Let's Exchange Mail!

I regularly send and receive mail from around the country, and occasionally the world. It is a magnificent, incredibly special feeling.

So saying, some hard-won experience over the years has built a list of comforts and boundaries. If you open your mailbox to others, I encourage you to bulld a similar list!

I mail a LOT more postcards than letters.

• One of the biggest frustrations I have noticed in a decade-plus of sending mail is an unresolved mismatch. Whenever you first start sending mail to someone, this is one of the first questions to ask each other: what kind of mail do you like to send and receive?
  
• I am happy to receive longer letters as long as you are happy to receive shorter notes! The vast majority of my mail exchanges are either one-sided (you to me, me to you) or extremely sproadic. I am less pen pal and more occasional special mailbox guest.
  
• I have no expectation for timely responses (or responses in general!) I regularly take weeks and months to reply, and never track when I send or when you do. Everything about my mail practice is extremely casual and soft in energy.

I absolutely love small notes!

• Glimpses of the moon from where you are.
• A few sentences about your local diner.
• I write short messages about books I am reading or projects I am researching, and love the same.
  
• I am a private person and similarly respect your privacy. I do not divulge / request personal details or big secrets. My mail is lighthearted.

October and December holiday cards are a delight.

• Holiday cards, any time of year, are my favorite thing to send and receive. Season irrelevant!
• I regularly send Halloween and even End of Year Winter Holiday cards all year. Let me know if you would like to receive one!
• Christmas, specifically, can be a touchy subject. I would be happy to receive your Christmas card (or Yule, or Krampus, or any other holiday greeting).
• I send festive, non-religious, vaguely Christmas-like (snow, candy canes, wreaths, holiday trees) winter monster cards every year and will be happy to send you one of mine.
  

We are strangers, this is the internet, we do not know each other.

• Please do not send me food, or candy.
• Gifts in general make me a bit uncomfortable.
  
• I cannot help you get published or start a business or get your foot in the door in the art world. The advice needed is too specific to your goals and resources.

Please include an email and/or social media account name.

• This helps me remember who you are and double check return addresses.
• Sometimes envelopes get smudged or misplaced.
• Sometimes the post office pastes labels in weird places.
• Once in awhile the post office machinery chews on a card and this helps me double check who (and where!) to send it to.
• I am not a huge fan of direct messages on social platforms, but being able to contact you digitally lets me double check a name or address.