Press Release: Call for Contributions for Issue 42

HOW LONG ARE YOUR LETTERS?

For the PenPal Q and A to appear in Issue 42 of PALS I’m asking you to tell me how long the letters you write - and the ones you receive – are. This issue is due to be released at the end of June, and any comments I get will make it into the article.

I’m also asking if you have any ideas for future PenPal Q and A articles. Is there anything you’d like to know about pen palling that other people do? Or anything you’d like to say? Any and all ideas are welcome!

If you’d like to respond to anything above, just respond to this post and let me know. It doesn’t matter if what you have to say takes a sentence, a paragraph or a page!

With thanks, and in anticipation...

Anna

Press Release 19 March 2010

PRESS RELEASE – 19 MARCH 2010
CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS – PEN PAL Q AND A

For the next issue of PALS, due out in May 2010, I’m seeking your opinions on any preferences you have for the sorts of people you correspond with. Any comments you’d like to make, from a short sentence to a few paragraphs, would be much appreciated. To get you started, I’m asking:

- What age group/s do you prefer to write to?
- Do you have a preference for male or female pals?
- Are there any other preferences you have when it comes to corresponding with people?

Even if the answer is “I’ll write to anyone, from anywhere” I’d still like to hear that. If you’d like your comments to be anonymised I’m happy to do that too.

If you’d like to contribute, just e-mail me or leave a comment on the blog.

Thanks in advance
Anna

Press Released 13 November 2009

YOUR FAVOURITE BOOKS AND MOVIES

Do you have a favourite book? Or a movie that you really love? If you do, how would you like to write a paragraph about it (if you have a favourite book or movie, feel free to write two paragraphs, one about each) for the next issue of PALS? There will be two articles in Issue 33 of PALS – one on Best Books and one on Best Movies (better, alliterated titles for this article are also welcome)!

If you’d like to contribute, please e-mail me with your sentences/ paragraphs. I’ll make sure they make it into the next issue of PALS!

Thanks in advance
Anna

Press Release 3 July 2009

I've had to come up with a few ideas for the next issue of PALS that will hopefully involve a number of contributions, as this time around it isn't a special - and I wasn't sure what to put in it! Therefore, the Press Release detailing the kinds of contributions I'd be interested in receiving are below - anything you'd like to say I'd love to hear!

Other than that, I have made a start on Issue 31 - just formatting things like colours and pages, ready to start adding content. When I have some!

PRESS RELEASE – 3 JULY 2009
CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS – A 3-PARTER!

For Issue 31 of PALS, due for release at the end of August, I’m looking for opinions on the 3 subjects below. If you have anything you’d like to say, please let me know by e-mailing me at the address below and I’ll make sure I include your comments in the relevant article:

1) Where do your pals come from?
This time around there will be a Q and A article on where in the world people write letters to. Where are most of your pals from? Is there a particularly unusual part of the world you have a pal in? Is there somewhere you’d like to have pals in, or somewhere you have a pal that you’d always dreamed of having one?

2) Travel advice
Do you enjoy travelling? I know a lot of us do! Do you have any tips on how to make travelling a better experience – anything from good ways to pick hotels to ways to make long airport visits more bearable?

3) Movie/ book suggestions
Do you enjoy reading, going to the cinema or watching DVDs? Are there any books or films that you love? They can be in the English language or not, it doesn’t matter. One article will focus on the things in popular culture that you enjoy, and the reasons you love it. It doesn’t even have to be a book or movie necessarily – it could be a piece of art, or a song you love. Anything you like!

If you’d like to contribute to any of the above articles (and I’d love to hear all your stories and thoughts), just e-mail me at acevenusbabe@yahoo.com. It doesn’t matter if what you have to say takes a sentence, a paragraph or a page!

Anna

Press Release 26 February 2009

YOUR FAVOURITE LETTER WRITING TOPICS

Would you like to have your say about the things you most enjoy writing letters on? One of the articles in Issue 29 of PALS will be a PALS “Q and A” article about what we write about most when writing to our pals, and what we most enjoy writing about (whether they are the same things or not)!

If you’d like to give your opinion – whether it be a sentence, a paragraph or a page, just e-mail me at acevenusbabe@yahoo.com with your thoughts, and I’ll make sure they make it into the next issue of PALS!

Thanks in advance
Anna

Quotes please

I've spent this evening generally catching up on things - it feels good to be up-to-date for a change! First things first though, I'm now looking for quick quotes on how long you spend writing letters every week. I haven't made a specific press release about this as I'm just looking for a couple of sentences from people - do you write one letter a day, one letter a week, or one letter every 6 months? And does one letter take you 10 mins to write, an hour or 4 hours? I've e-mailed a few of you for quick quotes - hopefully in time to get an article into the next issue of PALS, due out at the end of August.

