Off To A Good Start
January 1, 2023
Even though I stayed home for the holidays, I feel like the many who traveled to enjoy the season with family—discombobulated, disoriented, tired. As I look out my window, I'm wondering where is winter? It hasn't arrived in eastern Essex County in Massachusetts. The snow has arrived in Maine and Vermont and New Hampshire, and the western part of Massachusetts. But in my coastal community, it feels like spring. Today the temperatures are in the 50s, as they were yesterday and will be tomorrow. It's confusing. But instead of worrying about clearing snow and walking safely on ice, I'm planning my spring and summer garden. Since I can't get out into the dirt yet, I'm laying it out with linen and thread. I'll work on an embroidered image of a garden until I can get out there and make it a reality.
The season is a good time to catch up on my reading, so I made a trip to the library last week. I have a small stack of books. So far I've finished Because I could not stop for death: An Emily Dickinson Mystery by Amanda Flower, a leisurely paced investigation by the poet and her new housemaid, set in 1855 Amherst. I'm now reading The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid, the story of a white man who wakes up with brown skin. He's not the only one this is happening to. We follow him as he and his lover and his father try to adjust. Throughout the city others face the same challenge, and the reactions are varied and sometimes unpredictable.
The Christmas week is a time of resting for me. The second Felicity O'Brien is under consideration, so I have my fingers crossed. And the first Ginny Means novel is with a Beta reader, so I'm waiting for that report. The story has been heavily rewritten during the fall months, and is stronger and tighter in my view. I'm ready to start thinking about the next one.
The new year, 2023, brings another change for me. Having sat on the sidelines of the chapter duties, with the exception of Crime Bake, I will begin the year as the new vice president of the New England chapter. I'll be working with Kate Flora, an old friend and colleague, and meeting a lot of new members. I look forward to a good year helping to move the chapter forward.