When was the last time you got a really good letter?

When was the last time you sent one?

When was the last time you remember getting a really good letter?

Like many other folks my age, I was a habitual letter writer as a kid. When we went on holiday for our 2 weeks all-you-can-eat/Brits abroad affair, I would always be popped into a holiday club and end up pen pals with one of the kids in there. I still have the letters from ‘Victoria who lived above a chocolate shop’. She is very clear in my memory despite never having visited her once.

I have written in a previous post…

…about my tatty envelope full of letters. It has all sorts of things in there; postcards, notes passed to friends in class, strange affirmation letters from a school religious retreat; all sorts. My favourites are the letters from Norman the Spider who lived in the airing cupboard. He would ask for details about my dancing competitions, check in on what I wanted for Christmas and send details of his strange travels. The letters from Norman often arrived just as my Dad went off to work on the oil rigs for another few weeks. Strange…

There’s nothing quite like getting a letter through the door though. Nowadays my letters are nearly all from HMRC, the kids’ school talking about attendance or from the bank because I still haven’t remembered to switch to online billing. In other words- none of it is good news. I tend to avoid them in the same way I find I avoid my phone notifications.

(Slight aside, but I do wonder whether it’s why people enjoy ordering from Amazon/online so much. Who doesn’t want a little treat through their door that they have to wait a mere day of two for?)

I’ve been really enjoying these

Austin Kleon

typewriter interviews of late. This latest one with Lynda Barry is wonderful; there is a different sort of response that comes when the brain and the hands are moving at similar speeds I think, rather than skating over a keyboard. Not better, just different.

Over Summer I decided to send some letters out to anyone who signed up for one. I created different themes, gathered different notes, poems and prompts and sent them out to friends and strangers.

I popped a few in the Morecambe and Lancaster zine library for people to take home. I got some lovely stuff back from people as well. This is my absolute favourite sort of post.

I enjoyed it so much, I have decided to do it again in the form of a workshop. I love that this way of doing it offers a couple of moments to engage with a theme, rather than just at the workshop itself.

This time the theme is Lighthouses; it feels something we all need right now.

Here’s the post that gives more info-

And you can book your place here:

If you would like to book a place for a friend- perhaps as a present- then I can make sure a lovely envelope full of words lands through their letterbox before Christmas with a personalised message from you.

I keep my workshops light touch and playful, and there is never any pressure to share what you have written, unless you want to. I design them in a way that makes sense to me; i.e. in a neurodivergent friendly way.

I think online is a great medium for writing workshops- there is a sense of privacy and freedom that comes from that. I find it incredibly hard to write freely in a room full of other people! I’m really interested in exploring how we bring the analogue and digital together and this feels like the perfect medium for that.

As ever, any questions just message here.

Finally, an ask from me-

I would really, REALLY appreciate it if you passed this along to anyone you thought would enjoy it. I am trying to unhook myself from the Instagram/Facebook promotion loops that just don’t work any more, but that means I need your help to spread the word.

Thanks for reading.

Em x

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Bits and bobs I’ve enjoyed from the week

1. Blindboy smashing it out the park again in this chat with a neuroscientist

2. Neurotypicals don't juggle chainsaws from

   KateFox

3. Latest season of The Old Man

4. Comfort reading in the eves in the form of No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency books

5. Less comfort-y but sooooo interesting- reading about Chokepoint Capitalism via Cory Doctorow and Rebecca Gilpin