Other than that, I've spent some time working on some of the articles for the next issue, writing up pieces for a future adventure special (have to recount my Shetland sea kayaking expereinces, where I came face-to-face with a seal, if nothing else), and even writing a letter! I know I say this every time I write a letter, but I do have a resoluton to stay in better touch with my pals! I'm already better than I was a few months ago, but there's a long way to go yet - even if I can manage a letter a week, that's much better than I have been! We'll see...

Press Release 22 May 2008

As promised in the previous post, here's the latest PALS press release:
YOUR DAILY OR WEEKLY ROUTINE –
“A DAY/ WEEK IN THE LIFE OF…”
YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS NEEDED

In preparation for the next issue of PALS, I’m looking for people who would like to share information on a routine day in their life. You can write about just one typical day, or even a typical week if your weeks vary quite a bit! You can write as much or as little information as you like – just as long as it fits on a max of one or two A4 pages of the PALS newsletter. Also feel free to provide photos if you have any!

I’d love to hear from you all! The next issue will be released at the end of June, but any articles that don’t make it into that newsletter I’ll find a place for in a future issue.

Back to work

Phew!

I've been a bit busy over the past few days with updating this blog, the website and my newsletter. It's all due to giving myself a week off of work after returning from Rome before beginning my dissertation - and discovering how much I haven't done in the past 12 months!

So, where do I begin? I guess the first thing you will notice (perhaps) are the changes on the blog itself. I was getting very frustrated with the fact that my Archive section listed every month since 2004, so I finally bit the bullet and changed to a "new" way of editing the template - essentially using Blogger's easy drop down menus instead of having to constantly find and learn new HTML code! You can still use HTML in places, but mostly it was a case of using drop down boxes to change things.

I've also added tags to some of my posts - that took a while too. Tags (or labels) have been used on posts that include links to new photos, updated poetry, new issues of PALS and other important features like my wedding. Clicking on any tag takes you to all the posts associated with that tag. I've also tagged posts with photos named on them that have been removed from our website, and posts with broken links (and named the broken link). This means I don't have to re-write posts every time I break a photo link - which unfortunately started to become necessary when we used up all our storage space on our website by adding too many pics!

Finally, I've added an additional link to the blog. After playing with Google Reader and adding some of the blogs I'm interested in (finally sat down and figured out it worked properly) I decided that Profmike's blog was worth adding as a link here. It has info on all the books he's read, and is a good complement to our book club site!

So, that's it for changes to the blog. I've also been updating our website - firstly with new poetry on my poetry site. Additonally I've added photos of our Rome holiday to our Photos webpage, and a press release to the website front page. I'll post the Press Release as a separate blog article too, above this one (something I used to that I think was a good idea and will start doing again).

Finally, I've made a start on Issue 24 of PALS. I'd already added a couple of articles I'd received a while ago, but I've begun to chase people for additonal articles and hope to have enough to fill the issue by the end of June - hence the press release above! On top of that, I've even managed to write some letters - a good way for me to remember why I started all this in the first place, and getting back to doing the thing I enjoy most - simply writing letters and keeping in touch with my pals! I have to admit I've been horrendous at that lately, and I'm going to make a massive effort to be a better pal in the future.

Got something done

I've managed to work a bit on the next issue of PALS - quite pleased I got that far as was feeling pretty uninspired earlier. Got into it a bit more once I started though! It seems very odd to be writing about 2008 already, but I guess it's only 2 months away now. And I've barely even thought about Xmas shopping yet...

Anyway, I've produced a press release asking for contributions for the next issue - the link to it on our home page can be found here. I'm specifically wanting answers on how long it takes people to reply to letters/ how long they like to wait, and asking for more travel articles. As ever though, any articles you've written I'm more than happy to see and almost certainly use!

That's it for now, but more soon...

More updates

Just a quick blog (the pub beckons...) to let you know about the most recent Press Release, asking for contributions to the next issue of PALS. The next issue will be a Food and Drink Special, so I'd love to hear from people who have been to good (or even bad) festivals, or jsut have something to say about good beer/ wine/ food!

Other than that, I've made a start on the issue - mostly just cosmetic things, but it is now a lovely brown chocolately colour! Mmmm...

Time for bed

I know it's been ages since I updated my blog, so I thought I should just give a brief up-date now, even though it's really rather late and bedtime!

