Announcements, Blog/Journal, News

LetterMo 2023 Wrap-up

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Welcome to March, LetterMo-ians. We have crossed the date line into March. We hope you’ve had a rewarding experience writing and receiving post for the past month. If you are so inclined, we encourage you to March on, and keep in contact with you pen pals, new and old.

This website becomes a bit of a ghost town from mid-March until January. The LetterMo.com website will be active and available to you during that stretch, however your industrious team of volunteer admins will be making improvements, and updates. This may cause minor disruptions to access to the site, but be confident we are working on it.

LetterMo.com Website Survey

In order to provide the best experience we can, we are asking 2023 LetterMo participants to give us feedback by way of a survey. Your answers will help volunteer admins know where to focus our energy.

https://tinyurl.com/LetterMo23Survey

The form has 13 questions in 5 sections, and should take about 10 minutes to complete.

GoFundMe

Thank you to those of you who contributed to the GoFundMe campaign we ran to raise the funds to keep LetterMo.com up and running for 2024.

I’m excited to say we reached our goal of $1,000, and a little beyond.

If you found LetterMo worthwhile, and still want to contribute, any additional funds we raise will be directed to the creator of LetterMo. She has generously been funding the website hosting and domain name despite turning over the care of the site to volunteer admins.

You can still donate here: https://tinyurl.com/LetterMo-2023-GoFundMe

Blog/Journal, Fun Things

Collaborative Blog Posts

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Why do you write letters or postcards?

I love the exchange and meeting new people from around the world. 

Fabi

What stories have you seen / read / heard that include letter-writing as an essential part of the plot or style?

Perhaps one of my favorite books written in a letter writing style is the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Anne Barrows and Mary Anne Shaffer. It was a very pleasant book to read, although the topic was not so charming, the German occupation of the Island of Guernsey during World War II.

I understand it was made into a movie. To date, I have never seen the movie. Sometimes when a book is much enjoyed the movie does not always live up to the written word.

MaryKayFL

The Flower Letters

Toucan

weylyn42

Announcements, Blog/Journal, News

You’re Invited – Virtual Social and Write-In

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Make your writing public!

LetterMo is hosting a virtual letter writing social. We have a Zoom room dedicated to the Social and Write-in, and the Volunteer Admin Team will be hosting in the room twice on the weekend of Saturday Feb 25 – Sunday Feb 26 (depending on your timezone).

If the larger online meet-up doesn’t work for you, we encourage LetterMoians to coordinate with letter writers local to them, invite friends and family to join in a real location, coordinate an online hangout with your favorite pen-pal, or simply take your letter writing to a public place.

Full invitation with passcode to enter the Zoom room can be found at these Members Only sites:

Continue reading You’re Invited – Virtual Social and Write-In →

Blog/Journal, Fun Things

Describe your ideal pen pal

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A Collaborative Blog Post

The ideal pen pal would be a great friend who gets as excited about receiving a letter as I do. They would be open and thoughtful and a joy to write back and forth with. 

catholicamanda

My ideal pen pal would share my love of fantasy stories and our letters would be a joined creation of a story and a universe, with everybody playing their character.

Toucan

My ideal pen pal is patient. I have a difficult time (especially lately) with making prompt replies. They would also have some interests that overlap with mine, and some that are different. Someone who likes sending and receiving inserts, found objects, tea, etc.

Christy S.

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Why do you write letters or postcards?

Due Feb. 21

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Blog/Journal, Fun Things

How do you personalize your letters?

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A Collaborative Blog Post

I try to read the profile and each person gets a different letter – something I think they might be interested in. Then there’s sometimes washi tapes and wax seals

Toucan

I typically tend to use stationery I print myself, write with my fountain pen, and seal it with a wax seal. I’m not super artsy or creative so that tends to be the best I can get for crafty personalization. What I write depends on what was written to me. I don’t like to use form letters so I don’t.

catholicamanda

I try to personalize my letters with stickers, crafting paper and everything else I can think of. 

Fabi

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Describe your ideal pen pal.

Due Feb. 18

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Blog/Journal, Fun Things

Tell us about a letter that you sent or received that has special meaning for you

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This might seem odd, but here we go:

I am big geek and as such I go to conventions in steampunk costumes. It is great fun to meet people there. And some steampunks take a liking to penmanship as well. So for a couple of years I had a pen pal in Sweden and we used to write each other in our steampunk persona. We talked about our adventures and made sure to include outdated vocabulary and old cards to keep up the façade of two ladies in the 1880s writing to each other. It was the best and I still think about it from time to time. 

