A letter experience · once a month
I am so happy you have found Zuzu’s Letters. Whether this is a gift from someone else, or for yourself, I hope you love these letters as much as I love writing them to you.
So go find your favorite comfy spot, make some tea, pour some wine, open a window, or turn on some music… Enjoy this moment in whatever way makes you happy.
Zuzu
What arrives
Some people call it snail mail. Some call it a letter club, or a letter subscription service. I call it writing to a friend — one envelope a month, addressed to you and posted.
In the envelope
And beyond the envelope
A sample letter
I am so happy you have found your way here. Let me begin by sharing a quick peek into my immediate family.
You see, everyone was enthralled with sports — football, basketball, baseball, any of it. If a game was on, we watched it. All three of my siblings played, and a couple even hoped to go professional. So when I came along singing, and obsessing over horses and musicals, nobody quite knew what to think. They used to joke that I had been exchanged with a baby from Norway.
It wasn’t only how I thought. I looked different too. My siblings each took after one of my parents; I couldn’t be matched to anyone. You could go through every old photograph handed down for generations and not find a single face that resembled mine.
Years later I was in the college program at Walt Disney World, sharing an apartment with five other young women — from Mississippi, Mexico, Great Britain, Germany, and Norway. Yes. Norway. When my parents came to visit and met my Norwegian roommate, my father took one look and announced that she was the baby they had exchanged me for. Well. Explaining what he meant took some doing. By the end we were all laughing. She and I are still in touch to this day.
My father told me more than once that he and my mother believed the ABBA song “Thank You for the Music” had been written about me.
That singing baby, and a blind faith that everything works out, set me off on a lifetime of adventure — the travels, my rescue dog Otter, the loves and the losses, the years in the entertainment business. Those are the stories I will be sending you.
Peace and Love,
Zuzu
I knew we were not going to make it home without getting soaked, so I just laughed and strolled the rest of the way home. All the while thinking what a picture we must have been — a woman and her dog strolling through the rain.
The stories
People ask what I could possibly find to write about every month. Well, you see, that has never been a problem…
I began acting when I was seven years old and I have been finding my way back to the stage ever since. I have sung in Russia and I have sung in Las Vegas. I danced for Sesame Street Live. I sang with the Knoxville Opera Company. I was a puppeteer for Avenue Q in Las Vegas. I was the first woman to perform Sebastian in the original Little Mermaid show at Walt Disney World when it was Disney-MGM Studios. I acted in King Arthur’s Tournament in Las Vegas. And I was the last full time Queen Guinevere at the Excalibur Hotel and Casino…which is a peculiar thing to be. There have been musicals, commercials, films and television as well.
And there have been horses through all of it. I galloped along the beach on Nantucket for a fundraiser for the Atheneum, which is their library, and I have never forgotten the smell of the sea, sound of the surf, and the feel of my horse beneath me stepping along the shore. I performed in the dinner theater show, Arabian Nights, as a rider and actress both. I toured the country with the Royal Lipizzaner Stallions. Years later I began, what was once, one of the largest equine assisted activities and therapies programs in the country for veterans, first responders and their families. It was called Equest Hooves for Heroes, and of everything I have done, that is the one I am proud of the most.
I have spent just as much time off the stage as on it. I was on the management team that opened The Beatles LOVE for Cirque du Soleil and I stayed with that show for five years. I worked with the talent on the Jerry Lewis telethon. I was a talent assistant at the SAG Awards. You learn a great deal about people while you are standing in the wings holding a clipboard.
Every one of those things came with a story, and the stories are what I am sending you in Zuzu’s Letters. Not all of them are grand. Most of them not. A rainy walk home with my dog Otter is every bit as likely to turn up in your mailbox as a Lipizzaner stallion, and I could not tell you which one you will like better. That is rather the point of it. One envelope a month, and no knowing what is inside until you open it.
The print
Three actual prints — each 5″ × 7″ on 100% cotton fiber paper produced from the ARCHES® traditional molds.
Every letter arrives with an original giclée print, made from one of my own photographs — a place I’ve been, something I saw that morning, a moment worth keeping.
Each one is printed on 100% cotton fiber paper produced from the ARCHES® traditional molds that create beautiful texture, made to last for generations, and sized to fit a frame you already own.
About Zuzu
I was nicknamed Zuzu after Zuzu Bailey in It’s A Wonderful Life — the youngest daughter of George Bailey, who believed that every time a bell rings an angel gets its wings. I watch the movie at least once a year, and sometimes more.
I entered this world programmed to love music, horses, performing and people. My mother told me I sang before I talked. I spent many years as a singer, dancer, puppeteer, actor, equestrian and manager for some of the biggest entertainment companies in the world.
It is loss that sent me on a journey of self-discovery and led me to my real purpose: working in equine assisted activities and therapies, helping people heal through partnering with horses. Horses are authentic, live in the moment, and interdependent in the herd. These all seem like good qualities to me. So, I guess we could all aspire to be more herd-like. 💜
I have had the idea of Zuzu’s Letters for about three years now but have allowed fear to prevent me from bringing the idea to fruition. I have used all sorts of excuses from, I don’t have enough time, to I am not good enough, smart enough, or brave enough. Well, I have had spinal fusion surgery two months ago, and I am now determined to fill my recovery time productively. If I don’t start Zuzu’s Letters now, I will never do it…What is the saying about if not now, then when? Or it’s now or never? Face your fears. You can do it. Be brave. All of these sayings ring true — and here I am, being brave.
It seems to me our world needs a little more connection, positivity, love and kindness these days. That is what I hope you find each time you open one of my letters.
Subscribe
$18.99 either way
One letter and one original giclée print, in your mailbox each month. Begin properly, or try a single letter first and see how it feels to get one.
The single letter is a one-off — nothing recurring, nothing to remember.
from $97.99
Six months or a year of letters, paid once and then done. Works out gentler on the purse than paying month by month.
$16.33 a letter for six months · $15.00 a letter for twelve.
Any of these can be a gift — just enter their address at checkout and it goes straight to them.
For now, letters are posted within the United States only — I hope to open this up further before long.
When your first letter arrives
Letters are posted to reach you before the end of each month.
Order by the 15th and this month’s letter is yours. Order after the 15th and you’ll begin with next month’s — no letter goes missing either way.
December is the exception. Order through the 20th and the December letter still goes out to you — though with the Christmas post being what it is, I can’t promise it lands before the day itself.
By email
Put your email address here and I will write to you every now and then… a story I am working on, a photograph I cannot stop looking at, or when something new is on its way. It is free, and you may leave whenever you like.
