February is the Month of Letters Challenge, and Do We Have a Deal for You!

by Sharon Browning

In September 2010, author and all around goddess Mary Robinette Kowal (The Glamourist Histories, Ghost Talkers) took a month off from the internet. During her vacation, she told people that they could correspond with her by paper letter.  “It was fun,” she wrote, “so in 2011, I issued the challenge. I thought it would be small. I was wrong.”

Now in its sixth year, the Month of Letters Challenge is pretty simple: 

  • In the month of February, mail at least one item through the post every day it runs. Write a postcard, a letter, send a picture, or a cutting from a newspaper, or a flower pressing, a recipe, a drawing – whatever suits your fancy.
  • Write back to everyone who writes to you. This can count as one of your mailed items.

As the website states:  “Write love letters, thank yous, or simply notes to say that you miss an old friend. Send a fabric swatch from your new dress. A feather you picked up while on a walk. Whatever it is, let yourself step away from the urgency of modern life and think about an audience of one. Think of it as sending 24 little gifts. And, who knows, you might enjoy going to the mail box again.”

Okay, so it’s February 9, too late to start, right? Wrong! While the Month of Letters Challenge website touts forums, journals, quests and badges, and other “fun things” that might have a few prompts nodding at participating for the whole month, the gist of it is simply to enrich our lives by reaching out to others in a personal, tactile way. No time is “too late” for that – and there’s no need to limit it to February!

So what’s the deal we have to offer you?  We here at LitStack love the Month of Letters Challenge, and many of us participate personally.  But then we had a thought:  why not participate as a literary site? After all, we love ALL things wordy! So that’s where you come in.

Would you like to receive a handwritten note from one of the staff members at LitStack? Hope so, because we’d love to mail one to you! Leave a comment below if you’re interested, or send one of us an email, and we’ll contact you to get your mailing address (for safety’s sake, please don’t leave addresses in the public comments). We’re going to limit this to the first 25 requests because, well, we all have day jobs, too.

So join in! Let us know you want to hear from us, or send out your own letters. Write one or two, or finish off the month sending out letters. Keep writing after February!  The more the merrier!  After all, who doesn’t need a little more “merry” in their lives, eh?

Comment below to get a letter from us!

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