Enough to carry on with
Dear friends,
Happy New Year! May it bring you all the things you like. I've noticed a lot less of the "good riddance!" sentiments about 2024 than I have about recent years, and I don't think it's because everyone I know had an amazing and flawless 2024. I think it's because there's a strong sense that what we're dealing with in early 2025 is a continuation of what we've been dealing with in late 2024. There's very little sense of fresh slate, a lot of sense of ongoing to-do list. For better and for worse, and I have some of each myself, we are carrying on. And sometimes that's what we can do.
December ended with some lovely stories. On a fun note, Betsy Donnelly's Forty-third Chance in Nature Futures has Mars missions and...well, it's a very short story, it's easy to spoiler the whole thing. You can just go read about the foibles of humans on a mission.
More personally, the story I have in Uncanny in December was written because I have big feelings about my godkids growing up. Fairy tales are full of old ladies who want a child and get one by magic, and I hadn't had a chance to play with that trope since I became one. (I know, 46 is not old in real terms, but in fairy tale terms? Ancient. And what else is finding amazing kids to love except the best magic this world has on offer?) So we've got lakes and turtles and northern Minnesota seasons and, appropriately for the magazine it's in, an uncanny-touched world filled with warmth, in On The Water Its Crystal Teeth.
(Yes, the title is from Robert Frost's "Two Tramps in Mud-Time," which I have had by heart since I was not much bigger than the child in the story. I know of very little that unites my vocation and my avocation like telling stories about family and love.)
I've put together a post about all the things I published this year. I feel really good about it, it's been a good year. Maybe you've missed something--I don't expect anybody to read this newsletter intently--or maybe you'd like to revisit. Anyway there it all is, a pretty good list if I say so myself.
And, as promised, we are carrying on with more of the same in January: I will have at least two stories out this month. One of them will be in Sunday Morning Transport. Long-time readers may remember that SMT gives a 60-day free subscription link that I can share with people like you, so here it is! I hope you enjoy the other stories they publish and then mine too on the 12th. (Don't worry, I will repeat this next month. I just thought you might want to start enjoying your 60 days now.)
I was going to skip the recipe this month, because I've been either using up random assortments of leftovers or making things I always make. Then I realized that I've never put my black bean soup recipe in here. I made it for an assortment of weary travelers on Second Christmas, warm and savory, an antidote to the airport. It also freezes well in individual portions. It also cooks down well into filling for enchiladas etc., especially if you add to it. Is there anything this soup can't do? It also cures scrofula and promotes world peace. Okay, maybe that's a bridge too far. But it's good soup, and now you can have some too.
Onward into 2025! Excelsior!
Marissa
Black Bean Soup
You can make this with either dried or canned black beans. If you use dried, you'll want to pre-soak the beans and cook them for an hour or two before you start in with the rest of this. I'll write the recipe as though you're using canned, though.
5-10 cloves of garlic
Onion to taste--for me, 2-4 pearl onions, but if you like onion a lot, an entire chopped onion would not go amiss
1 diced jalapeno
2 diced bell peppers
1/2 c. olive oil
5 cans black beans
3-5 cups vegetable broth, to taste--can also use mushroom broth, beef broth, chicken broth, whatever really
Heat the olive oil. Saute onion, garlic, peppers, in that order. When the aliums are cooked and the peppers are soft, dump in the beans and the broth. Simmer until soup reaches its desired thickness and serve with bread, rice, a salad, oranges, whatever you like really. Very difficult to mess up this excellent soup. Can't believe I never told you about it before.