Feeling very cheered since the last post, mostly because of time and perspective, and your cheerful posts and funny e-mails, and also by the visit of one of my younger writer friends from Pacific U who came out to our little seaside town by way of our temporary foot-ferry from Seattle. It was so much fun to talk about fiction, to stack up books to recommend, to celebrate her first acceptance at the (paying!) journal Asimov’s, to drink tea and discuss literature like actual serious writers. Ha! Oh, to be 26 again, and also a fiction writer! Anyway, thanks for the visit, FS, and good luck at the residency! I’ll miss the crazy Oregon ocean and all the fun writer stuff.

I also thought about Amazon reviews in general, about how many times we read a book and love it, but never contact the author, or leave any trace of our love anywhere. Amazon does let you leave a “hey, I really enjoyed your work” message to authors, which, whether they are small-publisher poets or tech writers or big-selling fiction authors, probably do read and worry over their Amazon reviews, just like I did.

Another Steel Toe author on NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac, “What My Father Believed” by John Guzlowski: http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/programs/2007/12/24/#friday

And, I’m doing my first Port Townsend reading at the Northwind Arts Center on January 10th with my friend Ronda Broatch. It’ll be nice to connect with a new poetry community. I miss my Redmond readings at Soul Food, but this will be a good group too, I can feel it.

Been reading the Sylvia/Ted biography, Her Husband. I’m reminded as I listen how many good things, how many successes, Sylvia had early in life. It’s easy to let small discouragements (and in her case, also a wandering husband leaving her with two kids in a cold English winter) overshadow all the good – think how much more Sylvia could have contributed if she’d stuck around.

Anyway, happy New Year and Welcome 2008! I hope it will be a better year for the world: more healing, more peace, more love, more celebration.