Hey letter-writers: do you want to be in my book?

I think I might have mentioned but I haven’t really explained… I’m writing a new book! It's about snail-mail.

It’s been a long time between books for me - Airmail came out in 2011 and I wrote it a couple of years before that. I started and didn’t finish another novel in the interim, and I haven’t entirely given up on that but then I moved internationally, then I moved states six times, I got married, I had two babies within 18 months of each other, and, you know, LIFE got in the way.

In my naivety about life with kids I kept thinking “when the dust settles I’ll get back onto this or that creative project,” but now that my oldest daughter has reached the ripe old age of three, and my step-daughter is 17, I have realised that when it comes to parenting the dust NEVER settles and if you wait until life begins to resemble the way it was BC (Before Children), you will a) be doomed to creative-project purgatory and b) be wishing your children’s childhoods away.

So… I’m writing a new book. Busy life, work, children and all. AND… I want YOU to be in it!

My book is about snail-mail. I like to think of it as a companion to the growing number of snail-mail books that are beautifying our shelves. You know, the books that talk about how snail-mail is a dying movement; and the books that talk about the revival of snail-mail; the books that celebrate the history of snail-mail and its impact on human communication and connection; the books that talk about how snail-mail feeds the souls of both the senders and the recipients; and the books tell those of us who want to know WHY we should pick up a pen and write a letter, and HOW to go about making it extra special.

My book is the next logical step to those books. It doesn’t pit snail mail against email, or fast against slow. It celebrates the way the two can work together, to promote connection, creativity, purposeful communication, genuine thoughtfulness, and a sense of play, celebration, surprise and joy. In my book I celebrate the “mail heroes,” folks who are doing amazing, creative, surprising things with the post that inspire the rest of us. I introduce you to mail communities you can join (both online and offline); clever and creative projects you can be part of; and quirky resources and playful toys and activities that all put the joy back into writing and sending a letter.

It’s a little bit like the book version of my zine 19 ways to make snail mail (even more) fun, except at last count I had more than 100 snail-mail-esque goodies to write about in the book, every one of them with a “call to action,” a way you can get involved or create something or in some way enhance your own experience of and joy in writing letters.

Do you want to be in this book? I really hope so! Following are two ways you can be part of it (there may be more invitations to follow, but I’m not sure):

1. Tell me in one or two sentences, who should you write a letter to today, and why?

2. Did you participate in the write_on “30 letters in 30 days” challenge this year or last year? Please share in one or two sentences: “What I learned / gained from writing 30 letters in 30 days”

Email your answer(s) to me at nabulger (at) gmail (dot) com, and use the subject-heading “write_on" so I don’t lose you in the chaos that is my inbox.

I will quote you using your first and last name, unless you advise otherwise (I’ll follow any requests for pseudonyms etc you desire). If you’d like a bit of a plug, I’m happy to include ONE blog URL or social media link per person, so include that if you’d like to see it in the book.

I look forward to hearing from you, and please share this with your friends. It would be fabulous to get as many different responses as possible.

Yours truly, Naomi xo

(Image is from the Smithsonian Institution, on Flickr. No known copyright restrictions)

Beautiful, creative, generous, heartwarming incoming mail

It's time - long overdue - to do a bit of show-and-tell with some of the SERIOUSLY GENEROUS snail-mail that has been filling my letterbox of late. Each and every one of these letters and postcards completely made my day. Every time (every single time!) I find a personal letter or card in the letterbox, it puts a big smile on my face, and a very special tingle of anticipation as I wait to open it. That's one of the main reasons why I love snail mail so much: it's so personal, you can see the person's handwriting, their drawings, paintings, pastings, and gain so much insight into their lives and thoughts than words alone could share. A big, heartfelt thank-you to everyone here (and to the other gorgeous letter-writers, whose beautiful mail I haven't yet had time to photograph).

