Cool Correspondence

[Opaline]

I was talking to someone about an author that she met, and that led to me thinking about an author I once wrote to, which made me think of cool letters/emails in general, and I thought I'd make a thread for it.

I'm sure some of you here have written to someone notable and received a response directly from them (hopefully not their secretary). Or you can share any type of letter or email or anything like that that you found particularly cool. Or maybe you wrote to a company and they responded in a surprising way, etc...

 

[Opaline]

I once wrote to children's author Gordon Korman for an assignment when I was in middle school. To my great surprise he responded with a typed letter that he signed by hand and electronically. I had told him how much I loved his Everest series, and that I wished he would make a movie out of it, and he told me he liked that idea as well but that he thought it would be too difficult to do.

In elementary school we wrote letters to children in Mexico about the monarch butterflies that migrate there every year. I got a response in Spanish, and while I couldn't read a word of it, I thought it was the most awesome thing and the handmade butterfly attached made it all the more special.

In high school I had to write to a penpal in Saudi Arabia for a project. I assumed she was rich; she had a chauffeur and was always traveling. She never came out and said she was rich, of course, but all that and her father worked for an oil company. She added me on Facebook and we Skyped a few times, it was pretty cool.

I once wrote to Lance Snacks telling them how much I loved their (now discontinued) Chip Thunder, and they sent me 5 coupons for a free bag of chips. Those were my absolute favorite snack EVER, and being only about 11, I was THRILLED

I wanted a penpal from England when I was 13 or so, so I went onto a penpal site and found a girl from Wales (I figured that was close enough, I didn't even know what Wales was except that it was near England, haha!). She was cool and we wrote for a long time, but eventually it just sort of faded, not sure what happened. I thought it was the coolest thing ever.

I think that's all I can remember for now...

 

[Opaline]

No one else? awww

Oh well, I had fun sharing I guess

 

[Hoppy]

It think it is really cool that you did that.

There was a bit of a penpal craze when I was in primary school but I missed out on that.

Have you ever heard of Postcrossing? I think it is really cool.

 

[Lea]

I have my email boxes full of cool correspondence .

 

[NathanielWingatePeaslee]

I was talking to someone about an author that she met, and that led to me thinking about an author I once wrote to, which made me think of cool letters/emails in general, and I thought I'd make a thread for it.

I'm sure some of you here have written to someone notable and received a response directly from them (hopefully not their secretary). Or you can share any type of letter or email or anything like that that you found particularly cool. Or maybe you wrote to a company and they responded in a surprising way, etc...

I've got one, but the details of it are immersed in esoteric, nerdy gamerspeak.

Some years ago I emailed Gary Gygax (the "father of role playing games") for a clarification on something in the original Monster Manual.

Under 'Elf', for damage, it says: 1-10 or by weapon type. The implication is that without a weapon, an elf can do as much damage as the largest weapon in the game. I found this puzzling, so I asked him if that was some sort of claw/bite routine. He got a laugh out of it and explained that the 1-10 was with a type of war bow he used in his campaign, but had forgotten to mention in the description for elves.

He's also a lousy typist.

R.I.P., Gary

 

[Kiwong]

I once wrote up a everyday hero website charity page. I ran Sydney's City to Surf for breast cancer research in 2009. I raised over 2000 dollars. A short message for the most generous donation appeared on the page, from a local doctor, who I'd seen few times in 2002 and 2005, when I was struggling with panic disorder, and was very unwell.

I had a stress test done, and he said "It's just stress with you, you could play sport." I didn't believe him. Four long years, and a long battle with my health I did run again. And I was able to raise money for charity too.

 

[jc972]

I don't correspond with anybody but I met a German machinist at the plant, he was there to get something made for come German company and we became good acquaintances. He is a very interesting dude, he is a fellow hunter and he was in the Soviet army when there was still an East Germany back in like the 80's and he told me if I'm ever over there to look him up and we'll party and hunt and party some more, and then go to Amsterdam and party yet some more. And if I ever get over there I do plan to look him up. He comes to my work about twice a year for different things and when he's in town we take him out to the nearest big town and attempt to drink the town dry. I'd say that's my only somewhat cool correspondence.

 

[Sial Axetder]

I wrote a letter to the ninja turtles once. They wrote back in green ink. I thought it was the coolest thing ever!