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Hello

I wanted to send a message to everyone who signed up for my emails last week in response to an article I wrote for The Guardian.

In the article, I describe drawing an encounter with my younger self, when I was in psychiatric hospital.

(If you don't know anything about that article, and signed up for entirely unrelated reasons, you might now be thinking, What the heck! But please bear with me.)

Soon after the article appeared, I was gratifyingly overwhelmed with encouragement. Plus... a request.

One person emailed out of the blue to ask if she could pay me to draw her with her younger self. It seemed like an interesting challenge, so I agreed, and Cath sent me two photos to work from. Here's the result:

​Anyway, I just thought you might be interested.

Meanwhile, a bit of background about my emails.

I use a system that allows me to write things like this one, in real time (ie, today, 9 January 2023) but also to write mini-series that, when I've finished sending them out in real time, can go out automatically when somebody new signs up.

Some people reading this may already be reading one of those series.

There's one about my Psalms for the City book. Another is about public speaking (the subject of my previous book). There's a series about the joy of making books by hand. And every so often I do a short series of, essentially, daily drawings.

I like writing emails in series because they create momentum and they have a defined end - so readers (you!) needn't worry that it will go on forever.

And I enjoy getting replies. I read them all.

Speaking of which, please hit reply now. If you do, it will tell your own email system that I'm a real person, not spam. If you can't think what to say, just tell me where you are, and what you are hoping for from my emails.

I'd love to hear from you.

Best wishes

JPF

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