∧∧ Zoya sent me a wonderful, heartwarming letter about her world, and made these amazing gifts for me and the kids. I have been admiring the watercolour paintings on her blog Step, Skip, Pause and on Instagram for a long time, and can't believe I'm now the owner of something so beautiful! Take a look at those seriously adorable crocheted veggies! They were presents for my children, who absolutely LOVE them. Ralph carries them around in his mouth (good one, kid), and Scout has found them perfect for the little play kitchen she got for her birthday. Zoya, I owe you a proper, hand-written, heart-felt thank you in the mail. It's coming soon!

∧∧ This rainy-day envelope from Ally is about as pretty as it gets, and it brought genuine sunshine to my day when it arrived in my letterbox. And then when I opened the letter, it literally rained beautiful, thoughtful paper ephemera. It was a bonanza of beautiful, thoughtful things. In her letter Ally said she wasn't particularly artistic but, looking at this collection and at the amazing mail art, I beg to differ! Don't you? You can see beautiful images from Ally's world on her Instagram feed, and I highly recommend her blog Everyday Miracles.

∧∧ This hand-coloured springtime field of flowers postcard from Jen was exactly what the doctor ordered on a rainy, icy Melbourne winter's afternoon. I was so touched at the time Jen had taken not only to write to me all the way from Oregon, USA, but also to so beautifully colour this piece of mail-art.

∧∧ I loved the rainbow drawn across this envelope from Bek of Just For Daisy and, after I opened it, the rainbow contents brightened my day. How sweet is Bek's idea of drawing on little paint cards? I am definitely going to try that myself! Her letter was so sweet, and she even hand-made a little envelope filled with old stamps!

∧∧ Eileen's postcard from Arizona came on just the right afternoon, when I was feeling a bit flat and a bit of a failure in a number of ways. Her kind, friendly words cheered me up no end, and (I must remember to write and tell Eileen this), Arizona is one of my favourite places: so much space, so much history, so much sky! I can't wait to go back there one day, and Eileen's postcard brought back so many memories.

∧∧ Jaimie and I share the same "library card" stationery, so clearly she is a woman of excellent style and taste! Her letter, written on several of these precious cards (a true gift I can tell you, because each card is unique and relates to a classic text, and it's hard to say goodbye to them), was chatty and friendly and, just, lovely! She really made me smile.

∧∧ So many beautiful paper things filled this beautifully-addressed letter from Sandra: little handmade envelopes, tiny pictures and stickers from the children, and a fascinating clipping about Australia from almost 100 years ago. I say "fascinating" but it was also embarrassing, containing some shamefully racist comments. I'm sorry you had to read that Sandra. Our country has a lot to learn and a long way to go, but I promise that does not describe our attitudes at all any more!

∧∧ Scout instantly coveted the glitter cupcake on this lovely card from Julia. She even took it to bed and cuddled it during her nap that afternoon! I loved Julia's letter. I felt like it was a little window into friendship, and Julia if you're reading this, I promise to write back to you PROPERLY, soon.

∧∧ Scout was also MOST enamoured of the star-spangled, pink-topped, double-cupcake balloon card in this mail from Sandra and, come on: who WOULDN'T be? It was adorable, as was Sandra's friendly letter about her Aunty Margaret. I like to hold the delicately-painted mandala pebble in my hand sometimes. It is cool, and smooth (not to mention beautiful), and somehow calming.

∧∧ Karen from Leaf and Petal Vintage (on Instagram here and on her blog here) said she saw this vintage postcard and thought of me. I love it so much, and the gorgeous vintage sewing-pattern card! It was all so thoughtful of her! The postcard contains a birthday message for Mr A.J. Simons from "Nell," sent in August of 1909. Isn't that wonderful to ponder? I wonder who those two were. Friends? Relatives? Colleagues? Lovers? Ah, snail mail.

∧∧ Emily's postcard from her family weekend in Port Fairy was so sweet, and arrived the day before I got to meet Emily in person at a bloggers' meet-up in Melbourne. She blogs at Squiggle and Swirl, and this is her beautiful Instagram feed. I was able to ask Emily about her trip, just as if we were old friends, which I wish we were because Emily is LOVELY.

