Penpals

My pen pal, Jane, sent me this photo which is a picture from her farmhouse in rural France. Doesn't it look like a postcard? I thought so too.

Jane and I found each other through one of the pen pal magazines that are published and we've been corresponding for about two years now.

In addition to some close friends who I write to, I have a few other pals- all from the US and, once in awhile, I will hear from one in Norway. As much as I love letter writing I've had to cut back while I focus more on starting the magazine, Letters & Journals. But I still enjoy writing 1-2 letters a week. Sometimes more.

If you want to send (receive) mail, but don't want a pen pal, here are two websites that are all about getting mail!
We Love Snail Mail
Send Something

But if pen pals are what you're after, check out any of these Pen Pal magazines/newsletters:

Inky Trail News
The Letter Exchange
International Pen Friends

There is also one called Pen Pal Connection published by Dawn Thomas. Her email address is ppcdawn@yahoo.com

There are also many pen pal groups in places like MSN, Yahoo, Google, etc, so you can check those out too.

Who Do You Write To?

The first question people ask when I tell them I'm starting a magazine on letter writing and journaling, is " Does anyone write letters any more?" And when I assure them we do, their follow question is "Who do you write to?"

The most common answers are friends, relatives and pen pals. Even with email and Facebook, people still do write letters. Results from the ongoing online survey I'm conducting on letter writing show

50% write 1-3 letters per month

And of those 243 respondents, here is who they write to:

74% write to friends
58% write to relatives
47% write to pen pals
22% write to someone in a category not listed

They could choose more than 1 category.

Some people want to write letters or just send/receive mail, but have no one to write to. That's where sites like Sendsomething.net, Postcrossing.com, Just Letter Rip, the Missive Maven, We Love Snail Mail and 365 Letters come in. You can find like-minded people here looking to talk about letter writing, read about it, comment on it and share in the passion of letter writing even without someone to write to. And if you are looking for people to write to, you can find those online as well.

There are also two popular pen pal newsletters that you can check out. They both have a printed newsletter and offer articles and information online as well.

Inky Trails
Lex Letters