December seems so long ago, already, but here's what I read last month.

Nonfiction:
I finished The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl, which I'd started in December 2023, reading one essay per week over the course of a year (this is how the book is organized--seasonally). The essays are lovely contemplations of the natural world around Renkl's home in Nashville and about the larger issues facing that world--climate change, habitat loss, pesticides, etc. It's a soothing, sad, and hopeful book all at once, and beautifully illustrated with her brother's collages. 

As my family can attest, I've been obsessed with cults lately, an obsession that began with listening to Amanda Montell's podcast Sounds Like a Cult (which mostly pokes fun at the cultish aspects of everyday elements of pop culture, but sometimes delves into more sinister cult land) and was soon followed by regular watching of docuseries about cults (have you watched The Vow yet?). So of course I had to read Montell's book, which is an engaging, accessible, and fascinating analysis of the way language is used by cult leaders to create in-groups, coerce members, and stifle questioning and dissent (a great phrase I learned is "thought-terminating cliche." I wish I had this term in my lexicon back when I worked in the 9-5 world).

Fiction
I recently picked up a copy of Albert Camus's The Stranger, because I remembered it having a big impact on me when I read it in high school, but I couldn't remember why (all I remembered about it, in fact, was a sense of blinding, hot sun on a Tunisian beach). Reading it again now, I still don't know why it seemed so life changing at the time. It is beautifully written (although this is a different translation than the book I read 30-odd years ago)--in simple, spare language that nevertheless evokes vivid images and carries the reader through pages where, other than the one significant event of the story, not much happens. I think perhaps it made an in impression because it was so unlike anything I'd ever read before, and because the narrator was so direct and unapologetic in his disbelief in god, which I might have found a little shocking then, a year or two into recovery from a childhood in Catholicism. I don't know if I should say I enjoyed reading it--because it's kind of a bleak, unhappy story--but I do feel drawn to read more Camus.

On the lighter side, I picked up Still as Death by Sarah Stewart Taylor at a used book store. I've been meaning to check out her work, and this is one of her earlier books (the third, I believe). I was excited because the main character is an art historian, and because there's a gold mummy case on the cover. "Could this be my new Elizabeth Peters?" I thought. Alas, it was not. The book lacked Ms. Peters's sense of humor and her madcap plots. It was, in fact, rather slow, and the moment of crisis not terribly exciting (not once did I think he protagonist was going to be murdered herself), with a lot of side characters who each get their own chapters (to establish potential motives for murder, I guess), which is not my favorite. I haven't given up, though--I will try a more recent book by the author. 

Because Still as Death was moving so slowly (I mean, we were like 100 pages in before anyone even gets murdered!), I grabbed another mystery with an art historian protagonist off the shelf--Borrower of the Night, by Elizabeth Peters (natch), the first Vicky Bliss book, to try to analyze what I enjoy so much about EP's writing (snappy dialogue, doesn't waste time giving every character's resume or moving them around in space, great historical storyline intersecting with the novel's storyline, but the historical info woven in seamlessly, scary old castle, seances, absurd antics), and I ended up reading it straight through. (To be fair, the only murders in this book took place hundreds of years in the past, so maybe it's not the dead body that generates tension, but action and reaction, sinister characters, and creepy goings-on.)

Finally, I had The Mistletoe Murder, a book of short stories by PD James, in my stack of seasonal reads, and during a rare lull in the holiday preparations, I picked it up to read again, and discovered I'd only read the first story in the past, so I finished up the remaining three or four stories--and they were all tight, clever, and compelling. I didn't read it in an analytical frame of mind, so I'm not sure what exactly made James a master, but she truly was.

Also, in the holiday spirit, I reread "Santaland Diaries" by David Sedaris, like I do every Christmas, which is one of my favorite traditions.