∧∧ This letter from Pippa was a proper, long, newsy letter. The kind you read after first making a cup of tea and raiding the biscuit tin, then sitting down in comfort for a true snail mail indulgence. Our lives on opposite sides of the world, and one in the city and the other in the country, are so different. And yet I felt like we had so much in common, and loved the insights Pippa shared of her world.

∧∧ Just look at the hand-painted and pasted Valentine's Day card I received (blank so I could give it to someone I love) from correspondence artist Lefty Smudges! The card made it all the way from Canada to Australia and arrived after Valentine's Day, but I'm pleased about that because now I get to enjoy it for a whole year before passing on the clever, artsy goodness.

∧∧ This letter brightened my day when it arrived all the way from Germany. Anke also participated in the 30 letters in 30 days April challenge, and I was one of the lucky recipients of her colourful, cheerful words and paper. I hope she enjoyed the challenge as much as I did!

Snail-mail vending machine

File this under fun but probably-impractical business ideas: I want to find myself a vintage, coin-operated vending machine, and fill it with beautiful stationery and snail-mail ephemera*.

Stuff you need if you want to send a letter on the go, or just feel suddenly inspired: airmail envelopes, beautiful short-run letterpress stationery, hand-painted cards by local artists, unique postcards, sealing wax and seals, and boxes of matches. Stamps of course, washi tape, pens, pencils, stickers, and all kinds of other snail-mail-esque goodies. Maybe some vintage postcards and vintage used stamps, and possibly even some good snail-mail related books.

I'd restock my vending machine regularly, changing up the stationery and card options so that passers-by could always find something new and beautiful to send to friends and lovers and pen-pals.

My vending machine would stand somewhere unexpected, like the street-art-covered wall of a laneway beside a cafe, or under the pavilion of a park, or inside an art gallery. It'd be pretty fun, don't you think?

* Inspired by this snail-mail vending machine, spotted at an airport (a much more sensible location, I admit) in Taiwan

Mail-art tips from Darren Di Lieto

It’s been Mail Central around here lately, and here are 11 of my latest creations. The whole house smells of matches and sealing wax and take it from me, that scent should be made into a perfume. It is SO good.

In the spirit of making pretty mail, I thought I’d share some tips for making successful (ie. “safe to travel through the post”) mail-art from Darren Di Lieto, founder of the international mail-art phenomenon, Mail Me Art. Darren was kind enough to share these tips with me when I interviewed him for a book I’m writing right now, celebrating the heroes of mail; and the unique, the quirky, the joyful and the unexpected sides of snail-mail. Consider this a book teaser. I hope to share it with you soon!

Here are Darren's tips:

* Keep it simple and don't be too precious! With mail art it's not an artwork until it's been delivered.

* Be proud of the work, but don't coddle it, wrapping it to protect it defeats the point.

* If you have to use glue you'll probably end up with half of your work missing by the time it reaches its destination. Also paper cut artwork will normally struggle to survive.

* Expect water based paints to run (our poor postman is testament to this as he ended up covered in white paint one rainy morning).

* But don't worry about rips and tears, it's mail art and the journey it goes on becomes part of the artwork, damage and all.

* Also prepare yourself for the fact that mail does go missing, so always take a photo or scan before you pop it in the postbox.

ps. If you want to ease your way into making mail-art, get along to the Wild About Melbourne craft party for Etsy this Friday night. I've created two envelope templates for the party, with mail-art designs drawn onto them. All you have to do is cut out and glue together the template, and fill an address into the already created "art." You can then colour or paint or decorate it any way you wish. More here.

DIY mail-art envelope templates

Would you like to make these envelopes to send to a friend? I have collaborated with Deanne Wild from Wild About Melbourne to create some easy-to-make mail-art envelope templates for the guests at her upcoming Etsy Craft Party on Friday.

