Hi! I'm Elke, I'm the one writing every letter that comes out of Destacada.
Fenna's voice, the village, the drawings that end up in your envelope... All of it starts here, at my desk, before it ever reaches yours.
I never thought I could do this actually. Before this, I had never even tried to write fiction. And my artistic talent for drawing or painting...? Non-existent. Never drew anything that could have been considered beautiful or even interesting.
But... Life happened. First burnout, then divorce and the loss of the business I had with my ex-partner. I moved back home, got back up and found a job I genuinely love! A job that actually works really well with my ADHD and autism (another recent discovery, yay!)
Then... breast cancer. I'm lucky enough to live in Belgium, where I can take paid leave and focus on healing completely. That is truly amazing. And i'm really enjoying the permission to slow down that came with all of it. But somewhere inside the slowing down, I started missing being challenged. I missed thinking and creating and solving puzzles.
That's when I stumbled on the idea of mailclubs, letters that arrive in your actual mailbox instead of your inbox, and something in me lit up immediately. I had a handful of ideas, mostly non-fiction, the kind that made sense given my background in human design and other personal obsessions. But one kept pulling harder than the rest: a woman who has to start over completely, who gets an invitation to a magical world that helps her heal and become more herself, without pretending everything is suddenly, magically fine.
Except... I'd never written fiction in my life. And as far as I knew, I didn't have an artistic bone in my body. I had never ever drawn anything that someone would consider worth the effort. But the idea kept showing up, so I decided to give it a real chance. I started writing. I took a course to learn how to draw, something I'd never dared try before.
Letters from Destacada is what happened next. It's a very personal story for me. Fenna is not me, but the letters carry a lot of what I've actually been working through: starting over, being seen, taking of my masks hiding my neurodivergence, learning that healing doesn't mean everything gets easy.
I hope Destacada gives you somewhere to land too, even if it's just for the length of one letter a month.
Aside from the joy I get from creating this mailclub, I'm hopeful that it can also earn enough so I can pay for expensive tests that my insurance doesn't cover. If my cancer grows (or later: returns), those tests will mean I can catch it earlier than scans ever could. It will also help my doctors see if my treatment is working well, or if we need to change course.
I hope you'll enjoy the mailclub as much as I have already!
Elke
Writer & world-builder, Letters from Destacada