This is me waving good-bye to 2023. I took this photo a few days ago: late December and not a flake of snow in sight. Here in the Okanagan Valley, we are enjoying beautiful mild weather that is definitely producing some anxiety (what the heck is going on).
I started this Substack on Dec 31 last year with a first issue titled Are You Still Writing? The answer was yes then and it’s still yes. Thanks so much to those of you who started reading this bi-monthly meander back then and have joined during the year. I have renewed my personal commitment to keep writing in this space for at least another year. I will keep the subscriptions free, but paid subscriptions are also available. I used the paid subscriptions from last year to make a donation to the Food Bank this week.
Here’s a fast-moving recap of my 2023. Last winter, Geo and I fulfilled a decades-long desire to spend two months in Spain: the trip was 5 weeks of great travel and 3 weeks of health hell when I got sick and was hospitalized twice. Back home, I got well again. I wrote and took photos and walked and played golf and worried about my kids and my extended family and my friends and strangers in danger as I watched world events with an ever-wary eye. On August 17, the fires came to Kelowna and we evacuated. Then, unlike far too many others, Geo and I were able to come home to an unscathed home and neighbourhood. In September, my fourth book was published and people started saying very good things about She Who Burns, so I started writing a new novel. I also started taking a drawing class at the art gallery with the wonderful Jim Elwood as my instructor. I spent hours trying to make my drawings look realistic. One night in my office/studio - it’s a very small multi-purpose room - I decided to let my hand go and make an expressive drawing. Below you see what came out. I call it “Portrait of the Patriarchy” or “Portrait of What the Inside of My Head Feels Like.”
Lest you think I’ve gone completely bonkers, here’s a calmer one.
Most of all this year, I kept writing and reading. My reading pile never seems to get any smaller but I did manage to get through 66 books this year. I keep a reading log and mark the ones that stay with me for days and days afterwards with a star. It was a rich reading year for me and I have a lot of stars on my log. One of the highlights of my year was getting a starred review from Kirkus Reviews for She Who Burns and then making their 100 Best Indie Books list, so it’s my turn to honour the books that moved me this year. Here’s my starred list from my 2023 reading log.
Fiction:
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
All the Colour in the World by C. S. Richardson
I am Homeless If This is Not My Home by Lorrie Moore
Far Cry by Alissa York
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki
A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes
Circe by Madeline Miller
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kamaguchi
Instructions for the Drowning by Steven Heighton
We Have Never Lived on Earth by Kasia van Schaik
Non-Fiction:
The Art Thief by Michael Finkel
The Heat Will Kill You First by Jeff Goodell
Fire Weather by John Vaillant
Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman
Truth Telling by Michelle Good
Don’t Tell Anyone the Secrets I Told You by Lucinda Williams
Ordinary Wonder Tales by Emily Urquhart
Bittersweet by Susan Cain
Poetry:
Exculpatory Lilies by Susan Musgrave
The Ridge by Robert Bringhurst
Old Gods by Conor Kerr
The Carrying by Ada Limon
The Hurting Kind by Ada Limon
Above you see my current reading pile. This doesn’t include the lineup of books on my iPad. I wonder how many times I’ll have to fill that coffee cup to get through them all.
To all of you who read Me Who Writes, as 2024 takes over with whatever it has in store for us, I wish you peace and love and strength and wisdom and a wealth of good books to read. Happy New Year. If you enjoyed this issue, please feel free to share it with a friend or two.