Toucan

Steampunk style typewriter
David Copperfield's Hollywood Star

When I was about 10 we went to see David Copperfield perform magic at our local civic center. Afterwards I was waiting in line with my mom, clutching a purchased 8.5″ x 11″ head shot for him to sign. As we got closer to the magician himself, I realized he was signing things, and taking pictures with people, but he was not getting anything in return.

Dismayed, I asked my mom for a pen and paper, and being the woman she was, she was able to provide a small notebook and pen from her purse (a good habit I have taken up). I wrote a quick note to Mr. Copperfield, signing it with flourish.

Heart pounding, I waited while my glossy was signed, then handed him my note. I think I told him it was because he wasn’t getting anything. I no longer have the picture, but I do have a great story.

Christy S

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How do you personalize your letters?

Due Feb. 16

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Where is your favorite place to write letters? To read letters?

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I usually write my letters at the very desk I work at ( I am working from home) for two very simple reasons – the light is the best and I have my washi tape and stamps right next to me.

It’s a whole different deal with reading: if it’s government letters or invoices, I read them directly in the staircase – and the same is true for postcards. Letter on my couch, with a hot beverage to really dive in.

Toucan

I love to write letters sitting at my desk or the kitchen counter. I write most often with my fountain pens, so I do need a flat surface and some space to set my things out.

As for reading letters, I’ll read letters anywhere but I love to sit down with a cup of tea and my cat purring in my lap when I open letters from new and old friends.

catholicamanda

Black and white image of woman sitting at writing desk, writing a letter

Hello, My favorite place to write letters is oddly enough at my kitchen table.

The reason being is I have a great view of my window to see all the birds at my feeders and boy do I get alot of birds! So i love sitting there at the table with my stickers, my stationery, or my plain ole notebook paper, my variety of pens, my cards, my washi tape and just write away! Very relaxing and peaceful and enjoyable! It’s just incredible to see all the birds at the feeders while I write.

If it’s night time…. and I am a night owl….I still love writing at the table but also will write on the couch with my stickers etc around me.

Alaina

I love to sit in an armchair with a cup of my favorite tea and read my letters with a direct view of the trees in front of my window. When writing I prefer my desk cause I can’t concentrate on the letter fully otherwise. Although in the last years I learnt how to write on trains cause I spent a damn lot time in trains thanks to a long distance relationship.

Fabi

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Tell us about a letter you received / sent that has special meaning to you.

Due Feb. 13

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Tell us about the pen pal who is farthest away from you, geographically

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My pen pal who is the farthest away from me? Mhm…I guess from Germany it would be Uruguay that is the furthest away. And we just started writing like a year ago, so not too much to tell. It is interesting to see the different kinds of cultures though.

Fabi

Globe with paper airplanes circling around them - Created by verry poemomo from Noun Project

From Florida, the pen pal who is furthest away from me is from Australia. I met her here, through the LetterMo.com site. I find it interesting to realize that when I’m suffering from a cold winter, she is deep in summer, and vice versa.

Christy S.

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Where is your favorite place to write letters? To read them?

Due Feb. 11

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Blog/Journal, Fun Things

Cursive, Print or Typed? Why?

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I have been told that my handwriting can be impossible to read, so I TRY to write legibly which means s-l-o-w-l-y. When I speed up and my thoughts to express are flying to fast for my hand to keep up, it gets messy. (I can still read it but, yeah, I get it!) Fountain pens help me to write pretty and also help slow me down, and if I have been told that it is hard to read my script, I will type. I wonder sometimes what a handwriting expert would say about my personality — I tend to lean left AND write and switch up my cursive with print, even in the same sentence.

Carrie H.

I prefer to write in cursive, cause it is faster for me. I like to read all kinds of different hand writings.

Fabi

Hello I prefer cursive writing because it just feels more natural more connected to my pen pal. I love the feel of pen on paper. I have used my computer tho when I’m behind on writing and want to catch up or I have access to the computer and can ‘write’ several letters quickly. However I much prefer pen on paper …. different color pens and themed stationery when possible.

Alaina

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Tell us about the pen pal who is farthest away from you, geographically.

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In February, mail one item every day it runs. #lettermo Sign up to find Lettermo Penpals!