Writing
In 2024, I wrote:

• 16 essays
• 2 short stories
• 100 poems
• 2 articles
• 2 chapters of a nonfiction book
• 19 blog posts
• 11 newsletters (and switched from Mailchimp to Substack)

My submission/acceptance stats for the year are:

• 10 essay/story submissions​
• 2 book proposal submissions
• 3 grant applications
• 1 contest submission
• 1 residency application

• 3 acceptances
• 1 third-place award

2024 publications*:

• "Joyful Noise" Spelt Magazine, Issue 11, December 2024 
• "Oh, What a Night! Exploring Maine's Winter Wilds after Dark" Green & Healthy Maine Winter Guide, Winter 2024
• "Walking in Place" Still Point Arts Quarterly, Fall 2024
• "At Home in the Trees" Northern Woodlands, Summer 2024
• "Discover Maine's Undersea World" Green & Healthy Maine Summer Guide, Summer 2024
• "Two Cent Bridge" Writing Waterville Chapbook, Waterville Creates, May 2024
• "Writers on Not Writing" The Masters Review, May 2024
• "Finding Answers in Nature" Literary Mama blog, February 2024
• "Fledging Season" Labor of Love: A Literary Mama Staff Anthology, ​January 2024

​*Publication stats and submission stats don't line up because some publications occurred outside the normal submission process, and some resulted from submissions made during the previous year.

I also:

• Continued meeting with my writing group and my creativity circle
• Attended 2 writing conferences (Terry Plunkett Poetry Festival and Maine CrimeWave)
• Completed training to become a certified book coach in both fiction and memoir
• Worked with my first paid book coaching client
• Taught 3 nature poetry workshops and 1 nature journaling workshop
• Attended at least 5 literary events/book readings
• Had 1 book promotion event for Uphill Both Ways
• Participated in book promotion events for 2 anthologies I was part of

Travel and Adventure
There was no way 2024 could top 2023 in the travel department, but looked at on its own, it was a pretty good year.

• We went on a family camping trip (minus one child who was really traveling at the time) to our usual place over Memorial Weekend.
• C and I drove two kids to Vermont for a hike on the long trail and made it into a tiny break.
• I drove back to Vermont to pick up said kids (which wasn't much of a trip, but still interesting).
• C and I went to Roosevelt Campobello and Prince Edward Island for our 25th wedding anniversary.

After our trip to Europe in 2023, I wanted to find ways to recreate some aspects of the experience of traveling while staying close to home. Because visiting museums is something we often do when in new places, I made a goal of visiting at least 24 museums last year, which I came close to meeting, if you count the second visits I made to two of them:

1. Portland Museum of Art
2. Peary MacMillan Arctic Museum
3. Danforth Gallery at University of Maine at Augusta (2x)
4. Colby College Art Museum (2x)
5. Maine Maritime Museum
6. Schupf Art Gallery
7. Waterville Historical Society Apothecary Museum
8. Museum of Beadwork
9. Casco Bay Arts Gallery
10. LC Bates Museum
11. Bowdoin Art Museum
12. Frank Brockman Gallery
13. Langlais Art Preserve
14. Roosevelt Cottage
15. Anne of Green Gables Heritage Site
16. Confederation Center for the Arts Gallery
17. Bates College Art Museum
18. Maine MILL
19. Ogonquit Museum of American Art
20. Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens

I also made a goal in the fall of 2023 to visit the beach at least once a month, all year long. When January of 2023 came, I made that a goal of visiting a different beach every month of 2024. I managed to visit the beach at least once a month during 2024, hitting at least one different one in every month but December, for a total of 16 -18 different beaches in 2024 (depending on how you count them). I collected sand in little jars at all of them as well (only I accidentally threw out October's sand).

Arts and Crafts

• Painted several watercolors for my Europe journal
• Created two more mosaics (an address plaque and a Christmas star)
• Made 13 pairs of recycled sweater mittens, a Fiestaware puzzle, and three ornaments for Christmas gifts

Household
C and I did a major amount of home improvements this year, including:

• Repainted the mudroom and painted the interior surface of the front door
• Repainted the sunroom walls and ceiling
• Touch-up painted the bedroom and some other rooms of the house 
• Decluttered and cleaned every shelf, drawer, and surface
• Made some minor repairs and woodworking finishing touches
• Repainted an repurposed a few pieces of furniture
• Donated boxes and bags of used books, housewares, and clothing

All in all, 2024 was a full and fulfilling year. I see a lot of things I want to carry over into 2025 and a few things I'd like to do differently. That's what the year-end review is all about.