Best Post of the Year!

So far....

Here’s to those of you who have already forgotten that this is my FIRST post of the year and therefore didn’t get the joke:

These blue flowers are forget-me-nots & the busy bee is for you. Did you know that in Lithuanian your most faithful friends are called “bee-friends”? Bees are apparently far more loyal than dogs. (Photo by Belinda Fewings on Unsplash)

Most of you already know, I generally spend the week between Christmas and New Years Day with 70 or so of my closest friends at what has evolved into an intergenerational, transcontinental gathering of semi-geniuses.

This year was the 40th anniversary of the event.

I joined when I was a Junior in undergrad, after the little New Year’s Eve celebration had already been going a few years— some of the jugglers I’d run away with that summer drove down to pick me up from NYC and bring me to Massachusetts for the party. This year, we took over an inn in Great Barrington. We sent the innkeepers on vacation and the House denizens cooked, cleaned, and gamed nonstop for the week. It was an excellent getaway, with some hiking, some fine dining, some long heart-to-hearts, a massively useful in-house bar, and a lot of board games.

These are just the games that weren’t being played at the time. The girl is one of our G2 gamers. We also have a few G3 but they still haven’t reached Hi-Ho Cherry-O age. Don’t worry, we’ll train them….

It was a brutal year for most of us—my situation fit right into the general mood —but what was clear was that love does conquer all. None of us knew what to say to the other people who were grieving or struggling — all we could do was wrap collective arms around each other, hold tight, and hope we didn’t catch COVID.

Only three of our people have it so far and none of those live in my house. Thank goodness.

On that note, I want to start this year with a round of enormous gratitude - I appreciate that you read this blog and that it lifts your mood, however briefly. Feeling that momentary joy is important makes the writing worthwhile—and hearing your feedback that you’re enjoying it reminds me that I’m a good writer and really should get back to the fiction for which I used to constantly win awards.

You can’t win stuff if you don’t put stuff out there- so my resolution for 2024 is to send out more stuff. This blog will continue to come out weekly on Sundays, and I’ll still publish random extra essays on Medium (if you subscribe to Medium, those will also come to your mailbox). I also intend to create more flash. Maybe even go back to poetry at times (did you know that my very first publication was as the $1000 first-prize-winner of a national college poetry competition?) Poetry is my heart.

But most importantly, I’m going to get back to work on a bigger piece. It’s time. By the end of 2024, my resolution is to have a final draft of a novel. Wish me luck!

WRITING NEWS

DELIGHTFUL THRILLING AMAZING!

My book, A Flash of Darkness, (that you are supposed to buy, read, and take cool photos of in weird and fun places—click here and scroll down for some of the more awesome shots people have sent me) got mentioned on a “notables” end-of-year book list for 2023! Isn’t that terrific? The list is "Cheers to the Weirdos” in Heavy Feather Review.

This is both brilliantly perfect and kind of ….shade. When I was in second grade I wasn’t thrilled to be called a weirdo.

But I’m delighted to be included on my first-ever list. (So much gratitude to Dawn, for the heads-up that this list exists and for letting me know that I’m on it!)

ALSO I’m thrilled to announce that the Gulliver Travel Grant for which I applied last year has moved me up to the next round - there’s hope for a travel grant to finish writing my spec fiction novel—it’s set in California, so heads-up West Coast!

News that feels like old news but is new: my essay about survival (Life Lessons from a Sad Christmas Tree) was picked up in the last week of last year by the publication Long. Sweet. Valuable. on Medium.

Otherwise, I’m full-on planning on how the nonprofit, Pen Parentis, will represent at the AWP Conference in Kansas City in early February. It’s a whole month sooner than usual which throws off everything about everything. Also I’m re-watching Ted Lasso to get excited about the destination. Ted Lasso should be required viewing for everyone over 40. If you know anything cool about Kansas City, MO, please let me know!

Upcoming Events:

I’m hosting the annual Winter Poetry Salon online this coming Tuesday night (Jan 9) at 7pm ET- tune in! You don’t have to be a parent or a writer — poets will read short poems. We will talk about New Years and past years. It will be inspiring and fun. My co-host Christina Chiu has GORGEOUS new hair, you should sign up just for that! Sign up. It’s free.

If you’re anywhere near NYC on January 17 at 6:30pm, stop by this excellent Writers Room event (740 Broadway) for bubbly and to listen to the amazing in-person Pen Parentis PopUp Salon I’m hosting. It’s free and there’s not even an RSVP link - just show up!

Insider knowledge: the event is on my mother-in-law’s birthday. It’s our first one without her. The kids are busy—it happens to also be the birthday of Manchild’s girlfriend, and Ladyteen has to work—in any event, I’ll stay perfectly proper & sober to interview the authors - the list of readers is amazing - but I’ll be looking for wine as soon as the event is over. Let’s close down a bar or two, raising a glass to the woman who taught me how to be a New Yorker.

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Random Last Thought:

At the New Year’s House, we always end the year with a round of House Jeopardy — the coder (who is also a damned good musician) makes it amazing by projecting the whole game on a screen as he plays the certainly-copyrighted theme on his keyboard; an MIT engineer comes up with the categories for the kid-version (G2) of the game which is earlier in the night, and an ex NASA-scientist creates the answers and categories for our G1 game—he used to host but (as many of us) he has been facing a series of unfortunate events. His brilliant daughter ran the show this year. (The top hat was a nice touch!)

Anyway - for your brain puzzling pleasure, I give you the category “words kids use”— from our game. If you can match the first row to the meaning in the second row you are either very current or under 21 years old.

Answer key is the internet - me, I’m finna get a latte.

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