How to Write A Nice and Nippy Letter
A Nice and Nippy Discourse was born through a face lift of Nice and Nippy Letters, my first book co-authored with Yuliya Grecu, my Russian mate, who soon became my beloved friend from afar. Yuliya proved to be the one person I could depend on when professional writing was calling for both me and her; yet “things” turned out to be a l-i-t-t-l-e “Nippy” between us.
Yuliya and I first met at work. I saw her standing alone while others were gathered in their own groups. She seemed friendly enough, so I approached her to introduce myself.
What transpired between Yuliya and me after our first introduction eventuated into a beautiful, dedicated, three yearlong professional relationship. It was the best time I ever had.
As time proceeded in knowing her, I mentioned to Yuliya: “I have been thinking about writing a book. Would you like to help me write it?”
Her hesitation was none. It seemed as if she knew immediately her answer was “Yes. What type of book do you have in mind?”
“I am thinking about writing a professional book of letters—for schools—a book that will be unlike any other letter book in the stores. It will be a book that will offer nice letters and, well, not so nice letters, “nippy” letters, as a matter of fact, the types of letters that would resound “Ouch!” What did you say?”
Yuliya loved the idea. We immediately connected and arranged to meet at a coffee shop every evening from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. to work on the book. The plan was for Yuliya to generate five letters for each topic we generated, and I was to generate five letters, and we would together review the letters to ameliorate them if necessary. It was necessary. We were writing a book, after all.
This plan sustained our writing for 6-months, the time it took for a 520-letter book to be created and then to be published.
Nice and Nippy Letters, coined by me, was a masterpiece from the beginning: Its contents are creatively helpful to educators: Many letters cover almost every avenue of school issue. The unique designs of the letters are for leaders and the general population. They may copy, modify, or use the letters as written. The book provides a boost in letter writing.
Nice and Nippy Letters-research expounds on reasons for writing letters; the research explains how and why to write letters, yet Nice and Nippy Letters modifies the research by adding a syrupy niceness and a nippy tone to it.
The book includes letters of inspiration to employees from principal; letters from teachers to administrators requesting work solutions to classroom issues; letters to parents from teachers asking parents for aid in teaching their children, and letters to colleagues from other colleagues to solve personality differences—all of which are letters written in appropriate tones; some letters, however, are v-e-r-y nippy, especially the letters from colleagues to colleagues.
Nice and Nippy Letters takes a different stance in its section on school leadership, as the letters address defiant or insubordinate employees. The descriptive letters display a mirror image of real-life scenarios that take place between “boss” and employee when the employee is called on the carpet; the boss usually wins.
A critical thinking section shows students how to increase their mindsets, how to learn complex problem-solving techniques—and all via letters.
Additionally, the section on vocabulary is replete with letter styles that convey vocabulary terms that are useful for instruction. For example, the letters display requests from students asking teachers to help them in specific learning ways to increase their vocabulary knowledge.
Nice and Nippy Letters also reveals constructed letters for secretaries, security/officers, custodians, and nurses. They may use the letters’ ideas when they communicate with staff: In this book, no individual department of school is left abandoned.
To complement Nice and Nippy Letters, Yuliya and I added a glossary of 300 words that may be located in the context of the book. The words are detailed by their parts of speech and extended definitions. Readers of the book may use the glossary as a reference as they deem helpful.
The euphoria I felt while constructing Nice and Nippy Letters, positioning the letters in optimal effect was an overwhelming feeling of progress. I felt as if I were creating something worthy of another person’s time for reading our book. Yuliya expressed she felt the same.
Yuliya and I attended our writing sections every day, producing unique letters as best we could. However, at times, I would criticize her letters, arguing that they needed to be written more sensibly than they were, and she would criticize my letters for showing too many typos. We often laughed at the other’s writing mistakes and quickly resorted to reliable research to solve the issues. We developed a “cool” relationship in this way. We helped each other, and that is part reason the book is cleverly created.
