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I've mentioned Kev Quirk a lot lately because he keeps posting interesting things – and here we go again.

Inspired by Jarrod Blundy, who was in turn inspired by Jason Becker, Kev is seeking pen pals with whom he will "email back and forth ... for a month" and hopefully make some new friends along the way. These 'conversations' will be posted publicly so that others might enjoy them too.

What a brilliant idea!

I got in a bit late so my slot isn't until April 2025. It's something I'm really looking forward to. I shoot the odd mail to Kev from time to time in response to posts so it won't be a brand new connection but will hopefully deepen in a way that casual mails don't.

This is all a continuation of recent posts about finding connection and friendship through blogging.

I have a few ongoing conversations via email (some more frequent than others, one especially so) and I know how wonderful it is to really connect with someone you've never met, and may never meet, but can consider them a true friend because of how open, honest and unpretentious you can be on a one-to-one basis. It's something I would love to do more of.

I don't think I'd go as far as structuring it this way or publishing whole conversations (I have posted parts of mails in the past, with permission) but if anyone wants to reach out I'm more than happy to be a digital pen pal to more people.

Drop me a mail and who knows where it could go!

I mentioned to Kev earlier that there should be some kind of service for this – a blogger's letter exchange or something similar – but worry about the potential implications (privacy, safety, etc.) It's something I feel would be fun and rewarding to build but with a massive overhead of responsibility.

Maybe keeping things small and focused (like those mentioned above are doing) is the best way, having the shared focus of a blog is a good starting point.