As someone who loves to write and read ghost stories because of the metaphors they provide about what we can see and not see, about what we can know and not know, and about what is haunting us, I love Halloween. This year Rosie and I dressed up as a prisoner arrested for "disorderly conduct" and the friendly, unarmed police officer who is keeping the streets safe from her thievery--mostly of popcorn and covers.

Now that we are into November, I know many of you are keeping the party going by participating in National Novel Writing Month. I take my (police) hat off to anyone attempting to write 50,000 words in a month. How do you do it? I've heard the key to success is "Don't look back." 

Seems like good advice for those of us trying to get a lot of writing done, and those of us walking up creaking, chilling stairs...

 

The book I'm working on now, GHOST MOTHER, has been inspired by one of the world's great novels (novellas), Henry James' THE TURN OF THE SCREW, which poses the question, Are there ghosts, or is the narrator going insane? It has taken me about eight readings, but I have finally determined the answer to that question. (And no, I won't give it away here. You must enjoy the tortuous delight of reading it for yourself eight times!) I have loved so many of James' novels, and have learned so much from all of them, but this one is my favorite. It continues to inspire and amaze me. Henry James' birthday was this week, on April 15, 1843. I am so grateful he was born, and so grateful he wrote all of the beautiful and complex books that he did. Do you have a favorite James novel? A favorite ghost story?

Happy birthday, Henry James!

 

Astronomers tell us that Jupiter and Saturn come together every twenty years, but they haven't come this close together in four hundred years, or this close together at night in eight hundred years, so tonight should be something to look at!

Astrologers tell us that when the Great Conjunction happens on the Winter Solstice, it signifies new beginnings, and that we should take the opportunity to think about what goals we want to attain in the coming year.

For writers, of course, this probably means what writing goals we want to accomplish.

Do you want to write every day this coming year? Do you want to submit more? Do you want to start a novel? Finish one? What are your goals for 2021? Apparently now is as good a day as any to write them down. Why wait 'til New Year's?

Whatever your writing goals are, I wish you great success in reaching them.

Happy Winter Solstice!

(copyright free photo by David Menidrey via Unsplash)

 

Like everything else, Halloween was a little different during our global pandemic, and I was impressed by how inventive and creative people were in finding new ways to celebrate and distribute treats. Some things never change, however. See Rosie the pug, above, my beloved best friend, who hated wearing a costume just as much as she always does. She was an astronaut in her rocket just long enough to seem very skeptical about a life in space with a flimsy spacesuit and no treats, while I snapped a few pictures, and then she was back to unencumbered freedom again--until I will put a Christmas hat on her, that is.

Halloween over, I awoke the next morning with a marvelous feeling: It was Sunday, November 1! I love it when new months fall on Sundays or Mondays, don't you? The entire month seems like it is filled with possibility!

I have so many plans to accomplish: so much teaching and editing this month. I also hope to enjoy some walking in brisk air before it snows, and to read and watch scary books and movies in whatever free time I have! What are your hopes and dreams for a new month that begins on a Sunday?

Iowa Summer Writing Festival

I've been teaching at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival for so long that I can't remember when I started. When I asked my friend Kelly who runs the Human Resources part of the Festival what year I started, she said, "I don't know, our records don't go back that far." (...which did not exactly make me feel young...) I've only missed two summers since I began: in 2012 and 2016, when I taught in Scotland, at the Wisconsin in Scotland summer program for college students in the University of Wisconsin system. Yep, I only gave up Iowa to live in a palace for the summer.

I was slated to teach two weekend workshops and two weeklong workshops this summer, but of course, the Festival, like so much else, was cancelled  for everyone's health and safety. I know that a cancelled festival is not among the worst things that has happened in the world since any of us first heard the words Covid-19, but I still miss my colleagues, my friends, the teaching and learning environment, and the writers/students I would have seen again and/or gotten to know in my classes very much. Iowa City is an inspiring town, and the Iowa Summer Writing Festival is such an inspiring environment for writers, that I think any of us involved with this magical summer phenomenon are feeling its absence this year.

But I am trying to make good use of my time by finishing my novel and working with other writers on their manuscripts. And the manuscripts I'm reading and editing are terrific. Many of these writers I in fact met in Iowa, and I can't wait for you to "meet" them one day: through their books that will undoubtedly one day be published.

The cover of the 2020 catalogue of the ISWF asks: "Will the words make it across the water? Will anyone on the other side even care if they do?" As the Festival director replies: "Yes and Yes." And I would only add: "Yes and Yes... and now more than ever."

Photo by Kelly McComb from Spirit Lake Review Magazine, 2020