Happy New Year! Welcome to 2010
I don't know about you, but 2010 always seemed so incredibly far away. It was out there with spaceships and flying cars. But here we are. I'm still deciding whether it should be spoken as "two thousand ten" or "twenty-ten." Either way, I'm glad to see 2009 go. It was a tough year for us and for the world. We bring the same challenges across the line into the new year, but if I have one resolution, it is to count the blessings and leave the hurts uncounted. I have taken down the Christmas decorations and cleaned up the office in anticipation of a fresh new year. I see it as a blank page waiting to be filled.
I agonized over an opening story for this newsletter, but with the holidays keeping me busy and the weather keeping me indoors, I just don't have one. So, we'll move right on into the news.
Chico and Annie
Alas, soon it will be just Annie and me. Dear Chico, whom I love very much, needs a new home. I have known for a long time that having two big dogs and no one here to help me with them was too much, but I didn't want to split up the brother-and-sister team, and how could I choose between my babies? Chico has made the choice for me. He has learned to jump not only the four-foot fence but the six-foot fence I had built to contain him. Plus he has become aggressive toward other dogs. I can't keep him in, and I fear he will hurt someone's beloved pet. At this writing, he is at the Alsea River Boarding Kennel, where everyone loves him. He just needs to be an only dog, and he needs a secure space with lots of room to run. He also needs an owner whose life is at a more peaceful place than mine has been lately. Chico is neutered, healthy, trained to sit, stay, down, etc. He's beautiful, eager to please and a great friend. At 73 pounds, he's also very strong. If you know anyone who can take him, I would be forever grateful.
Meanwhile, Annie has found her way onto my sofa, my bed and my lap (at 65 pounds). Although she misses her brother, she seems to enjoy being the only dog even more. We can't sleep together. She puts her nose on my chest and her legs straight out so her feet hit me in the face. So we have agreed to separate beds, but we're enjoying each other's company.
Writing News
Well, the chicks are coming home to roost. Things I wrote in 2009 will make their way to publication in 2010. In January, Exhale.com will publish my "Childless Women's Survival Guide." This site for childless women has lots of great stuff for those of us who wish we'd had kids. "Journey to Damascus," my online entry at the Oregon150 online site has been accepted for a print anthology coming out around March. This spring, "No Prescription Needed" will appear in A Cup of Comfort for a Better World, and finally, "Perfect Pitch," my piece on pitching works to literary agents, is scheduled to be published in Moira Allen's new book, The Writer's Guide to Queries, Pitches and Proposals, coming out this spring from Allworth Press.
So what have I written lately? Countless journal entries, a few poems, and lots of blogs (see list below). In 2010, I WILL finish that book on childless women. I'm working with a great book called "Bang the Keys" by Jill Dearman (www.bangthekeys.com). One of her first exercises is to set a firm date. So by Feb. 4, I will finish this draft which is so ridiculously close. Hold me to it.
Music News
I have been blessed to lead the choir and sing and play many many holiday Masses full of beautiful music at Newport's Sacred Heart Church. I'm looking forward to "ordinary time" when I can play other tunes again and perhaps get reacquainted with my mandolin, but I have enjoyed doing all this great music with my church family.
Oregon Coast Writing Events
Writers on the Edge has a big event coming up this month called Fisher Poets on the Edge. The three-day extravaganza Jan. 16-18 includes films, readings, open mics and an all-day workshop at various venues in the Newport area. See the website for details.
Willamette Writers' Oregon Coast chapter starts the year Jan. 5 with its annual tribute to William Stafford, hosted by poet Marianne Klekacz. Listen to Stafford read his own poems, bring your favorite Stafford works to share or offer up some of your own poetry. Doors open at 6:30, program starts at 7 at the Newport Library. Admission is free, no reservations needed.
Book Report
Mandolin with Rain by Bernhard Frank, Goldengrove Press, 2008 edition of 1973 book. I bought this book because I loved the title, but you know what, there's not a word about mandolins in the whole thing. This attractive-looking self-published novel is mildly amusing, but mostly it's confusing and goes nowhere. There isn't much of a plot to describe. A rag-tag bunch of actors come together as a summer stock company. They're all a little off in some way, most of them seem to be gay, and the whole thing revolves around their liaisons. I never did get all the characters straight. Was Mike yearning for Hank? Who was Isaac sleeping with again? Did Bella, Chester and Robyn have a threesome? It's not even explicit enough to be titillating. You definitely can't tell this book by its cover.
Sometimes We're Always Real Same-Same by Mattox Roesch, Unbridled Books, 2009. I love this book. It's Roesch's first published novel, and the guy's got talent. Protagonist Cesar is uprooted from his gangbanging LA life when his parents divorce and his Alaska-born mother takes him to Unalakleek, Alaska, the village where she was born. There he meets his cousin Go-Boy, who wears an Eskimo Jesus tattoo and has some pretty crazy ideas. The story braids Cesar's experiences adapting to his new life and falling in love with his step-cousin Kiana with the bigger story of Go-Boy's escalating problems. Roesch has a gift for understatement, vivid description, realistic dialogue and authentic characters. Plus he gives us the village of Unalakleek so clearly I feel as if I lived there and want to go back—in the summer.
Digging to America by Anne Tyler, Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. I keep wondering if I read this before—or did someone make it into a movie? Either way, it's a pleasant read with Tyler's usual assort of down-to-earth characters whom we come to know and love. This is the story of two families who adopt babies from Korea. They meet at the airport when the infants are delivered and make a connection that grows over the years despite their cultural differences. Jin-ho's adoptive family is all-American, with mom Bitsy your basic granola-eating, cloth-weaving, all-natural earth mom, her easy-going husband Brad. Susan's new family is Iranian, mom Ziba and her family recent immigrants while dad Sami is all-American and his mother Maryam struggles to reconcile her years in America with her Middle-Eastern roots. It's a fun read, even though I could predict the ending 200 pages away, but I felt the story stopped too soon. I wanted to see what happened next.
Tear Soup by Schwiebert, Pat and Chuck DeKlyen. [publisher?]This is a book about grief, about letting yourself cry, mixing your tears with memories, chocolate and other things to make a nourishing soup that will help you heal. It's a big heavily illustrated book that looks like a children's book but is meant for grownups. You can read it in a half hour, but the ideas stick and give comfort.
End Notes
It's winter in Oregon. We have had ice, snow, rain and wind and can expect lots more, but it's nothing compared to what other parts of the country are suffering. It's a new year, and spring is coming. It's time to do all those things you promised to do after the holidays. So bundle up and start making your dreams come true. Happy birthday to Sherri and all the other January babies. May this year bring you all peace and blessings.
Hugs,
Sue
All contents copyright 2010, Sue Fagalde Lick,
If you would like me to send you a link to this newsletter every month, e-mail me at suelick@charter.net. Feel free to forward the newsletter to friends who might be interested. Also contact me if you want me to stop sending the link.
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