letter writers of the world, unite!

Another kinda neat letter writing project: Mysterious Letters

In April 2009, we sent a personal, handwritten letter to each of the 467 households in the small Irish village of Cushendall. We hoped these unsolicited letters would prompt neighbourly discussion, spreading across the town, promoting community curiosity.

Trying to organise my brain (a problem both us Letter Writers seem to have!) with a master list of letters written and not...

Week one: Ryan
Week two: Claire
Week three: Michal
Week four: Amelia
Week five: Jordana
Week six: Rafferty
Week seven: Deth, Ryan, Liza (?)
Week eight: Jason, Joanna

Which brings us up to date, so the timetable for the future is something like this...

Week nine: Sara
Week ten: Bria
Week eleven: Nadine
Week twelve: Melanie
Week thirteen: Wooloomooloo

But as i've already addressed a whole lot of envelopes I can see those five going out pretty soon! It's actually so addictive writing letters again, I don't know if Melanie has found the same thing, but I am really relishing cracking open the paper and pen and sitting down writing to total strangers. I don't know if it's cheap therapy or something, but the routine of pen, paper, envelope, stamp, walk to post office is really lovely- it makes me feel a bit more alive! I started this project with the aim of writing a letter a week, every week for the entire year, two months into it I seem to be doing ok at that. I didn't set out with the plan to make a million new penfriends, so i've not been searching for people who will write a reply- for me the point is just to write, to connect with someone via a letter, without any expectations of a response. Of course some people are replying, and that's really nice- there's nothing better than getting a real hand written letter in the mail, but I am happy knowing that somewhere out there someone has received a letter from me that may or may not brighten their day.

Letter Writers as a blog is open to anyone that wants to join up- leave a comment and I can add you to the list of authors, you just have to promise to write a letter a week for as long as you can.

The Letter Writers Alliance

My membership to The Letter Writers Alliance came in the mail the other day- so exciting! Sadly the special badge had got a bit squashed in the mail and the pin poked a hole in my new paper, but I do get a membership card, so I can feel part of the gang.

Letter writing has been erratic, but I have just put letters in the mail to Jason and Joanna, who weren't on the list originally but I decided to seize the moment and put pen to paper.

My list needs updating as it got a bit muddled up somewhere along the line:

5. Sara in Italy
6. Bria
7. Nadine in Singapore
8. Jordana in Chicago
9. Liza in San Jose

Updating my brain on where I'm at with my letter writing...

Letters sent so far:

AW (Leeds), CT (Manchester), EL (Doncaster), SJ (Leeds), AW (Leeds), BM (Rotherham), HP (Manchester), SJ (Leeds), GH-G (Leeds), AW (Leeds), MW (Bristol)

Still to write:

DW (Bristol)
DB (Hull)
HL (Todmorden)
SC (London)
E CA (Berlin)

Oh, and I wanna write to you Camilla!!

One of the good things about being off sick (maybe the only good thing) is that it has given me a change to write some more letters. So now I think I am all caught up and letters will be on their way just as soon as I get to the postbox.

Little letter

Some of the letters I write are for people who can't read them yet.