letter stories – The Writers in Residence

It was a shock. How could they?

I’m talking about Denmark’s announcement to discontinue its PostNord postal service as of January 1, 2026 (after 400 years of continual service) and to remove all its 1,500 letterboxes.

Think of that! No friendly postmen. No possibility of letters from family. Or Christmas greetings. Or bills and solicitations. (Well, I wouldn’t miss those!)

Maybe not having snail mail wouldn’t bother you. (Tell me how you feel in a comment.)

And yes, yes. I know about email! I use it. But it’s not thick envelopes, colorful stamps, and paper “delight” in your hand.

Anyway…

This news made me aware of a writing phenomenon that has begun in earnest this year. If you are on Facebook at all, you will have noticed. It is the many opportunities we have to sign up for story-letters: snail-mail fiction divvied out twice a month for a fee.

A while ago, I interviewed the creator of “Letters from Afar,” Shawnee Mills. She researches (and sometimes visits) places around the world. Her fictional character tells readers about them in letters. She sends field notes, a map showing its location on the globe, and a “find me” game where she hides objects in her hand-painted illustrations. The Afar article.

Shortly after the “Afar” letters, I signed up for the “Flower letters,” where an actual story – romantic/adventure/mystery – was told through correspondence (and inserts and artifacts).

But now. Wow! In a short time, I discovered a baker’s dozen opportunities for you to receive bi-weekly story letters via snail mail. I’ve listed some. You can find them on Facebook by typing the titles into the search bar.

The Moonlit Letters – a cozy mystery where a young woman inherits her grandma’s cottage on Ocracoke Island and discovers/solves a mystery. Postcards, recipes, and a map are included.
The Lost Letters Society – four choices of historical-fiction war correspondence, most including romance. Authentic-looking letters.
Letters by Lanternlight – a choice of three small town cozy whodunnits (all include a cat)
Storyville Letters – mystery, romance, adventure. Two choices: one is from the 1920’s, the other is 1874, Victorian London. The creator of these is a filmmaker, so they are bound to be atmospheric.
P.S. (PostScript) Letters – These are original historical fiction, in “the imagined voice” of women you may know. Not biographies, just private, human letters. You will read letters by Emily Dickinson, Jane Austin, Helen Keller, Amelia Earhart, Eleanor Roosevelt, etc.
Letter Joy – letters for history buffs. Produced by the same people that create the PS Letters. You’ll read everyday correspondence from authors like Fyodor Dostoevsky, Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Twain, etc.
Epistolary – “Letters, Lattes, and Lies,” a cozy mystery told in letters of observations and evidence by a retired librarian, to a reclusive homicide detective.
The Heart Letters – a more serious “novel” told in letters. The creator calls this 24-letter series “therapy through storytelling.” It is designed as “a gift experience for women navigating transition, healing, heartbreak, empty nest, divorce, or loss.”
The Romantasy Letters – Bold, daring, fiery, spicy, romantic fantasy with passion, intrigue, and magic. (Not my cup of tea.)
The Titanic Letters – Passengers tell their secrets in correspondence. “An illicit affair and a gripping mystery.” The creator rates the letters PG-13.
The Asylum Letters – psychological suspense set in the Danvers Asylum in 1926: a secret correspondence between a female inmate with amnesia and a new doctor. By the creator of #10, rated PG-13.
The Salem Letters – correspondence by an herbalist held in prison for the witch trials. Dark mystery/romance. Rated PG-13.
Scaremail – a “terrifying, unfolding horror saga told through personal correspondence between characters. (The ocre envelopes are splotched with black dripping stuff! EEEEKKK!)

And there are more of these letter-stories available, like: The Max Letters, Writings from the Wild (animals), and The Cozy Letter Club (a farmyard mystery) for kids. (There are also fictional Pen Pal stories to interact with.)

Most of the serialized stories span 12 months of biweekly letters and cost $99-$149. It’s a bit expensive, but it’s fun to find them in your mailbox!

There is a series I didn’t mention above, because it was only available briefly. It is Mysteries in the Mail, written by mystery writer Sara Rossett. I signed up for the series and have received 3 letters so far. It’s different in that the “letters” seem like chapters in a cozy mystery book written in 1st-person POV. There are some lovely hand-drawn, colored illustrations among the text, but no other inserts.

Have YOU ever done or thought of writing and mailing serialized fiction? It would mean some creativity, a bit of postage, and of course a mailing list – but some of YOU have that already. What do you say?

Now is the time to jump on the bandwagon, especially if you have something unique. Any of the writers on this Writers in Residence blog could do what Sara Rossett has done.

And, who knows when the US Postal Service may discontinue!!! Yikes!

But… if you don’t want to go through all the rigamarole of sending out prescribed letters, you can always do what these authors have done. Write your story in a series of letters. It’s called an Epistolary Novel.

Lee Smith did it with “Fair and Tender Ladies.” Helen Hanff did it with “84, Charing Cross Road.” Annie Barrows wrote “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.” And one more by Virginia Even, the new, highly touted “The Correspondent.” Go for it, girls! (And guys.)

Me? I’ve written (and illustrated) several serialized letter stories in the past. They are fun. I wrote mysteries for each of my three elementary-aged granddaughters via letters in snail mail.