The party theme is "paper taking shape," and all craft supplies will be provided. Deanne invited me to create a line-drawing for the event, given the growing trend for "adult colouring-in" as a fun craft activity. A couple of emails back and forth later, and we decided I'd provide an envelope template with a mail-art drawing for colouring-in or painting or collaging over or whatever the heck your craft-of-choice might be. You simply cut out the envelope shape (I also lined mine with a page from a botanical text-book to make it a bit more substantial), fill in the recipient's address, and go to town making it pretty!

If you'd like to try mail-art but you're not sure where to start, get on down to the Wild About Melbourne Etsy Craft Party in Thornbury THIS FRIDAY NIGHT. You can have a go at my mail-art templates (I made two because I wanted to give people a choice of styles), and a whole heap of other exciting craft projects, all in the company of a lovely group of like-minded people. Get more information here, and book your tickets (only $10) online here.

Once upon a time, snail mail

A sample of some of the outgoing mail I've been sending lately. Making their way through the Deep, Dark Forest (aka the international postal system) are:

Little Red Riding Hood // Pinocchio // Rapunzel // Puss in Boots // Snow White // the Three Little Pigs (actually just one of them) // the Big Bad Wolf // the Princess and the Pea // the Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs

The travelling post office

Night Mail is a 20-minute documentary on postal workers. On a train between England and Scotland, in the 1930s. Don't even pretend you're not rolling your eyes.

Essentially this “documentary” (which is more like a bunch of postal workers reenacting their nightly duties, badly and adorably) follows the mail-express, a fast-moving steam train that used to hurtle every night from London to Scotland (Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen).

Inside the train was a travelling post office. There were no passengers, but 40 postal workers would spend the night on the train, picking up, dropping off and sorting half a million letters.

They wouldn’t stop to make deliveries or pick-ups, instead relying on what seemed to me hilarious systems of dubious reliance.

FOR EXAMPLE... to make pick-ups, mail workers on the ground would attach post-bags to spring hooks and dangle them over the tracks: the impact of the train as it passed would knock them into special holding boxes in the carriages.

There is a cute and crazy moment in the film where they plan a drop-off, which again is basically to dangle the bags (tied on with STRING) outside the moving train, allowing the speed of impact to knock the bags into cages beside the tracks.

One of the postal workers asks “Now?” and the other says, “No, it’s two bridges and 45 beats yet.” And then they literally hang out the train-doors as they go under first one bridge then two, and then start counting the beats: clackety-clack – ONE – clackety-clack – TWO… and when they get to 45, out go the bags and WHACK, they are knocked into the waiting cages.

How’s that for scientific precision!

And yet with this seemingly-crazy system did the travelling post office manage to deliver half a million hand-sorted letters per night, every night, delivering 500 million letters to the people of England and Scotland, each year.

Lordy. With that amount of work, they absolutely deserved their own documentary!

Do you want to watch it? Ok I know. But if you DO, it's here:

What to know about more "movies about mail?" Here's a list I made for myself to watch a while back.

Image credit: this is a vintage image of the mail train in the USA, because I couldn't find a good one to use of the England-Scotland train, and screen grabs from the film weren't great quality. It has no known copyright restrictions, and the Smithsonian Institution Flickr page describes it as "A Railway Post Office clerk is photographed holding a mail pouch and leaning out of a Baltimore & Ohio railroad car next to the car's mail exchange arm, as if waiting to make a mail exchange."

30 letters in 30 days: the tally

What do the Dalai Lama, Dame Judi Dench, and US President Barack Obama have in common? They all received a letter from me last month. (I can’t tell you why I wrote to these good folks because the interviews I sent are part of a surprise for a friend and she sometimes reads this blog. You’ll just have to use your imagination.)

I’m proud to say that I met and even surpassed the "30 letters in 30 days” challenge I joined for the month of April. I know a lot of people associate me with snail mail and therefore think this might not have been that big a deal but, when you consider that some people have had to wait as long as six months to receive a letter or reply from me (yes! I’m so sorry!) you’ll see why I’m proud of reaching this goal.

How do you write letters? Normally I prefer to wait to write and send my mail when I have an extended batch of "me-time," so that I can really put some thought into it and give it my full attention. However, those batches of time are few and far between these days.

