Thursday 28 April 2016

Posties - five stories

I have been browsing the BBC Radio 4 Extra schedules and came across 5 stories by Julia Darling called Posties. The omnibus edition of all 5 stories can still be listened to for almost a month at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0788hrj. I am currently listening to it now.  First story was quite good - a long lost letter finally delivered.

"I would far rather receive a letter than a casually written email."

"There is something decent about a letter: its firmness; its privacy; the sound it makes when it falls from the letterbox to the mat; the assertiveness of a stamp; the postmark......."

Update - rather good collection of postal stories. Well worth a listen if you have time.

Monday 11 April 2016

So much for Write On...

Almost half-way through April and I haven't written many letters. Last week, I was hit by a very nasty cold and this left me without much energy - I had completed and wrapped up some letters for posting before I became ill but did not have any willpower to go out and post them until 3 days later. 

April is the month for Write On, a campaign for daily letter writing, like InCoWriMo is for February. While I managed InCoWriMo with relative ease, I have failed Write On without even trying. I know life can get in the way of writing letters so that is why I like the monthly challenge I started on A World of Snail Mail - Five Questions [you ask], Five Letters [you write answering other people's Five Questions]. Although 5 letters is the aim, it doesn't really matter if you cannot meet that goal - the challenge is supposed to be fun, and participation I feel counts more than winning. Also, the questions asked give you some idea of actually what to write in a letter - this isn't a job interview and your snail-mail letter shouldn't read like a CV. 

I still have yet to think about the 5 questions I would ask for this month, but there is still time. There is time for you to participate too.