REVEALED!!! The top secret underground project I hinted at so coyly last week...

It's a win-win shopportunity benefiting our friend Meghan Daum

If you are a fan of Meghan Daum’s writing and podcasts, you may have learned the same way I did that she lost her house and all her belongings when the Eaton Fire destroyed the town of Altadena January 7th and 8th.

I was hiking in the hills a few hundred miles north (thus the cover photo: remember the cow) when I listened to Meghan’s first recorded dispatch on the 9th, about leaving her house for what she really didn’t believe would be the last time, days earlier. There’d been no evacuation order, but Meghan and some neighbors had resolved to pack a few things and leave in what felt like ‘an abundance of caution.’ The next morning they learned the whole neighborhood was gone.

Hearing this, I thought I would send Meghan a leather purse as a gesture of support — I make handbags and she had owned two of them. With everything destroyed, a replacement would probably be welcome.

Then came another dispatch on January 16th in which Meghan itemized some of the cherished lost possessions she would miss the most: a valuable painting by an artist who’s also a friend; the oboe she’d played as a serious young student of classical music performance; all the pre-digital family photos that can’t be reprinted; her collection of books; some inherited antiques. She also listed the few things she had saved, such as ‘a leather tote bag that a friend had made for me,’ and ‘a pair of pointy shoes’ that she knew had been discontinued.

Upon hearing Meghan say she’d saved one of my creations, I decided to make a collection of ten bags to sell as a fundraiser, and I’m happy to say the Meghan Collection is now available for you to shop and buy here! The price of each bag is $120, of which $20 will cover shipping and Etsy fees, and $100 will go directly to Meghan, to help her get back on her pointy-shoed feet as soon as possible.

Help a displaced writer and buy your limited-edition Meghan Tote now!

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Here’s how the project looked a few days ago:

Here’s the finished collection:

Here’s me modeling one of them:

And here’s Meghan, at the house she’s staying in temporarily, with the bag she saved from the fire:

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Meghan published two articles on this topic (disasters, not leather goods) in the Free Press and the New York Times, both for subscribers only; but you can listen to her free audio posts here:

Jan. 9: Special Episode: Letter From The Los Angeles Fires

Jan. 16: Los Angeles Fires: The Immaterial World (I’m in this one, sort of. Be sure to listen to the end!)

Jan. 27: Los Angeles Fires: Housing Wars

Also:

Pre-order Meghan’s new book, which she describes in this must-listen episode from Feb 13th, her birthday.

Be Meghan’s 30,000 and somethingth follower on X!

Be my 41st follower on X!

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Thanks for your support.