It was quite a different discipline to force myself to write and post mail every day during April, even if it meant writing during stolen moments at the kitchen bench, waiting for the children’s spaghetti to cook. Some of my letters had little splotches of food or ink or toddler fingers on them, and I hope the recipients will forgive me and know it meant I was prioritising writing to them, no matter what.

Here’s who I wrote to last month:

2 x letters to Mr B (one from me, and a postcard from Scout, while he was overseas)

1 x letter to a family friend who we haven’t seen in a while

1 x parcel of tea for a lovely woman in Norway (pictured above)

2 x bundled up gifts to the children of a blog reader (also pictured above)

20 x mail-art packages for blog readers

12 x snail-mail interviews to Dame Judi Dench, the Dalai Lama, Barack Obama and ‘friends’

1 x letter to Ralph’s daycare teacher

Grand total: 39 letters in 30 days. Huzzah!

Writing this way was actually a good process in self-discipline and, as the weeks went by, I found it easier to sit and write just for a short time, rather than needing the long blocks of time I usually prefer. Because it became easier to write piecemeal, I started to get through a whole lot more mail as the month went on. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still WAY behind in the letters I need to send to you lovely people, but I’ve made a good dent in the “to mail” pile.

Did you join this challenge? How did you go?

8 books about snail mail

Do you want to read somebody else's mail? It's not a crime if the letters are in a book! If you’re looking for something to read and are feeling nostalgic for a bit of old-school snail-mail, here’s a list you might enjoy, of some of my favourites.

84 CharingCross Road by Helene Hanff

Why I like it:  I picked up this book in a second-hand bookshop purely on the basis that the cover looked a lot like the cover of my own book Airmail, which had just come out. It turned out to be the most beautiful, heartwarming, true story of unlikely pen-pals, spanning decades.

On the back: 84, Charing Cross Road is a charming record of bibliophilia, cultural difference, and imaginative sympathy. For 20 years, an outspoken New York writer and a rather more restrained London bookseller carried on an increasingly touching correspondence. In her first letter to Marks & Co., Helene Hanff encloses a wish list, but warns, "The phrase 'antiquarian booksellers' scares me somewhat, as I equate 'antique' with expensive." Twenty days later, on October 25, 1949, a correspondent identified only as FPD let Hanff know that works by Hazlitt and Robert Louis Stevenson would be coming under separate cover. When they arrive, Hanff is ecstatic--but unsure she'll ever conquer "bilingual arithmetic." By early December 1949, Hanff is suddenly worried that the six-pound ham she's sent off to augment British rations will arrive in a kosher office. But only when FPD turns out to have an actual name, Frank Doel, does the real fun begin. Two years later, Hanff is outraged that Marks & Co. has dared to send an abridged Pepys diary. "i enclose two limp singles, i will make do with this thing till you find me a real Pepys. THEN i will rip up this ersatz book, page by page, AND WRAP THINGS IN IT." Nonetheless, her postscript asks whether they want fresh or powdered eggs for Christmas. Soon they're sharing news of Frank's family and Hanff's career.

Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows

Why I like it:  I was late to the fan club for this book. People kept telling me to read it and I could tell I would enjoy it but somehow I never seemed to get around to picking it up. Last week I went into Readings and asked for "The book with the guernsey and the potatoes" and they knew exactly what I meant. Now I'm half way through and just can't put it down.

On the back: “I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.” January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb…

As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.

Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.

Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises, and of finding connection in the most surprising ways.

Airmail by Naomi Bulger (yes that’s me!)

Why I like it:  I wrote this book and even after all these years, I'm still proud of it. It's about so many things that I love: snail-mail, storytelling, New York, love, and a little bit of magic in everyday life.

