Tag Archives: writing

Day 122: Amy Wilkinson

It’s been ten years since I moved into my apartment in Dupont Circle here in Washington, DC. For much of that time, my neighbor Amy Wilkinson has been working on a book. In the last couple of years, as I started working on my book about the Year of Giving, I began asking more questions to her about the process she went through to take her book to publication.

You caught me rereading Chapter 5, Networking Minds, recently to help inform some planning for a project that I'm working on.

You caught me rereading Chapter 5, Networking Minds, recently to help inform some planning for a project that I’m working on.

It’s been a long five years – she’s had all kinds of surprises along the way and often tells me the things that she would do differently if she writes another book. As a rookie author, I have listened intently to her advice.

Her book finally came out in February – I preordered it so I had it on my doorstep the day it was released. It’s easy to say that The Creator’s Code should be required reading for anyone interested in entrepreneurism, but that lessens the value of the book frankly. I would say that anyone passionate about making a difference, achieving an aspirational goal, or just being more effective in an area of their life will benefit from the book – we can all be “creators.”

The moving truck came today to move her belongings to California – Amy is headed to teach a course at Standford. My loss – Stanford’s gain. Join me in wishing her continued success and get your copy of her book here.

122-2

Amy,

Congratulations on The Creator’s Code. It’s such as terrific book and I’m ecstatic to see it doing so well. And while I know that I don’t even know the half of it, I know that you worked tirelessly on it and that your journey to publication wasn’t without its share of challenges and pitfalls. But as a creator, you managed to keep your eyes on the horizon.

A handcrafted card I made at Paper Source's workshop Thursday night.

A handcrafted card I made at Paper Source’s workshop Thursday night.

Sadly it seems that all this success also means I lose a great neighbor! Best of luck with teaching your course at Stanford and I look forward to following all the exciting places you will go.

This is just the beginning!
Reed

Day 121: Ed, Brian, Jena, Aprill, Sam, Tyler and others

121-2I’ve become a huge fan of Paper Source – especially my local store here in Georgetown. It’s been a lifesaver for the Year of Letters. I don’t know of any other paper retailer with the level of quality and variety as Paper Source that beats their reasonable price point. And the staff is extremely helpful.

I’ve become a pretty regular face in the store since starting my letter-writing project – enough so I guess that they kindly invited me to a workshop that they had recently to teach cardmaking and giftmaking techniques. It was great – and they even had some snacks and wine for everyone.

I probably should have incorporated some of the new techniques I learned into this letter to them, but stay tuned, you’ll see some new things in my cards in the coming days and weeks.

 

I used one of Paper Source's bags to make a liner for the envelope.

I used one of Paper Source’s bags to make a liner for the envelope.

Ed, Brian, Jena, Aprill, Sam, Tyler and others,

121-3Thank you very much for your kind invitation to attend Crafter’s Night Out last evening led by Aprill and Sam. I learned several new techniques – like how to apply gilded edges, use washi tape and even make my own gift bags. Your entire team is exceptional and it is always a pleasure to be in your store.

Thanks again,
Reed Sandridge

P.S. I also bought the marbling set…keep a look out on YearOfLetters.com for some marbling!

Sunday Notes and Letters for Week 17

Me mailing the letter to Steve Carell from his hometown of Newton, MA. It was about 0 degrees when I snapped this photo.

I do have a lot of fun with the Year of Letters. Here’s a shot of me mailing a letter to Steve Carell from his hometown of Newton, MA on Day 7.

There are two things that are becoming very clear through doing the Year of Letters. The first is that if you are already pretty busy with work and you are writing a book, doing a blog that also involves writing is probably a terrible idea. My work on the book has definitely suffered from this project. It’s odd too, because I thought it would actually help me think creatively every day and sit me down to write.

I envisioned that it would take me 20-30 minutes every day to write the letter, take a quick photo and post everything, but you can probably double that time at a minimum. Maybe I’m just slow and inefficient. It often takes up to two hours to do everything involved with writing the letter and posting it online. I’m not complaining, just telling you how it is.

The other thing I learned is that something is really messed up down at the Post Office. Most of my letters go to places within the United States and I would estimate that the average letter takes one week to arrive. That in and of itself seems higher than I would have imagined. And on top of that some letters have taken nearly a month. Ironically a letter I sent to Finland arrived within a week – they seem to know what they are doing over there.

usps-Property-of-USPS-croppedLast week I received an undeliverable letter. It was a letter I sent on January 24th! It took nearly 3 months to be sent back to me. It was a letter to the manager at a FedEx Office in Ft. Lauderdale, FL – telling him how impressed I was with one of his employees. I know FedEx is a competitor to the USPS but come on, deliver their mail for crying out loud.

Anyway, as luck has it, I will be back in Ft. Lauderdale this week and my hotel happens to be across the street from this very FedEx location, so I will go hand deliver it myself. Ms. Postmaster, please be on the look out for my invoice to you for the delivery charges that I am incurring to deliver this letter on your behalf.

Stay tuned this week to hear what happens.

Sunday Notes & Letters for Week 16

Yesterday I celebrated my 100th handwritten letter of the year. I use the term “celebrated” loosely – I had a small pour of bourbon and reflected on the past 100 days. Realizing that it had been almost two months since I updated the statistics page, I sat down and tallied the numbers on my letter-writing journey so far.

This is a very nice bourbon that my boss gave to me.

This is a very nice bourbon that my boss gave to me.

I’m averaging about one handwritten response for every ten letters I send out. While that sounds low, it’s a vast improvement over the numbers I reported earlier this year. One out of three letters I am sending out is acknowledged in some way – either by email, Facebook, a phone call or tweet. Friends and family make up about 34% of the recipients while celebrities and known individuals account for 20%.

I’ve been surprised about some of the people I have not heard back from. Usually when you write to someone holding a public office, you get a response. I didn’t receive even a standard form letter back from Muriel Bowser, our city’s new mayor. Equally silent were the CEO of Trader Joe’s, the folks at FitBit, the U.S. Postmaster General, Lazlo Toth and Teddy. That’s ok – I’ve received some very nice responses and even a handful of letters from people I’ve never met but who found inspiration in the blog to start writing more.

Speaking of inspiration – this beautiful weather is inspiring me to get outside. Enjoy your Sunday.

Day 99: Jami

Life is funny, isn’t it. For some reason I decided to write John Wilson yesterday. I had no idea that today was his wife’s birthday, but when I saw that this morning I knew I needed to drop her a letter today. After all, John gets plenty of attention, now it’s time to focus on Jami!

Day 99- Jami

Jami

Happy birthday Jami,

Day 99- Jami-2I woke up this morning and saw that it was your birthday and thought, today is Jami’s day. I thought it was incredibly coincidental that I decided to write John yesterday and then find out today was your birthday. It was meant to be. I miss you and Parker – OK, I miss John too. I enjoyed very much visiting with you when I was there in in 2012. I hope that we can all get together soon.

Have a great birthday.
Reed

P.S. I love the “attic lounge” – that space looks totally different!