Welcome 2021

Dear Writing Family,

Happy New Year to each of you. We have all just survived a tough year, and this new one has not kicked off smoothly. I wish I could write a light-hearted welcome to 2021 e-mail, but sadly that would be disingenuous.

I wrote an entire book series about unity, empathy, forgiveness, and coming together. It almost feels as though the events of recent years have ripped off the plot to what I hoped would remain a mostly fictional story.

Even after dedicating seven years of my life to crafting a story about unity, I have found myself struggling to live up to the call I gave in The Soul Mender Trilogy. I have felt angry. I have lashed out at people. I have felt the stings of other’s judgments and insults. And I have cycled back to indignant rage. I have cried. I have been utterly confused. I have watched the empathy drain from my veins. We are all in some version of this cycle now, trying to make sense of a broken and divided world. It is such an upended and chaotic space to occupy. It is soul-crushing.

And yet, in spite of my own shortcomings, in spite of other’s moral failures, in spite of my own, I will never stop striving to reach the place that Riley and Oz cannot actually create for us.

I want to share a bit from the acknowledgments section of The World Binder. Those words were true when I wrote them three years ago and are still true today.

“Our world is very divided, and each of us plays a role in that division. Unfortunately, Riley and Oz are not out there working to save us from ourselves. Only we can do that. So as you turn the final page in this book, as you place it on a shelf or pass it off to a friend, please take a moment to think about how you can mend your own soul. That is the only way things will change. You are your own World Binder, your own Peace Keeper, and your own Soul Mender. Go make the world a better place.”

I have not always lived by those words. But my goal for this year is to do my best to do better. Pause. Breath. Speak through kindness. I hope you will join me on that mission.

I wanted to share a poem with you all that means a lot to me. I love the gray space it occupies. The reminder to be a good person. To have empathy. To keep an even keel. To strive for a balanced center. It was good for me to reread it with all that is happening. I hope it brings some peace to you as well.

All my wishes to you and yours for a year of peace and good health.

“If” by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you   

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;   

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;   

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

 What I’m reading

 Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee

Oh, my goodness. What to say about this book? I actually just set it down after finishing a chapter, and I am shaking. The writing in this book is astonishing. It is short, sparse, and somehow so poetically rich that it gives me chills. The plot is dark and heavy. The protagonist is not a hero. He is oftentimes completely repugnant. It is a literary work, and yet I fly through the pages as if it is a thriller. J. M. Coetzee was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for Disgrace in 2003, so I am not alone in my views of the caliber of this story.

 Excerpt from a review in The Guardian:

According to Adam Mars-Jones, writing in The Guardian, "Any novel set in post-apartheid South Africa is fated to be read as a political portrait, but the fascination of Disgrace is the way it both encourages and contests such a reading by holding extreme alternatives in tension. Salvation, ruin."[4] In the new South Africa, violence is unleashed in new ways, and Lurie and his daughter become victims, yet the main character is no hero; on the contrary, he commits violence in his own way as is clearly seen in Lurie's disregard for the feelings of his student as he manipulates her into having sexual relations with him. This characterization of violence by both the 'white' and the 'black' man parallels feelings in post-apartheid South Africa where evil does not belong to the 'other' alone. By resisting the relegation of each group into positive and negative poles, Coetzee portrays the whole range of human capabilities and emotions.

The Magician’s Nephew by C. S. Lewis

 An oldie but goody. I am rereading the Chronicles of Narnia trilogy this year. These books influenced my writing journey, as Lewis showed me as a child there was no limit to creativity and that parallel universes are fair game for plot plundering.

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

I just finished this thriller written by the same author who wrote Gone Girl. The plot pulled me along. It was dark, creepy, unique, and engaging. I can’t say I loved it, but it was a fun read, and I enjoyed how much it sucked me in. Great for the beach or if you want something to quickly devour.

 What I’m up to

-Trying to finish edits on my new book (slow and steady wins the race!)

-Working toward a copyediting certification through the University of California San Diego

-Working with other writers to help with creative development of their projects

-Focusing on mental and physical health