Three Things from an Almost New Year
Revising, Continuing, Celebrating
What I’m writing…
Friends, I’m rewriting the first chapter of my new novel. I’m embracing, or trying to embrace, the poet William Matthews’ wonderful message: Revising isn’t cleaning up after the party; it is the party.
Both Michael and my son Sam (and his wife Katherine) were not here for Thanksgiving. I had a party for twenty Thanksgiving Eve, then fourteen for Thanksgiving dinner. Those were parties!
But Thanksgiving night, and all the next morning, I had to clean up after the party. Alone. And it was most definitely not fun. The dishes! The pots and pans! The crumbs and folding chairs and laundry!
The party is definitely better…
Am I talking myself into this a wee bit? You bet I am. Struggling to get the chapter exactly right is painful, painstaking, frustrating…necessary. But you know what? It is better than those dirty dishes.
What I’m knitting…
A few years ago I started to knit a temperature blanket. Assign temperature ranges a color and every day for a year knit two rows of the color that corresponds with that day’s temperature. Easy, right?
Except I cast on 360 stitches, so it takes a while to knit two rows. Still, it is a very zen kind of knitting, moving across the rows, checking my chart, changing colors.
Eventually, it grew so big that I couldn’t take it with me from Providence to our tiny West Village love nest. So I had to leave it behind, stuck in mid-September.
Since we’ve been in Providence for the holidays, I’ve been back at work on it, happily. My goal is to get it to October 1 before we head back to NYC.
What’s really kismet or happy coincidence or divine intervention is that knitting this blanket is very much like writing a book, which is exactly what I’m doing…(well, revising…Remember the party?)
Here’s my essay, “Knitting a Novel,” from Modern Daily Knitting on the topic.
What I’m Thinking About…
Celebrating! It’s that time of year to pause and raise a glass or two of egg nog and celebrate…
Both kids and my daughter in law here, not just for Christmas but also for New Year’s Eve!
My kid is in every Santander bank! Usually by the ATM Check yours!
My books The Stolen Child and Life’s Short, Talk Fast: 15 Writers on Why We Can’t Stop Watching Gilmore Girls (and Annabelle has an essay in it!) are in airports and staff picks at great bookstores…
This guy!
Oh, we had a Christmas lasagna weighing contest (20.5 pounds!) and the Feast of Seven Fishes (bluefish, oysters, salmon, tuna, shrimp, scallops, quahogs)—even more to celebrate. Wednesday it’s back to reality. Teaching hither and thither, yearly physicals and colonoscopies and dreary weather. Revising. But until then, I’ll keep celebrating.
I know that there are days—even weeks or months—when it is hard to celebrate, to find joy. But my hope is that if you are in a dark time, light is coming your way.
Readers, I also celebrate you! Thank you for reading this (and my books!) and I’ll see you here again next year! (I can never resist saying that at the end of December. Feel free to groan.)
Happy New Year Ann! That blanket is amazing and the fact that you're working on it is amazing also. I wish you the best for the New Year and for great success in revising your book. It's hard, I know. But it's necessary. Joan
I ADORE that blanket! And everything you wrote here. And everything about you! (Meep...fangirl!). Love you Ann. Happy New Year!!