Before I get into this week’s post, I wanted to share some news. You may have already seen me blasting this around the internet, but I had a poem published this past week on Ekstasis Magazine’s website. You can read that here (and I’d be grateful if you did).
Additionally,
tasked me and a few other poets here on Substack to write poems related to different themes of the Advent season. He published my Advent poem surrounding the theme of Power this weekend. You can read that poem here. And be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss the other Advent poems in the coming weeks.Christmas, New Year’s, and Getting Older
Year after year, my mother has to pester me to make a Christmas list. I don’t know when the need for this happened. As a child, there were a million things I could have wished for, yet the older I get, the harder it is to bring myself to ask for much of anything.
As I thought about this, I intuited that my deepest desires are for things only I can make happen: the deepening of my faith, becoming a better/more consistent writer, being a good dad and loving husband, and so on. Right on the heels of that, I wondered in horror if that meant I was on the verge of becoming one of those New Year’s Resolution types. Heaven forbid.
I could try to paint the intangibility of my desires in some non-materialistic shade of piety, but I don’t think it is a virtue. It’s self-aggrandizing and isolating and prevents those who care about me from engaging with me in the relational spirit of the season. There’s not an ounce of grace in the whole sentiment. Hemingway said, “Writing, at its best, is a lonely life” and that "writers should work alone.” It’s a bleak way of thinking that leads to a predictable outcome. I doubt whether Lewis or Tolkien viewed the life of a writer the same way. The solution, then, is to bottle up my curmudgeonry (at least until after the holidays) and enjoy the people I’m lucky to have in my life.
Anyway, here’s an update about what you can expect from this newsletter around the holidays and some changes going into the New Year.
Holiday Break
Most of December is going to be pretty similar to what you’ve come to expect. I’ll still post weekly on Mondays but will be taking a break during the weeks of Christmas and New Year’s.
After New Year’s, I will be switching to bi-weekly posts instead of weekly. With all of life’s other responsibilities, it has been a bit of a struggle to get ahead with weekly essays on craft. I have spent a lot more time these last few months writing craft essays than actually writing new fiction or poetry, and I have too many ideas (albeit not fully formed) for books to not be making progress with those. I’ll also be switching my posting schedule to Tuesdays, which will make my first post in 2024, January 9th, followed by another on the 23rd.
That being said, I’m extremely grateful that you’ve joined me on this journey and have stuck around! I only plan on improving the content that’s showing up in your inbox, and I always welcome feedback regarding what you’d like to see more of. Don’t hesitate to engage, I seriously enjoy it.
Be blessed this holiday season.
I've been enjoying the fiction pieces you've been posting. Especially "Lilac Light"; I was just thinking about that one last night.
Dan, congrats on getting your poem published! That's amazing and such an honor.