On the back: Reclusive old Mr. G.L. Solomon's favorite things are single malt whiskey, Steve McQueen movies, and gingersnap cookies. He hates processed cheese, washing detergent commercials, and the way the teacup rattles in the saucer when he picks it up. Solomon has become accustomed to his lonely routine in Sydney, Australia-until the day he begins sporadically receiving letters in his mailbox from a complete stranger. On the other side of the world, Anouk is a mentally delicate young woman living in New York who insists she is being stalked by a fat woman in a pink tracksuit. When Anouk declares to Solomon that she is writing "from the Other Side," the old man breaks away from his daily grind of watching soap operas and reading "Fishing World" and travels to New York to find her. As he is drawn into Anouk's surreal world of stalkers and storytelling, marbles and cats, purgatory and Plato, Solomon has but one goal-to unravel the mystery before it is too late.

Possession by A.S.Byatt

Why I like it: Romance and mystery, unfolding piece by piece in letters, notes and poems. I love that the written word can contain and keep alive powerful emotions - like love and possession - long after the lover is gone. And I love the idea of notes and letters, scattered throughout history as clues left for the future.

On the back:  Possession is an exhilarating novel of wit and romance, at once an intellectual mystery and triumphant love story. It is the tale of a pair of young scholars researching the lives of two Victorian poets. As they uncover their letters, journals, and poems, and track their movements from London to Yorkshire—from spiritualist séances to the fairy-haunted far west of Brittany—what emerges is an extraordinary counterpoint of passions and ideas.

The Jolly Postman by Janet & Allan Ahlberg

Why I like it:  This one is a classic! Did you read it as a kid? The postman visits all your fairy-tale favourites and delivers their mail. It's gorgeously interactive as you get to lift the letters out of their envelopes to read them. I think the witch's shopping catalogue is my favourite.

On the back: Join the Jolly Postman as he goes on his rounds via bicycle, delivering mail to Goldilocks, Cinderella, Jack's Giant, and other fairy-tale characters. Tucked into envelopes are actual letters for children to pluck out. Humorous and engaging, this is the perfect read over a spot of tea. Ahhh!

Snail Mail  by Michelle Mackintosh

Why I like it:  Only released earlier this month, Snail Mail is a stunningly illustrated celebration of snail mail, with a whole lot of how-to know-how and inspiration for anyone who wants to revive the lost art of writing letters (and do it really well). The author is a neighbour of mine and I can't believe I didn't know it at the time, but she invited people to send her mail-art to be included in the book. If you look in the front fly-leaf, there's a photo of Michelle and her cat in front of a wall of beautiful mail-art. And when I squint, I recognise names on there, of friends and people I admire. So sweet!

On the back: Snail Mail reintroduces the lost pleasure and art of personal correspondence, beautiful presentation, and manners to today’s world of instant communication. In a world of 140-character limits, Snapchats, text-speak, and internet trolls, are we losing the ability to really communicate with our loved ones Snail Mail aims to bring back handwritten communication—and more—in one beautifully illustrated and perfectly proper little package. Inspired by Japanese stationery and letter-writing culture, Michelle Mackintosh introduces the reader to the charm of the handwritten letter, personalized packages, and handcrafted stationery. Beautifully illustrated and complete with cutout postcard designs, papercraft, and rubber stamp templates, Snail Mail is full of equally useful and whimsical advice, like how to say thank you in a letter and other old-school etiquette; how to take time and reflect on your life through writing; how to improve and celebrate your own handwriting; how to make your own paper; how to romance someone the old-school way; how to make pen friends and DIY beautiful invitations for any occasion. It’s time to take back the written word!

To the Letter by Simon Garfield

Why I like it:  This book was a surprise gift, sent to me via snail mail (of course) from Rachel Cox. I love that the author likens the act of writing and sending snail mail to kindness, because of the time and effort and thought required. I wrote about it when I first opened the book, here.

On the back: Few things are as exciting—and potentially life-changing—as discovering an old letter. And while etiquette books still extol the practice, letter writing seems to be disappearing amid a flurry of e-mails, texting, and tweeting. The recent decline in letter writing marks a cultural shift so vast that in the future historians may divide time not between BC and AD but between the eras when people wrote letters and when they did not. So New York Times bestselling author Simon Garfield asks: Can anything be done to revive a practice that has dictated and tracked the progress of civilization for more than five hundred years?

