Tag: LetterMo

Here are the links to my weekly LetterMo updates:

• Week 1
• Week 2
• Week 3
• Week 4

The challenge is to mail an item daily for each day of postal service in your area. The second part of the challenge is to reply to all the letters you receive.

I did better this year in sending items out, replying to letters, and posting my updates. Last year I mainly wrote to people I knew. This year I added some new people from the LetterMo forums to my address book. Postable seemed like a popular choice for keeping track of mailing addresses although I did not create an account for myself. I did add my address to a few Postable accounts. I made sure each new person I wrote or was hoping to get a letter from had something in common with me. Usually it was an interest such as reading, writing, or yarn crafting. Continue reading A Month of Letters 2013 Wrap-Up

Lettermo is no more but the spirit lives on.

This week I mostly sent letters:

• Michelle Obama
• Mary Robinette Kowal – I received her reply to my first letter this week so I sent her a reply.
• An introductory letter to a UK Lettermo participant.
• An introductory postcard to a US Lettermo participant.
• Replies to Beth Cato, Rhonda Parrish, and a third Lettermo participant.
• Girls Love Mail – I sent a small package with three letters.
• A birthday present for my niece.

As of today I have mailed 25 items, received 14 Achievements and have an achievement score of 140.

In last week’s update I mentioned some people have mailed hundreds of items and pondered how much was spent in postage. One person was kind enough to share his statistics for the month. In February he sent out 56 cards and spent about $33.40 in postage. He received 23 pieces of mail which I think is a wonderful number. At the end of January he sent out 14 items which may have helped increase what he received.

My mailed items went to:

1. Alberta, Canada
2. Berlin, Germany
3. Southampton, United Kingdom
4. California, Illinois, Georgia, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington D.C, and Wisconsin.

Next week I’ll have a wrap-up post.

 

The third week for the challenge is now over!

This week I mostly sent postcards and letters:

• Artist Deena Warner – Starting in 2005 I’ve received an annual Halloween card from  her. For once, I thought I’d send her a little artwork, and sent her a Niteblade postcard featuring artwork from Marge Simon.
• A reply to Suey of It’s All About Books.
• A friend in New Jersey.
• An introduction letter to a Lettermo Participant who friended me on the forums.

As of today I have mailed 17 items, received 11 achievements and have an achievement score of 90. One person has mailed 374 items. While I can estimate that is quite a bit of postage, I can’t help but wonder what the person has mailed to people. Are they postcards, mailart, packages, or letters?

I have been quite a bit more active on the forums this year for Lettermo and one of the questions posed was “In what order do you send your mail?” When you have a bunch of thank you cards, for example, do you tackle the shortest content first? Do you write them in alphabetical order? Do you send them out according to geographic area?

My goal for Lettermo was to send letters internationally first and when it came to my Valentines I sent them out according to the furthest point from me first to Ohio addresses last. Everything else has been sent with no rhyme or reason.

The second week for the challenge is now over. I skipped mailing on Friday and Saturday and made it up on other days.

It was a big week for Valentines:

• A birthday card for Kimmie’s niece.
• Valentine’s cards for my two best friends.
• Valentine’s postcards to Beth Cato, my parents, and my brother-in-law’s family.
• A postcard to the station manager of the main post office.
• A letter to a fellow Lettermo participant in Germany

Incoming mail is still slow but more than before. My first item was a letter from Suey of It’s All About Books. I received a funny Valentine from Beth Cato. Not surprisingly, a package arrived from my mother with Valentine’s Day goodies for me and my husband. And today I found a pleasantly large envelope from Rhonda Parrish. It was a cute notecard with some Niteblade postcards which I will be sending to other Lettermo participants.

Something new this year for Lettermo are the enhancements to the site. It keeps track of the # of items you mailed, and gives you an achievement score for different things (finding a new mailbox, sending a valentine/birthday wishes, mailing to an international address, etc.). As of today I have mailed 13 items, received 8 achievements and have an achievement score of 42. Some people have mailed out 159 items. That seems unbelievable!

Heather B. Armstrong made a timely post about teaching her daughter how to address an envelope I thought I’d share with you today.

Would you like me to send you something in the mail? Let me know and I’ll send you an email to get your address.

It’s a week into February and I’ve been doing well at keeping up with the challenge.

So far I’ve sent mail to:

• My brother-in-law and his family
• Suey of It’s All About Books
• My mother
• Mary Robinette Kowal
• Senator Sherrod Brown
• Rhonda Parrish

Incoming mail has been small. I received some postage stamps I ordered online and cute Valentine’s Day postcards from Etsy. I’m not expecting much return mail this year.

I thought for this next week it would be interesting to write to authors whose work I like. Some had contact forms on their site or an email address listed. Not surprisingly in this day and age, not many of them have snail mail addresses available. Here were my findings:

1. Kate Atkinson – No snail mail information.
2. Margaret Atwood – Snail mail contacts for agent, foreign language rights, film/tv rights and research/academic inquiries.
3. Emma Donoghue – Snail mail contacts for film rights, agent, speaking engagements, and so on.
4. Neil Gaiman – Snail mail address for one of his assistants.
5. Sara Gruen – Snail mail address for agent and speaking engagements.
6. Joe Hill – No snail mail information.
7. Jim C. Hines – No snail mail information.
8. Lee Martin – Snail mail contacts for media and agents contacts. He’s local to me so I could send a letter to his office at the university but that’s stalkerish behavior.
9. Christopher Moore – No snail mail information.
10. R.L. Naquin – No snail mail information.
11. Kait Nolan – No snail mail information.

If you’re participating, are you doing any “theme” weeks?

I had my weekly updates in draft form and decided to just sum everything up and get it posted since the challenge ended on February 29th. 🙂

The challenge was to send an item each day the post office was open. For February that was 21 days. I never counted bills so I ended up sending out 11 items.

• 2 post cards to complete strangers.
• 1 post card and a note to internet friends.
• 7 cards/notes to friends and family.
• 1 knitted bunny for a birthday present. 🙂

What was I hoping to accomplish? On one level it was to brighten someone’s day. On another level it was to develop a new relationship or deepen an already existing one.

What, if anything, did I learn? It can be difficult writing to strangers unless you  have some common ground. Notes can be too short if you want to really say something. My notes make more sense if I concentrate on one topic or mentally plan what I want to convey. Otherwise, I end up crossing out a lot of things.

Will I continue sending letters? Or do the challenge next year? Yes and yes. I recently watched the first season of Downton Abbey and was struck by how the letters they sent and received were able to shape the storyline. There’s no reason why continued, regular correspondence can’t let the people I care about know I’m thinking of them.

2/6/12 – Today I mailed a thank you card to Portland, Oregon to a fellow challenge participant. And I received my first piece of mail! An Ohio post card from a California participant in the challenge.

2/7/12 – Today I mailed a note card to a former neighbor. She moved out of town to be near her parents and I’ve not seen her in a while.

2/8/12 – Nothing was mailed out today but I received some things I was looking forward to. The stamps and post cards I ordered from the post office arrived. And so did my Corgi Valentine post cards. They are cute!

2/9/12 – Today I mailed two items. A thank you note to the challenge organizer and a challenge participant.

2/10/12 – Nothing went out today.

2/11/12 – I worked on some Valentine’s themed post cards but they didn’t get out in time for the mailman to pick up.