I am absolutely delighted that my poem “Tanager’s Cantrip” was selected as editor’s choice for the April ekphrastic challenge over at Rattle literary magazine. My little magic spell of woodland birds and dappled light is on the front page today, and will shortly be listed in the archives of the ekphrastic challenge for future reading. I’m very grateful to both the editors and the artist; I loved Stephanie Trenchard‘s painting as soon as I saw it. I also really enjoyed the artist’s choice of poem as well, so I recommend that you check that one out when the two April winners are up in the archive!
What the series editor, Megan O’Reilly said about my poem:
“I was moved by ‘Tanager’s Cantrip’ before I even looked up the word “cantrip,” but when I read the definition–‘a magical spell’—I had a moment of ‘ah, of course.’ With its alliterative, chanting rhymes, this poem is an incantation, a blaze of magic language to match the visual magic of Stephanie Trenchard’s painting. The light, color, and movement in the image all contribute to its air of enchantment, and yet the figure of the girl is motionless and beige—an artistic choice that seems to lend credence to the poet’s use of the word still in ‘magic lives within you still.’ The girl in the painting, one could speculate, struggles to connect with the beauty around her. The last line of ‘Tanager’s Cantrip,’ seems to remind her that, despite this perceived separateness, she is where she belongs.”
It’s been a year, hasn’t it? I have two small children (getting less small by the day!) and looking back at pictures from the beginning of 2024 just has me stunned by how much can and does happen in a year, how much growth can occur, and how much it’s worth taking some time to appreciate it all as the year turns. So here’s a brief roundup on writing things I accomplished in the last year.
By The Numbers
13 new works written and completed to the point of submission this year (with a few other partials or nearly-ready)
45 works submitted for potential publication or entered in contests and pitch events
30 rejections or passes, though several invited me to send other work, and one held a submission for a few extra months for further consideration before finally passing.
#SkyPitch (I got one agent “like” on a pitch and made my first agent query)
I’m not quite done for the year yet, one or two more projects to finish in the next few days, but I can look back and say I’m really pleased with my writing year. Here’s to more good words in 2025, and good wishes to you all!
The future looks really dark and uncertain right now. Yesterday I wept, today I’m in planning mode. And in case it helps any of you, here are some of my plans, to bring some light and carry it forward.
Read Good Books. For myself, and with my children, read the books that have the stories we need to hear that will buoy us up, enrich our compassion, and strengthen our wills. Not just the real-life stories, but the true ones too, with the characters who live in our hearts and hold our dreams when life looks bleak.
Keep home a haven. Play music, have spontaneous dance parties. Make art. Bake. Be silly. Start playing Christmas music early. Save politics for after the kids’ bedtimes. Use all the coping strategies we honed in lockdown to keep the weight of the world off little shoulders.
Pick up my flute and play. This was one of the only things that kept the panic attacks at bay during lockdown. Hoping it helps again.
Plant native plants and trees in my yard. Check in with my partner on our house improvement plans to take advantage of any green energy initiatives that are left unused as yet. Reinstall my rain barrels once spring returns.
Stay involved in my kids’ schools and the town committees and groups I’m part of. Make sure that I use my voice to speak up for the people who are going to need support.
Keep checking in on my friends and family.
Put myself on a strict social media diet. Scrolling and spiraling is not what any of us need right now, and as we all know, some sites are pretty much designed for doom. Check in, stay connected, but don’t drown.
Support independent news media like ProPublica, and keep supporting the public broadcasts like NPR, PBS, and my local stations. Stay informed, but take mental health breaks as needed.
Boycott Amazon. Shop local, support artists and small businesses, crowdfund cool stuff when I can. Things are going to get more expensive. Might as well put that money in my neighbors’ pockets instead of billionaires who don’t need it.
Keep writing. We all need stories, and if my words resonate with just one other person, then they are worth putting out into the world. There were a lot of people sharing poetry yesterday, for good reason.
Refuse to give up. Find the things I’m good at and care most about and protect them.
Happy Autumn, everyone! I love this time of year, from the changing leaves to the brisk wind to the fun of spooky season. The return of cooler weather always feels like new beginnings, with that whiff of freshly sharpened pencils from the start of school.
Longtime readers will notice that I’ve done a bunch of revamping of the website design–there will be more to come in the near future, so if you have any reactions or suggestions, please drop me a line in the comments or on the snazzy new ‘contact‘ page.
Walking my neighborhood in fall is so restorative. Photo by me. Image description: view of a placid pond lined with autumn trees, with lilypads and rocks in the foreground under a blue sky with wispy clouds.
While I’m working on bringing this site back to life, you can also find me elsewhere on the web. I left Twitter quite a while ago, and tried out some other options. I do have a (mostly quiescent) Mastodon account, but I’ve found Bluesky to be the best Twitter replacement and am enjoying the SFF and kidlit communities growing there, though I miss a lot of my museum people from my other life. If you’re on there, let me know! My feed on Bluesky is currently a lot of literature and politics, with forays into geeking out about things like NASA and museums etc. I’m also still intermittently using Instagram, posting mostly nature and museum photos, occasionally with short poems as captions, and infrequent pictures of my kids being adorable, shot in such a way as to protect their privacy.
What else am I up to?
Writing: Lots of editing: I have several stories I’m polishing for hopeful submission to short fiction speculative markets this month and next, as well as some kidlit, including the upcoming Halloweensie contest and some pieces I’m prepping for pitching/querying. I always try to give a little new writing time each month to the Rattle Ekphrasis challenge, and I do have some ideas about this month’s image, so that’s on the list as well.
Reading: I’ve been loving the Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire and I think I’m finally up to the most recent book in the series, which I’m looking forward to starting soon. I’m currently reading Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Fairies, and enjoying it so far. My TBR is an astonishing pile, and in addition to the ‘grown-up’ books is also currently stuffed with a number of recommended picture books from the recent Picture Book Summit writing conference. All of which is a nice balance to my daily diet of currently too much political news and the always excellent historical context provided by Heather Cox Richardson.
Listening: Writing Excuses is, as always, busy being brilliant, and I am many episodes behind, so I’ve been trying to catch up whenever I get a few minutes. Also, HAIM. Who I discovered courtesy of Sesame Street, and everyone who didn’t tell me that they are apparently the female equivalent to modern-day Hanson are now all fired, because this is fun music and I could have been listening to them for months before now.
Life in General: In non-writing news I’ll be looking forward to reviewing grant applications for the Sharon Cultural Council in a week or two, in my new role as council co-chair, and we’ve got some fun planned for the Halloween season both as a family and in my role as a classroom parent for Small Museum Fan #1’s class. Do you have a good Halloween costume planned? Tell me all about it!
Sea Dreams and Time Machines 
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