Letter Writers Alliance

The World's Most Famous Ghost Story

Don't you know it? It's A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. In honor of the season, and in proper holiday spirit (emphasis on spirit), we have a giveaway for you! Along with our fiends friends  over at Evil Supply Company, we offer to you this small gift. 

To claim one, please send us a picture of your favorite post office or mail box. You can email them, along with your L.W.A. member number and mailing address, but if you mail us your picture and info, you'll get an extra secret special something. Offer valid until December 31st, 2015 or til I run out of wee little notebooks. Thanks so much to the Evil Supply Co. for the opportunity. Did you know, they are an L.W.A. Ambassador! They join Shop Analog and GREER as places where you can get a membership to the Alliance. What good company!

P.S. And do check out Evil Supply. Their stationery and other goodies are sheer delights.

Mary & Me: A Lasting Link Through Ink

"For thirty years, the Marys have maintained their correspondence, their connection empowered by sheets of paper. Through their letters, these two friends have been able to get through extremely difficult moments and grow as mothers, friends, and community members. Their commitment to each other is apparent within these pages. One cannot help but smile when reading how Mary Kenyon and Mary Humston have flourished through their friendship with each other." 

Kathy and I had a unique opportunity to write the forward for the upcoming book Mary & Me: A Lasting Link Through Ink. The book follows their thousands of letters through their thirty year friendship. It's always a distinct pleasure to see pen pals with strong and lengthy correspondences. What a treat to share in them with the Marys in this new book. 

Also a treat, the Marys are hosting some classes and talks to promote the book. They are having "Letter-Writing 101" workshops for women at libraries and bookstores. You can find a listing of the events on their website. The first one is August 29th (TOMORROW!) at the Carroll Public Library in Iowa. We are also hosting a give-away of a copy of the book here. EDIT: 8/31/15: The contest is now closed. To win, please leave a comment with your fondest pen pal memory. A winner will be chosen at random on Monday morning, the 31st of August, 2015. Standard L.W.A. contest rules apply (AKA you'll be asked to provide your member number to claim your prize). 

 

Letters from Authors

LWA member Chris from Kansas City shared with us his favorite letters from a project he had where he would send bookmarks to various authors. Some of those authors wrote him back in thanks. When he couldn't locate an address, he would send his letter in care of the author's publisher. He says that British authors were more likely to respond to him than American ones, which I found interesting, but not exactly surprising. 

From Anthony Powell:

From Graham Swift:

From Bailey White:

I love the difference in responses. What an nice project and I'm glad he got some replies. The bookmarks he sent out were rather nice, which I'm certain helped his return rate. Great job, Chris, and thanks for sharing.

I've had a great time writing to my favorite authors as well. If you choose to do so, remember that authors are in the business of writing. I have gotten responses from people years after the original sending. Patience is key. Also, you might not get a response at all and that is okay. If writing was my job (more of my job), I might not want to do it so much in my leisure time.

P.S. Here's Chris's bookmarks. Aren't they nice?

 

P.P.S. Want some? Chris was nice enough to send us an assortment. Simply send a S.A.S.E. to the L.W.A. P.O. Box addressed to "Bookmarks" and I'll be happy to share while supplies last.

Write On Campaign

 

 

Continuing their campaign from last year, the teams at Egg Press and Hello!Lucky are partnered to give away FREE letter writing kits consisting of 4 letterpress cards and a Gelly Roll pen from Sakura of America. They are doing this to encourage everyone to participate in National Letter Writing Month. They challenge you to write one letter each day for the thirty days of the month. It is open to International friends too, but they do ask that you make a small donation to help out with the shipping cost. Simply go here and fill in the form to get your kit.

Share your letter writing fun on social media with the hashtag #write_on to show your support of letter writing. Happy National Letter Writing Month, everyone! Get writing!

 

Making Mail Giveaway

The Making Mail documentary is available for anyone to watch online, but here at the L.W.A. Clubhouse, we thought we'd get in on the giving spirit and send a lucky member/commenter a bonavide copy on disc. If you'd like to win, leave us a comment about your favorite part of the movie. Contest closes Monday morning. **Contest now closed** Good luck!

P.S. Regular L.W.A. giveaway rules apply: You must be a member of the Alliance to play. The winner will be asked to provide their member number in order to claim their prize. International members will be invoiced for shipping.

