On Tea

I've never been much of a tea drinker.

. . . but I'm getting there.

It started with my sister introducing me to what she calls "tea of life" -- more properly known as Kirin's Gogo no Kocha Lemon Flavor. It's a cold bottled black tea sweetened and flavored with lemon, and lemme tell you, on a hot day, it's glorious. Then I started drinking Oi Ocha, which out here in California is mainstream enough that you can buy it at CostCo, because on the whole I tended to like green tea better than black. From there I branched out into a few others -- genmai cha, Ayataka, mugi cha (which isn't actually tea if you're pedantic, but I'm going to lump herbal infusions in under that term for the purposes of this post, so just deal with it) -- which all shared one thing in common.

Well, two, but the Japanese part isn't that significant. No, what they had in common was that I was drinking them all cold and pre-bottled.

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I have run out of clever names for the latest iteration of the Month of Letters

Last year I titled this post "Return of the Revenge of the Bride of the Son of the Month of Letters, Pt. Whatever: Quantum Boogaloo," which pretty much uses up all the clever sequel references I could make. Maybe call this one: "Month of Letters: Letter Harder"?

Anyway! The point is that I am doing the Month of Letters again!

Years ago, Mary Robinette Kowal declared February to be the Month of Letters: a time to send actual letters through the actual mail, like, with paper and stuff. As part of this, she invited readers to correspond with Jane, the protagonist of her Glamourist Histories — and, inspired by her example, I did the same with Lady Trent.

So this is your annual heads-up that February will be your opportunity to write a letter to Lady Trent and receive a reply, in my very best cursive, written with a dip pen, and closed with a wax dragon seal. I’ve gotten some incredible letters in the past — some of them very funny, some of them deeply moving — along with more casual notes. If you’d like to participate, all you have to do is send some kind of handwritten missive to:

Marie Brennan
P.O. Box 88
San Mateo, CA 94401

Make sure to include your return address! I will reply as quickly as I can, workload and pile of correspondence permitting. I’ll answer anything postmarked within the month of February, though it may take me until March to deal with the last few, depending on how many I get and when they arrive.

Because I'm writing a sequel to the Memoirs, this will probably not be the last year I do this. The book won't be out until after next February (I'm still writing it), so you'll get another Month of Letters next year, and then possibly one the year after that, giving you a chance to write to Audrey, Isabella's granddaughter. So enjoy them while they last!