I also wrote a series of twelve letter-stories for the same-age kids at our church, about life in Africa. (These were actually email story-letters.)

If I can do it, so can you. Why not give it a try… while you still have time…. AND MAILBOXES!!!

by Jackie Houchin

Or, how I got started writing serialized children’s fiction.

I guess it began with verbal bedtime stories. When my three granddaughters were quite young I would tell them impromptu stories about anything in their lives – toys, pets, games, etc. I tried to make them exciting and vivid, and always managed to finish the story before it was time for prayers and sleep. Next visit I would begin where I left off.

When the first granddaughter was about six and already an eager reader, I decided I wanted her to love mystery stories as much as I did. But how would I do that? There were Nancy Drew chapter books available, and I collected them for later, but I wanted to start her right away.

Then she broke her arm, and I got an idea.

I created a little girl who had a family and lived on a street much like hers, a little girl who also broke her arm, but under some mysterious circumstances. Then I introduced the two girls with a letter, like this:

Hi Shannon –

My name is Molly Duncan. I know your Grandma. We see each other at the park sometimes.

Last time she told me how you broke your arm when you were riding a scooter. And, you know what? I broke my arm too. Not just now, but way last summer, in July. Your Grandma said I should write to you and tell you about it.

Do you know what I was doing? I was riding my bike when it happened. But, I’ll tell you about that later, and what happened because of it.

But first I want to tell you about myself. (I was going to send you a picture of me, but I lost it.)

I’m 7 years old and I’m in the second grade.

I havered hair, which is very curly. It is kind of long, and I usually wear it in two French braids that my Mom fixes for me. But sometimes, some of the hairs get loose and frizz out from the braids.

My eyes are green, “just like Granny Smith apples” my mom likes to say. I wish they were blue like Benji’s. Mom says his eyes are “like the sky”. Oh, I forgot to tell you. Benji is my little brother. When he grows up he will probably be called Benjamin or Ben, but right now we call him Benji. He’s four years old.

I also have freckles. Do you know what freckles are? They are tiny, light-brown spots that most people have on their faces, and sometimes their arms, if they have red hair. I only have them on my nose! They remind me of sesame seeds on hamburger buns! When I think of that, it makes me giggle.

And last of all, I wear glasses, thick ones that keep sliding down my nose all the time. I hate wearing them, but Mom says the doctor promised if I wear them all the time now, I won’t have to wear them after “poo-ber-tee” (or something like that).

Well, anyway, about my broken arm. I want to tell you how it happened and what happened after that. There is a mystery and a surprise about it... etc., etc.

And that’s how an eight year letter-friendship began. (I don’t call them Pen Pals, because Shannon didn’t write back.) For a great long while, Shannon thought Molly was a real girl that I knew! But when she asked about it one day, I told her the truth and she was able to enjoy the installments like chapters in a book.

As Shannon and Molly got older, the stories got longer. I introduced other characters, friends at school, neighbors, older people (shop-keepers, a grandmotherly babysitter, teachers, a friendly policeman). The town took on a character too and I soon drew a poster-sized cartoonish map of the streets, shops, school, parks, church, hospitals and police station to walk through in my mind.

I wrote about age-related situations; new-girl jealousies, pre-teen angst, and a few quite serious events; a brother in a car accident, a search for a runaway girl, a mother’s stay in a mental home. But they always had a mystery twist to be discovered over a series of letters. God, the Bible, and prayer played a big part in solving the mysteries and in learning important lessons.

Think Jan Karon’s Mitford Series, but for kids. (http://www.mitfordbooks.com/ )

Before long, the other granddaughters said they wished they had letter friends too. Soon Kerry was getting letters from pet-loving Annie Black, and Jana heard from Kim Ling, a girl with four brothers. The letter-friends were all from the same neighborhood, knew each other, and occasionally crossed paths.

What fun to keep three story lines going! (I was also illustrating these episodic stories with cartoon-like characters.)

The big step came when Shannon said she couldn’t wait so long between letters. “Can’t you put them all into a book, Grandma,” she asked. So I did, and “Molly Duncan and the Case of the Missing Kitten” was born. Soon after that came “Princess Ebony and the Silver Wolf.” (Ebony was an ancestor of Annie Black. Think how The Princess Bride was told.) Later “Kim Ling, Cub Reporter” was imagined. I illustrated (very simply) each book, and included a map of the area in the front pages.

So…. What – besides entertaining little relatives and friends – can be done with serialized children’s stories?

1. Writers could choose a favorite age group, invent a winsome character in a compelling situation, write about her/him/them, and begin publishing the episodes as 99c short stories to promote a Children’s Book series you write, or to be given away free to those who sign up for your newsletter, or visit your blog. You could even print up a few and hand them out at panel or signing events.

2. Episodic stories – as long as they are written like short stories with a beginning, a middle, and a satisfying ending, even if the main mystery is not solved until later – can be gathered together into a novel or novella and published. Hugh Howey did this very successfully with his Sci-Fi Woolseries.

3. Serialized stories don’t have to be just for kids. Try a few episodes in your adult genre, or perhaps with a TV series in mind (the writers of LOST did it well on the fly… until the end that is, when it all fell apart!).

4. Or, write them just for fun to sharpen your writing skills or get over a major writer’s block.