Students who engage in extensive reading typically experience texts as finished books by remote or even anonymous authors. This presentation recounts a rare “meet-the-author” experience of two university classes who had a highly satisfying Zoom exchange with a writer after reading his series of 10 books. This gave them the opportunity to ask how the author conceived the themes, chose the settings, created the contents, who particular characters were based on, why they acted as they did, and other questions. The presentation explains the preparation necessary for a good exchange, the rationale for the format chosen (brief author presentation followed by questions), the key role a publisher can play, and the positive motivation and learning outcomes indicated by students, who saw reading (and writing) in a new light after the opportunity to speak directly with an author. Presentation will also discuss directions for future research.