; perhaps we should offer to trade it for a sneak preview of the new book? Much speculation has been offered on this subject....

Yours ever,



Stuart Langridge
on behalf of the Eosian Council II organisation cabal