Thanks for Your Awesome Taste
Photo by Hanny Naibaho on Unsplash
Here we are, more than halfway through the month of gratitude, and I’m just now getting back in touch with you. Never doubt, though, that I’m grateful for your awesome taste in blogs. Let’s catch up.
Highlights on My Writing Map This Month
On November 5, I learned that my poem “A Communion of the Senses” will be published on Ancient Paths February 15, 2020. I look forward to linking to it in my February post.
·On November 11, my newest essay, “Why the Social Model of Disability Doesn’t Fully Reflect My Experience” was published on The Mighty.
I’ve also worked in submitted nine other poems this month. It can take months to receive a reply about submitted work. I hope that when I do, I’ll have good news to share.
Highlights on My Reading Map This Month
My book club has already discussed its November selection, Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton. This novel weaves together two settings: Cuba immediately following Castro’s death and Cuba immediately preceding Castro’s rule. Both timelines present romances that bloom against complex political backdrops. Vivid descriptions make it easy to “see” times and places in this novel. The “voices” of the two narrators feel natural. Cleeton’s writing made me forget I was reading a text rather than listening to someone talk to me.
Photo by McKayla Crump on Unsplash
For December, the book club is reading The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah. The Great Alone the story of a Vietnam veteran who carries his nightmares, bitterness and suspicion of authority with him when he, his wife, and thirteen-year-old daughter “escape” to the Alaskan wilderness.
I haven’t quite finished the book yet. Kristin Hannah is a skilled writer who makes her readers inhabit the circumstances of characters — settings, minds, bodies, and all. Therefore, I’d like to issue a warning. This book includes multiple depictions of physical and emotional abuse. I don’t usually read books in which abuse is such an important plot element. Also, any activity that bears a remote resemblance to camping doesn’t hold much appeal for me. In short, this book has been hard for me to get through. Its dark sequences are mingled with moments of tenderness, though. If you’re wired differently than I am, if you’re the outdoorsy type, and you like gritty realism and suspense in your reading, this might be the book for you.
Looking Ahead to December
I hope to find time in the midst of finishing my teaching for the semester to catch the new specials and the Christmas classics on TV. I’ve also subscribed to Disney+ (Yes, I’m giving Disney + free advertising in this post, and I don’t mind a bit.) I can’t wait to watch everything on my Watchlist.
In Writing
I’m planning to revise the first story I wrote for StoryADay September 2019. When I’m satisfied with my revisions to the current version, I’ll decide whether to leave it at under a thousand words or to lengthen it. I also want to submit some more calls for publication. Finally, it’s been almost two months since I showed my novel-in-progress some love. I’d like to do that in December, too. On top of that, my family and I will celebrate Christmas this year in a place we haven’t before. Maybe I’ll write about that experience.
In Reading
Beginning in January, since next year is 2020, every book the club reads will have something to do with the number twenty. For our January, each of us is going to pick a different book. The goal will be to entice the other members to read our selection. I did some research this morning and found out that a work that would evolve into a popular series was first introduced to the world in 2004, the year I turned twenty. So I think I just may read the first book in that series next month. Read the next post to find out what series I’m hinting at