package

Recently I had the honor of being asked join an extraordinary group of people who have partnered with a subscription service called Quarterly. Every three months I’ll be working with them to send out a package, a “tangible interaction,” something that provides a small but unique experience, something offline. Here is who they are in a nutshell:

Quarterly Co. is a subscription service that lets you receive awesome things in the mail. You can subscribe to people you find interesting and, once every three months, they will send you a package right to your doorstep.

Their roster of contributors is wide and varied and includes people who have been inspiring my own work for years: Scott Beale, Jason Kottke, Mike Monteiro, Mark Frauenfelder, Tina Roth Eisenberg, Jeffrey Zeldman, and Gretchen Rubin.

Here’s an idea of what I’m going to include in my shipments:

Every time I sit down to write a story on my website, I like to imagine that I’m sitting down with my best friends and a bottle of wine on a Friday night. How would I portray an incident to make them laugh, to commiserate, to provoke the same feeling in them that I had when I was going through it?

Most of the strength in my friendships comes through storytelling, the giving back and forth of our lives in words and gestures, in laughter and tears. I like the idea of continuing that here and sending things that tell stories, ones that connect us.

Every package includes a letter as well, a letter on paper. What is this paper that I speak of? I’m really excited to be a part of this and to see what wonderful things I can find that will have you skipping to your mailbox. Each mailing is $50 and the first one goes out in about three months. You can sign up here. I promise not to include anything that might jump out at you, hiss or scream BOO! Unless that is your thing, and then I’ll just ship Tyrant to your house.