Yuliya and I met a love affair of writing. We dedicated our time by creating what we believed will one day become a classic, a classical book of unique letters that are helpful to school administrators and teachers and business persons and that will be relevant to schools and businesses for centuries to arrive. Essentially, the basic element of Nice and Nippy Letters is not only to enjoy reading a variation of unique letters but also to apply a plethora of ideas of human relationships and to learn how communicating with people may be managed and developed appropriately through letters.
When Yuliya and I determined how to construct the book for publishing, she and I waited eagerly for the first copy of it to arrive in the mail.
A week later, “The mail is here! Our book is here!” Yuliya beamed.
“Wow, that’s exciting, but don’t open it, Yuliya. We must open the mail together.”
Our six o’clock normal time for writing arrived for us to meet as we did every week day for six-months. We both stared at the package. Yuliya opened it, and what peered from the package was a beautiful bright shiny red book with my name and Yuliya’s name as authors on our very own Nice and Nippy Letters.
“It’s beautiful,” I said.
Yuliya showed a visage of profoundness. We looked through the book together and were tickled at what we had produced; she leaned her head on my shoulder, and I patted her head in agreement.
Yuliya and I (see photo left) continued to meet semi-weekly to write, yet some undefined reason came between us, and we soon began to take a left when we had promised to always take a right.
Yuliya had set ideas for how to manage Nice and Nippy Letters, and I had mine. Weeks passed, and many “not so nice” events transpired between Yuliya and me that eventually our nice relationship turned “nippy.” I suppose we were both kneading towards a truce, however.
Well? Nippy!
Thus, I proceeded to write books on my own.
Years passed, and Yuliya and I still had not marketed Nice and Nippy Letters. The book merely existed. This thought tugged at my soul, for the book was too well written, too boldly creative, too useful for the public’s use not to be marketed.
Sigh.
Thinking about how we first began our writing journey, Yuliya was different from most other people I knew; she was smart and generous with her time. There were times I believed she was sent to earth as an angel to help me write books. I wonder how she thought about me as a writing partner. She never said; still, I believe our feelings were mutual.
Nice and Nippy.
However, after everything wrong was said and done, nothing could be resolved between us, so we took on a new, independent direction–Hence, a revised version of Nice and Nippy Letter was made into A Nice and Nippy Discourse.
A Nice and Nippy Discourse maintains the identical letters as Nice and Nippy Letters, yet A Nice and Nippy Discourse has an added section of “Letters of Resignation.”
Four new letters are nice and two new letters are nippy. The starting point for the new letters is 521 to 526, and they are located only in A Nice and Nippy Discourse.
You as reader will also find helpful the stoic business and personal quotes in A Nice and Nippy Discourse. The quotes are captivating and soul stirring. Thus, if you need to write a letter yet are unsure how to proceed with it, A Nice and Nippy Discourse can help you say it the way you feel it.
A Nice and Nippy Discourse is fun to read. Some letters will compel you to laugh. Others will compel you to reason “don’t you write those nippy words,” yet each of the letters will inspire you to communicate appropriately.
Looking back on our dire situation, the nice relationship between Yuliya and me never recovered from the misunderstandings that transpired, yet our Nice and Nippy Letters—letters written with thought, with creativity, with research, with usefulness, and with love will always remain with us; I know for sure will remain with me.
Life indeed can be nice and NIPPY.
I hope you will find the opportunity to read A Nice and Nippy Discourse. You will discover the love and hard work that Yuliya and I poured into the book.
More importantly, you will discover the helpfulness of the book, and you will remember that communication is important. It will lead you to a truce–albeit NICE or NIPPY.
What about Yuliya and me?
I cannot say.
But I have the memories to keep myself wise.
Please leave a comment after you have read A Nice and Nippy Discourse to let me know if you find the book helpful, and thank you for your time and input.
Cynthiamathews.blog
Lukeandlezz@gmail.com
2020
Excerpts from a Nice and Nippy Discourse.