Dirk Wessels, Auckland

I married a woman with eight kids, and the youngest boy was obsessed with mail — ordinary snail mail. He used to jump out of the car and check the mailbox every time we got home, then hand the mail out to whoever it was for, which was my wife 99% of the time, never for him.

So I decided he needed to receive a letter, and wrote to him as Gunpowder Gore, an officer in a secret military organisation that tracks and defends Earth from aliens. One of the races they track is a shape-shifting species that can take the form of insects. Gore told my son he had been watching him for a while, thought he would make an excellent recruit as a secret agent, and asked him to study the insects around the house and report back.

I opened a mailbox in a different part of Auckland so he could reply without knowing who Gunpowder Gore was.

Everybody was highly amused, and I ended up having to write to his siblings too, to head off the jealousy. It was great fun, and something completely unique that kept the family intrigued for a long time.

I’ve changed it considerably. For one thing I don’t want to send strangers’ kids off searching for insects and get blamed when someone’s kid comes home with a scorpion in hand :) And I also wanted to keep the storyline open for expansion, so the Society of Unseen Things is considerably different, but comes from that original idea of taking my own kids on a wholesome adventure with a bit of “whodunit” built in. And yes, Gunpowder Gore is in the Society as well.

Who writes the letters

The stories are mine. I use an AI model to help draft the letters, and nothing reaches a family until I’ve read it, changed what’s wrong and released it by hand.

What we promise

• Every letter goes to you, never to your child. Safety for Parents
• We hold a codename, an age band and a few interests — never a child’s real name, and never their address. Privacy, in the terms
• If your child isn’t taken with it, the first month comes back. The guarantee

The company

Gizmopress Limited, Auckland, New Zealand · NZBN 9429046016478
[email protected] — a person reads every reply.