One question a week · Fifty-two stories · One book
You got an email
Someone you know is writing their stories down.
They put you on the list themselves, because they wanted you to have them. There is nothing to sign up for, nothing to pay, and one click stops it whenever you like.
First things first
Why it turned up in your inbox.
Who added you
A person, not a machine
Their name is at the foot of every email. Longtold never buys addresses, never rents them, and never guesses. The only way onto a family’s list is somebody in that family putting you there.
If you would rather not
One click, and it stops
There is an unsubscribe link at the bottom of every email. It works straight away, with no reply and no account. If you change your mind later, they can add you back.
What turns up, and how often.
At the fastest setting a family can be asked four questions in a week. Most run one or two, so most weeks you will get one story, and some weeks none.
One question goes out
Whoever your family chose to tell the stories — often a dad, often a grandparent — gets a single question about their own life.
“What was your very first car, and where did it take you?”
They answer it in their own words
On their own time, at whatever length the memory wants. A few lines some weeks, a few pages others.
The story comes to you
The whole thing, in the email. No password to remember. You can tap a reaction at the bottom, or just hit reply and write back. Your response drops right into their inbox.
The year becomes a book
At the end, the stories are printed as a hardcover heirloom the family keeps. Find your reactions and notes printed in the margins, with your name on them.
The Wilson Family A new story
“What was your very first car, and where did it take you?”
answered by Dad
Tap one — Dad will see it
What arrives
Anything else
The other things people ask.
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Do I need an account? Does it cost me anything?
No, and no. The emails are the whole thing for you — nothing to sign up for, nothing to install, nothing to pay. The links inside a story work with one tap and no password. You can make an account if you would rather read them all in one place, but nobody has to.
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What happens with my email address?
It is used to send you these stories and for nothing else. Never marketing, never sold, never shared. If you unsubscribe it stops immediately.
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Can I write back, or ask them something?
Yes. Reply to any story and it goes straight to them. You can also ask a question of your own, and it joins the ones the family is working through. If what you wrote goes in the book, your name goes with it.
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How are the stories looked after?
They are encrypted where they sit, and they only ever go to the people the family chose. Nothing is public, and nothing is indexed by a search engine. At the end of the year it is all printed and bound.
Where the questions come from, and what the curator is shown →
Thinking about starting one?
Somebody thought of you when they started theirs. If there is a person whose stories you would like to have — a parent, a grandparent, the friend who tells the best ones — this is how it is done.
See how it works