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A Letter from Caitlyn Paxson
Dear Reader,
March is a month of waiting here on this northerly island. When it began, it was still the dead of winter.
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Image Description: A stream winding through a snowy field.
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There were more walks by the frozen sea.
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Image Description: A snowy beach with cliffs ahead.
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And a pair of bald eagles spent two days making a meal of a dead fox in the field behind the house.
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Image Description: Two bald eagles perch in scraggly trees with the sunset behind them.
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As I write this at the close of the month, a blizzard is raging outside, but I must cling to the hope that the snow will soon melt away!
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Writing
My March NPR piece was a roundup of three YA fantasy novels, and you can read about them here. I think you can tell from my review that I especially liked A Far Wilder Magic, which really came through with emotional character development and cozy/creepy rural vibes.
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In other critical work, at the very beginning of the month, I was a judge for the Audie Awards! I helped to select the winner in the Young Adult category of audio books, and also presented at the ceremony, which you can watch here. It was a fascinating experience that I quite enjoyed, although watching myself on video is excruciating because the amount of mugging I do for the camera is truly unhinged.
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Reading
In March, I delved further into the romance novels of Cat Sebastian (after loving her book, The Queer Principles of Kit Webb, last month). I hadn’t read a lot of romance novels prior to embarking on this genre research for the book I’m writing at the moment, and I will admit, I had a bit of a snotty attitude about it. Cat Sebastian’s books are forcing me to completely rethink my snobbery. Turns out I’m a total sucker for well-researched, cozy, queer, socialist, historical romance. Truly, each of these is a delight, though I think A Delicate Deception was my favorite with its reclusive writer heroine and grumpy Quaker engineer hero.
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Image Description: Romance novels lying on a white background.
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For Storytime with Auntie Caitlyn, I was delighted to revisit a favorite picture book from my own childhood, A Visit to William Blake's Inn. This was given to me by my beloved Great Aunt Joan. She included a cassette tape of her reading the entire text aloud, and I found that her voice was still very much in my ear as I in turn undertook my auntly story duties.
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Image Description: A picture book lying on a carpet.
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Crafting
I was not optimistic about my options for March’s Wreath of the Month crown, but mother nature delivered! I started with a willow circlet that I’d made last fall, and headed out into the yard to see what else I could rustle up.
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Image Description: A hand holding dried sedum against the snow, a circlet and other wreath materials laid out on a table, the finished wreath hanging on a wall.
The first thing I found was a handful of dried sedum flowers poking up out of the snow. I added in some of last year’s dried up lilac blooms, a bunch of boxwood from the bushes by the back door, and a few of the remaining poppy pods. I created little bundles of boxwood and one other element, rotating the three options and wiring them to the circlet to make a wreath. Thus was born The Queen of Mud Season!
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Image Description: Me wearing the crown from different angles.
Now I just have to scrounge up something for April's crown, and then we'll be into the months of plenty when I have flowers coming out of my ears! Possibly literally if we go with a Mucha vibe.
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Growing
My friends, it is time. Garden planning is upon us and I am completely obsessed!
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Image Description: Seed packets and papers spread across a carpet. .
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I’m honestly not sure how much of this particular obsession to share here, because it’s a lot. This year, I’m growing veggies in a 20ft x 20ft space (part of which is a little make-shift greenhouse), a large three sisters bed (for corn, beans, and pumpkins), several decorative flower beds, and I’m also creating a new area to try my hand at cut flower growing! Our season starts very late here (our last frost date is June 6 this year!) so I’ll be starting seeds for tomatoes, peppers, and a bunch of flower varieties under grow lights in April.
This year, most of my seeds are from Fruition Seeds (which is an amazing company that I highly recommend checking out, especially if you garden in a colder climate) and Baker Creek Seeds, though I did also splurge and order a few specialty flower varieties from Stems Flower Farm and Burpee. All the fancy zinnias will be mine.
Sometimes on these grey, cold days, I just close my eyes and imagine it’s August and I’m standing in the middle of the garden’s glory, soaking up the bee buzzing and the green smell of tomato plants.
Watching
Give me all the costumes and romantic pining, please! First up, Sanditon on Masterpiece Theater. (Very) roughly based on Jane Austen’s last, unfinished manuscript, I wouldn't suggest that this is perfect, but it is very nice to look at. I missed season one when it first came out, and deeply enjoyed binging it in anticipation of its return. I did find myself wishing season one would push a little harder against the colonialist trappings of the genre (since it has the liberty to do so), but maybe season two will pleasantly surprise me. I also wish they’d pin up the heroine’s hair properly because it really gives me fits when she’s running around town with her hair down like she’s nine years old. But it’s all very pretty!
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Image Description: Three young women in Regency costumes linking arms.
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Then, a pirate comedy that somehow features more pining than Jane Austen! Our Flag Means Death is the story of a nobleman dandy who runs away to be a pirate and falls in love with Blackbeard. I had a slightly hard time settling into the first two episodes because of the anachronistic humor, but as soon as Blackbeard turned up, I was all in. This is a really charming found family narrative that gets way more emotional than I was expecting. Taika Waititi is the creator, and I was expecting something more in the vein of What We Do in the Shadows (which I also love), but this was somehow both goofier and more full of heart. Also, Blackbeard has the same hair as me! Love that curly silver fox representation!
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Image Description: Two pirates having feelings for each other.
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Enthusing
My husband Magill is a video editor, and this month, he started creating a series of videos for Rue Morgue Magazine! I loved watching these interviews with genre movie legends Christopher Lee and John Waters. They're both such interesting artists - I already knew a bit about them, but Rue Morgue's interviews really delve into some niche questions.
I also think Magill is a brilliant editor, and you can find more of his work here!
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Image Description: John Waters on the cover of Rue Morgue Magazine.
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And so March draws to a close, and true spring draws ever closer. Thank you for rambling with me. I’ll leave you with this picture of a mysterious house at the edge of the sea.
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Image Description: A mysterious yellow house in the trees and snow.
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Wishing you the best books and the most berry-full brambles,
Caitlyn
I write this from the traditional unceded territory known as Mi’kma’ki. Two books by Indigenous authors that I really enjoyed recently are Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley and Mi’kmaq Campfire Stories of Prince Edward Island by Julie Pellissier-Lush.
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