closing remarks

I spent the last ten days on Long Island with limited to no internet access, no cable, and no car. You'd think it was the ideal time to catch up on my reading and writing, yes?

No.

I did very little writing and even less reading. Come to think of it, I don't really know how I spent the last ten days. I know there was a lot of sleeping and eating, but after that, my mind's ablank. I suppose I should scold myself for squandering away a perfect opportunity. I didn't even take an audiobook w/ me for the ten-hour train ride to and from (I can't read in a moving vehicle w/out getting motion-sick). Yes, I should be ashamed of myself.

But I'm not. I didn't do much of anything, physcially, but I have a feeling the squirrels in my brain were gathering nuts and anything else I needed to store for the coming months. As I looked out the window at the snow falling, or walked through town decked out in thermals and faux fur hat and gloves, etc., or gazed at the Christmas tree lit up in the dark room night after night before bed; as I stared out the window from the Amtrak as neighborhood after neighborhood whizzed by, I thought. I composed. I created. I made plans. I daydreamed and fantasized and imagined. I dialogued.

My mother told me that she often names her year. I hate to ride on the coattails of the presidential campaigns, but I suspect Change might be a good name for my '09. That, and The Farewell to My Thirties Tour. I am foreseeing change in how I see myself and live as a writer; change in writing as a business (*my* business, that is), changes in location, relationships, etc. Home is emerging as a theme yet again, and it may finally be time to take guitar lessons. Even Kairos Calling might be facing change -- certainly it has evolved in its short lifetime.

Allow me to offer some of my writing highlights of 2008 (not necessarily in any particular order, although the first one is definitely the biggie):

• Well, the release of Faking It, of course...
• meeting Andre Dubus III in June
• all the great work on WILS w/ my writing partner and that collaborative experience
• de-mystifying the agent querying process. I haven't had the opportunity to put the knowledge into practice yet, but I know I can and will when the time comes
• the open mic night at QRB when I came in second place -- the feedback and number of hits on the youtube video were quite validating.
• too many QRB events and authors to mention by name, but each one has helped me to be a better writer
• the Kairos Calling blog. it's been an experience in and of itself
• the upcoming nonfiction book -- for all its pregnancy pains, I think it's going to be a very healthy baby
• "my" teen writers, also from QRB, also teaching more than I could ever teach them
• my writers' group, and the women's writing group who so hospitably welcomed me in even for one night

I'm not ready to share my writing resolutions with you just yet -- hell, I'm not sure I've even fleshed them all out, yet. But I'd like to hear from you. Have you made writing resolutions? Will you? What would you like to see or do differently in 2009? Who would you like to be? What would you like to manifest? Please share.

Have a safe, warm, blessed New Year filled with peace, prosperity, and good health.
Elisa