Until today I had done nothing with PALS since the last time I posted, as I've just been so busy with other things - mostly wedding planning and visits to London. I've jsut spent half an hour or so quickly updating things and asking for contributions to the next issue - read the Press Release for more info.

Otherwise, an awful lot of this weekend has been spent wedding planning (oh, and shopping - that bit was good fun). But we now have something resembling menus, Order of Services and Order of Days, which to be honest feels a bit more important than PALS right now!

And I also realise I need to update both my poetry page and some of our photos with the ones taken in London - these things can wait for a bit more spare time though. My job ends on 25th May, so it may well be around that time...

PRESS RELEASE 30 APRIL 2006

Hi there,

For the next issue of PALS, due to be released in June 2006, I am looking for articles on your hobbies. Things I’m most interested in are:

- Travelling pieces
- Cycling pieces
- Craft and hobby pieces
- Articles on collecting things
- Learning new languages

Other ideas are, of course, always welcome. Even if you only want to write a couple of paragraphs on any of the topics above that be great, as I can add it to other pieces to make a full article.

Anna

PRESS RELEASE 7 APRIL 2005

Do you love writing? Or drawing? Or taking photos? Or doing research into things happening around the world? Or would you even fancy finding other people that have a love of one of these things and putting together their contributions for the PALS newsletter?

In an attempt to get some regular contributors who I can rely upon to send me things for future issues of the newsletter, I'd like to find people who would be interested in any of the above.

Certain things I'm more desperate for than others, and would love to hear from you if you have an interest in:

* Gathering info on and writing about Award ceremonies
* Collecting examples of photography and artwork, or taking photos and/or drawing yourself
* Collecting examples of, or writing your own, stories and poetry
* Collecting pieces on "Since I began pen palling" stories

A regular contributor doesn't necessarily mean that you have to send things in for each issue - in fact, that is fairly unlikely. You can choose how often you contribute. For example, if you would just like to do one drawing every three months and send me that, that's fine. Just let me know what you want and we can come up with a mutual agreement, but it's basically up to you how much or how little you contribute.

Having regular contributor’s means that, if I'm desperate for a certain kind of article, I can ask you to provide me with something occasionally. And don't worry, if you've said you'd like to contribute articles on award ceremonies, I won't ask you for photos! Unless you say I can, of course.

Other items that I'm looking for contributors for are below. These choices are more popular things to write about on a general level, so I’m less in need of contributors. However, new ideas and writers are always welcome for any items!

· Collecting ideas and quotes, as well as writing pieces for the Question and Answer column
· Collecting information on and writing about holidays and events
· Collecting new Pen Pal Profiles
· Writing recipes
· Writing exercise articles
· Collecting “New Pals Wanted” adverts
· Collecting and writing travel articles
· Collecting and writing articles on places people live in (cities/ towns etc)
· Help with Specials, as and when required – this could be anything from writing about a hobby to writing a piece on a country you know a lot about

Don’t forget, if you have any other ideas for contributions feel free to send those in. I’m always open to new ideas and will do my best to include everything I receive in future issues of PALS, even if there’s not room straight away.

Get in touch with me, Anna Clarke, at acevenusbabe@yahoo.com if you are interested in becoming involved in any of the above!

Anna

Press Release for PALS

I have just added a press release to the home page for the PALS newsletter, and e-mailed it out to all my pals. It's to do with obtaining articles for the next issue of PALS, which is due out at the end of April. In order to (hopefully) get more people to see the type of things I would like contributions of in the next newsletter, I am also adding the Press Release as a blog, below. There is also a link to the press release on the side bar.

PRESS RELEASE 5 MARCH 2006

Hi there,

For the next issue of PALS, due to be released at the end of April 2006, I am looking for a variety of articles from you. Of course, anything that you would like to send me is welcome, but if you are looking for some ideas see the suggestions below for things I am looking to include in the next issue:

* Are there any events taking place in your area, or worldwide, that you would like to see added to a calendar of events for May and June? Write and tell me a little bit about any event you would like to see included

* Are you looking for new pals? If so, let me know and I will add your name to the newsletter

* How has your life changed since you began writing letters? Have you been writing for a long time, or just started? Send me an article on your pen palling life, how you began etc.

* Do you write short stories or poems, draw pictures or love taking photos? If you have anything original that you would like to see included in PALS, just send it to me, either in the post or by e-mail. I will, of course, give full credit to anything I include!

* Do you have a blog, website or any other pages on-line that you would like people to know about? If you do, let me know and I can add your link to the newsletter. If you also want to send me some text about your website, I will add that too.

Anna