What a season of life
Dear friends,
I wrote this newsletter in advance, in bits and pieces, while my grandmother is in the last stages of her end-of-life care. I've been spending the last three weeks going back and forth to the hospital and now to the care facility. On New Year's she was living in a normal apartment on her own--with substantial help from my mother and me, but still quite independent. And now she's gone--she died yesterday afternoon, which is not enough time for me to have perspective on what it's all meant, what it all will mean. I'm working on a eulogy, which will also not be enough, because that's the nature of these things. When I was in high school we had supper together every single night. That's just one example of how much more time I spent with my grandparents than most people. I am literally not at all sure what to do with myself.
If you're thinking, wait, hasn't she just talked about the loss of two other quite close family elders in the last year and a half? Indeed I have. "What a season of life we're in," one of my dear cousins said to me, and I keep thinking of that. My landscape, my internal weather, have changed so much right now. Are changing still, and I don't know what the next thing looks like yet.
But the work goes on, and honestly I am so glad of the work. I've started an amazing project related to my creative work and vertigo, the details of which I'll be able to share with you as the year unfolds. We have such an exciting team to work with, I can't wait to see what comes out of this.
Meanwhile, two new stories in January, because publishing is on its own clock. Diabolical Plots brings you The Year the Sheep God Shattered, a fantasy tale about the discontents of new adulthood and finding our way through them.
Then in Sunday Morning Transport there's Her Tune, In Truth, a selkie tale about the stories we hear about ourselves and the stories we tell thereafter.
Uncanny Magazine is doing their annual reader poll to determine reader favorites of their 2024 short stories, and you, yes you, can vote in it! I mean, if you read any of their stories last year--or want to do so now!--you can. I had two stories in Uncanny, but also there was a lot of other lovely work you might have enjoyed. Or can enjoy now! It's still there! Anyway, consider voting in that please.
I'm not going to send out a recipe this month--I actually did make something I want to tell you about, in among all the meals of "great, I could do this in my sleep, let's get it done upon returning from the hospital" and "aaagh nothing sounds good I'll just do a very standard thing I always do." But frankly I am terribly, terribly tired from spending the last three weeks on end-of-life care, and recipes can wait. A lot of things can wait. Everything in its own time.
Best,
Marissa