Two years ago, I contacted Rem from Rem Alternis and asked her if we could meet at Gen Con to talk about having her company run the Kickstarter for a passion project I wanted to create. We met. We agreed to everything. And ran the Kickstarter in March of 2024. It funded and as of July 27, 2025, that Kickstarter is over, done, and things involving it mailed/fulfilled.
Dear Penpal, Belgium 1980 was quite the endeavor—telling a MG horror story over a year in 24 physical letters. Yep. If I’m gonna do a Kickstarter, let’s do it on Hard Mode. Next time, if there is one, I’ll do something easy like a novella series. I don’t regret doing Dear Penpal, but I won’t do it this way again.
Here’s some fun facts the Husband put together for the celebration party. I thought they were too good not to share.
So, the final question that has been asked of me… “Will there be any more Dear Penpal stories?”
The answer is maybe. I’ve got an idea for a series of novellas around it. 3-4 more in the series, jumping years in-between each one. Each one would still be in letters. Probably 2 each month, but put together as a novella. This is a nascent idea, kicking around the different places I’ve moved to and interesting things that could’ve happened to fictional Jennifer who can see ghosts: Pennsylvania 1984 (teen), California 1989 (senior in HS), Oregon 1992 (college), Washington 2004 (adult).
Yeah. Maybe. If the idea still calls to me next year, I might chase it down. We’ll see.
