Hey, everyone. We hope you're well, but we know lots of people aren't doing so well, right now. If you need encouragement or support, please let us know.

We’ve been playing a lot of video games lately – to pass the time and to escape into fantasy. Both of us have Animal Crossing: New Horizons and recently did some virtual workshop planning in-game. (We can’t promise we’ll be offering UX writing workshops in Animal Crossing, but, reader — wouldn't that be fun?)

Michael (left) and Andy hanging out on the island Michael shares with his family in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Andy’s immersed in his phone, as usual.

We've heard from many of you who are still interested in learning more about UX writing, so we're continuing to send this newsletter. We're also finding opportunities to share about our book online.

One of those opportunities is tomorrow (Tuesday), at 5pm Pacific time, when we'll be guests at Quarantine Book Club hosted by Mike Monteiro and Erika Hall. We'd love for you to join us. We've also got a few other appearances coming up, and are working on a virtual version of our workshop that we can offer.

If you've read Writing is Designing, we'd be so grateful if you could leave a review on Amazon. It really helps authors and prospective readers alike. You don't have to buy the book from Amazon to review it there. In fact, we'd encourage you to support Rosenfeld Media, our independent publisher.

Speaking of Rosenfeld, we wanted to let you know that they're running a sale right now. You can get 10% off and free shipping to the U.S. and U.K. with the code READATHOME. Sure you could buy our book, but here are some of our favorite Rosenfeld titles for you to consider:

• Practical Empathy by Indi Young

• Living in Information by Jorge Arango

• Content Everywhere by Sara Wachter-Boettcher

• Interviewing Users by Steve Portigal

The deal ends on Tuesday, April 28th. We hope you'll consider supporting them as an independent publisher that has done quite a bit to support UX learning.

What we're reading

From Michael:

Designing Voice User Interfaces by Cathy Pearl →

I know... It's shameful that I've been working as a conversation designer for a couple of years without reading this book, but I'm so glad to be reading it now. I definitely recommend it to anyone working with conversational interfaces, whether voice or chat.

I'd also recommend it to anyone working in design, because it will help you understand the complexity that goes into making these interfaces successful and help you speak to different use-cases for voice and chat technology in an informed way.

Pearl is an engaging writer. Love this book.

From Andy:

Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz →

I’ve been escaping into fiction lately, and video games (but that’s for a different newsletter), and I recently finished this great novel by Annalee Newitz, a science fiction author (and apparently lives in my neighborhood in San Francisco!). It’s about time travel, and a group of feminist academics who  bounce through history trying to stop a group of men’s rights activists from erasing women’s rights from the timeline. It’s delightful and super unique.

What we're up to

• Quarantine Book Club: Tomorrow (!) at 5pm Pacific time. Come join us for a discussion of Writing is Designing moderated by Mike Monteiro and Erika Hall of Mule Design.

• Confab 2020: May 18-20. This is now a virtual event and we're still ironing out the details of how we'll be involved, but it's sure to be amazing.

• The UX Content Strategy Montreal meetup: Wednesday, May 6. Thanks to Katie Del Angel for inviting us!

• The Philly Content Strategy meetup: Tuesday, May 12. Thanks to David Dylan Thomas for inviting us!

Pencil of the month: Golden Sword

From Michael:

When I first got into pencils, I quickly became aware that Japanese stationery products are some of the finest in the world—and not necessarily the most expensive, either.

These Golden Sword (Hi-class pencil w/eraser!) pencils come in packs of 4 for $1.50 in the US and can be purchased from Daiso (though my bet is that they are manufactured by Kita-Boshi), but unfortunately there are no Daiso stores in Chicago. No Muji either. I always relish trips to coastal cities or Asia because I know I'll get a chance to stock up on awesome stationery.

The Golden Sword has an unfinished natural wood barrel, a gold ferrule, and a classic pink eraser. I love the simple type, and the fact that it is denoted as a "HI-CLASS" pencil.

I wish I could provide a link to where you can get them online, but I haven't found them anywhere. In fact, when Andy and I went to Singapore last year, we bought out a Daiso store's entire stock of 15 or so packs. It's that good. If you find yourself near a Daiso in the future, be sure to look for these! Daiso’s stock is often irregular, at least in the US, but with any luck you’ll track down a pack.