P.S. - Free Spot to the Fountain Pen Workshop

A postscript for today! Greer is giving away ONE ticket to our Fountain Pen Lab that is this weekend. Read the instructions below and comment in her Instagram post. The winner will be announced tomorrow. For those of you who do not want to leave anything to chance, we have one more ticket left and registration closes tonight at 11pm CST.

 

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This Saturday, October 11 at 1pm, @16sparrows and @dovbee of The Letter Writers Alliance will be teaching a group of devoted correspondents the tips and tricks of using fountain pens. The $75 class fee includes a Kaweco Sport transparent fountain pen and cartridge. Sign up for the class at 16sparrows.typepad.com. For a chance to snare a free spot in the class, comment on this post using the hashtags #greerchicago and #fountainpen. Winner will be announced tomorrow.

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Letters to My Future Self

The extremely talented and generous Lea Redmond is at it again. She sent over some copies of her new project through Chronicle books: Letters to My Future Self. It's a hardback collection of bound aerogrammes with different writing prompts. The idea is that you fill it out and have it to reference...in the future. Genius. Of course, this is from the creator of the World's Smallest Post Service, so it's no surprise that she's just full of fantastic ideas. Get this, she's even got another version coming out called Letters To My Baby. 

Lea kindly sent along a couple of copies to us. We'd like to share with the class. Our standard contest rules apply: leave a comment with what letter you WISH you had written your future self and we'll pick a winner at random next week. **Contest is closed. Thanks for your insightful comments.** You'll need to give us your member number to claim your prize, and International winners will be asked to cover to the shipping fee. 

Neatography Giveaway

Last month, Lindsey of Neatography was kind enough to share one of her paper packages with us. I've done some reviews of paper subscriptions before, and Neatography is one of those. It definitely has the nicest branding. The package can sealed with a sweet little snail. Awww. Lindsey sent us one of the "Good Old Days" packs. You can read a description of all of the nifty contents on her blog. There are lots of options on the site. You can have a monthly or quarterly delivery of a card and stamps subscription or a paper goods subscription. The shipping is included for U.S. shipments which I think is a nice touch. She's already sending the next bunch of good for June, but you can win this pack from May by commenting here about what your favorite paper pack would contain. You only need to tell me one thing, but if you have a whole slew, feel free to share. A winner will be chosen at random sometime next week. You'll need your L.W.A. member number to claim your prize. Domestic shipping is free, but International shipping will need to be covered by the winner. Good luck! **Contest now closed** I'm excited to read what you guys fantasize about in a paper subscription. Thanks for the giveaway, Lindsey, and for being a member of the Letter Writers Alliance!

~Donovan

Kind Regards: The Lost Art of Letter-Writing

I picked up this book as part of a letter writing book buying spree. I won't deny that the cover really caught my eye. Those silhouettes, the pillar box, the stamp edges; it's all very lovely and speaks to me. Kind Regards: The Lost Art of Letter-Writing by Liz Williams is a pretty basic book. It's really elementary stuff. There's little bits of trivia, a historical letter or two, and some guidelines. I wish the design sense of the cover continued inside, but it's mainly clip art repeats and rough newsprint pages. It's sustainable paper though, according to the cover.

This is not a book for me. I suspect it's not really a book for the readers of this blog either. This is a book for someone who has no clue about letter writing, and there are those people out there. There are people who truly have no idea where to put the address on the envelope. I've seen them. This is a great book for them. If you know someone who might be in to writing letters, someone probably between the ages of 10 and 20, then I think that a copy of this book (plus maybe a membership to the Letter Writers Alliance)(eh?) would be an excellent gift. 

So, here's a little contest. Leave a comment telling me about who you would give the book and a free membership to as a gift. I'll pick one at random and send you the copy and a membership. It's open to all L.W.A. members. Do not leave your member number in the comment; I'll ask for it when you claim your prize. This is open to International members, but you'll have to pay for shipping which will be $24.00. Good luck!  The contest is now closed!

 

Handmade Envelopes for All*

*Well, for 10 of you, but that's more than one by a bunch! L.W.A. member Yuri in New Zealand sent us an amazing donation of dozens of handmade envelopes inside of other mail-arted envelopes. All you have to do to get an envelope of goodness is leave a comment. We'll pick 10 on this Wednesday, the 25th. To claim your prize, you will have to provide your L.W.A. member number. That's one of the many perks of membership-access to contests. Good luck everyone!

 

P.S. HEY, I changed my mind. I'm going to send out as many packages of envelopes as I have. I know it's more than 10, but not sure how much more. More chances for all!