In To the Letter, Garfield traces the fascinating history of letter writing from the love letter and the business letter to the chain letter and the letter of recommendation. He provides a tender critique of early letter-writing manuals and analyzes celebrated correspondence from Erasmus to Princess Diana. He also considers the role that letters have played as a literary device from Shakespeare to the epistolary novel, all the rage in the eighteenth century and alive and well today with bestsellers like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. At a time when the decline of letter writing appears to be irreversible, Garfield is the perfect candidate to inspire bibliophiles to put pen to paper and create “a form of expression, emotion, and tactile delight we may clasp to our heart.”

Floating Worlds  by Edward Gorey & Peter Neumeyer

Why I like it:  This book was another surprise gift in the mail, from my dear friend and author Ruby Blessing, and it is the book that got me excited and inspired about sending mail-art. It is simply beautiful to read, and even better to look at.

On the back: Edward Gorey and Peter Neumeyer met in the summer of 1968. Gorey had been contracted by Addison-Wesley to illustrate "Donald and the...," a childrens story written by Neumeyer. On their first encounter, Neumeyer managed to dislocate Goreys shoulder when he grabbed his arm to keep him from falling into the ocean. In a hospital waiting room, they pored over Goreys drawings for the first time together, and Gorey infused the situation with much hilarity. This was the beginning of an invigorating friendship, fueled by a wealth of letters and postcards that sped between the two men through the fall of 1969.Those letters, published here for the first time, are remarkable in their quantity and their content. While the creative collaborations of Gorey and Neumeyer centered on illustrated books, they held wide-ranging interests; both were erudite, voracious readers, and they sent each other many volumes. Reading their discussions of these books, one marvels at the beauty of thoughtful (and merry) discourse driven by intellectual curiosity.

The letters also paint an intimate portrait of Edward Gorey, a man often mischaracterized as macabre or even ghoulish. His gentleness, humility, and brilliance--interwoven with his distinctive humor--shine in these letters; his deft artistic hand is evident on the decorated envelopes addressed to Neumeyer, 38 of which are reproduced here.

During the time of their correspondence, Peter Neumeyer was teaching at Harvard University and at SUNY Stony Brook, on Long Island. His acumen and compassion, expressed in his discerning, often provocative missives, reveal him to be an ideal creative and intellectual ally for Gorey.

More than anything else, Floating Worlds is the moving memoir of an extraordinary friendship. Gorey wrote that he felt that they were “part of the same family, and I don’t mean just metaphorically. I guess that even more than I think of you as a friend, I think of you as my brother.” Neumeyer stated, “Your letters . . . your existence has made something of this world that [it] hadn’t the possibility of before.”

30 letters in 30 days

I've just signed up to join Write_On, a fun challenge to write 30 letters in 30 days, during the month of April. Already I'm making a list in my head of the people I want to write to. There's you guys, of course. My parents. My best friend from high school. My children - I think they would love getting special letters in the mail.

Maybe I'll write a fan letter or two, to someone I admire. I've never written a fan letter before. Not one! Who else? Who would YOU write to? There's still time to join Write_On if you want to take part.

The organisers have compiled a list of "30 reasons to write." Here are some of my favourite "reasons" from last year's campaign:

+ To send a re-thank you for a gift you received, have already thanked for but use so much you want to thank again.

+ To send a cheer up message– a note to a friend who has had a tough go of it lately.

+ To send a note to a business where you recently received great service.

+ To send a letter to your roommate, partner, or spouse – someone who lives in the same house as you.

+ To write a nice note to teachers of all kinds: your kids teachers, your yoga teacher, an old boss who taught you something.

+ To write a letter to your future self.

+ To write a letter to a neighbor telling them how much you enjoy their tree, garden, house.

What do you say? Are you with me? If you need more reasons to write, go here. If you want to join the Write_On campaign to write 30 letters in 30 days (and you'll get some free snail-mail swag), go here.

Image credit: photograph of Edward VII postbox by "Lincolnian (Brian)" on Flickr, licensed under Creative Commons