An upcoming workshop and other 2024 plans

Happy new year, everyone! We've had a lovely family holiday, eating vegetarian tourtière and other goodies, and listening to my small but growing collection of vinyl on the Fluance record player that I asked for as my combined Christmas/birthday gift.

I'll be 47 in a few days, and as is often my wont with birthdays, I've been pondering mortality and other big questions.

I rewatched the 2021 David Lowery film The Green Knight this week. I know that it had a divided reception among medievalists, but I adore it. This time around I particularly appreciated the imagery of greenness as life/death, without any division where that slash is. The decision to be ready to die is the same as the decision to be ready to live. In a way, it complements the opposite imagery in T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, which is partly about clinging to half-life:

Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.

Both the Eliot poem and the Lowery film are in the general mix of things I'm immersing myself in as I write the next novel, which is a medieval Shakespeare/Dante mashup that I'm very deeply in love with so far. I'm 22,000 words in and I'll tell you more about it in the coming months.

That novel is one of my main writing projects for 2024, and I have another novel under contract that I can't say anything about yet. I have another couple of possible irons in the fire too, but those two should keep me busy in the meantime! This probably means that 2024 won't have much short fiction or game writing in it, but one never knows.

I'm also teaching my usual winter university course (arts and culture journalism) at Carleton University this semester, and continuing to do regular non-fiction work on contract for a non-profit.

Two things in particular to let you know about this month: the ALSO banned books fundraiser I mentioned in my last newsletter, which is happening in person here in Ottawa on January 25.

And I'm excited about an online workshop I'm co-teaching with my friend Amanda Earl on January 20, from 9 am to 11 am ET. It's called Poetry and Prose, and we'll be discussing how to use the techniques from one to strengthen the other. It's meant for poets and/or fiction writers of all levels of experience. I've really enjoyed putting this workshop together with Amanda. If you'd like to register, the fee is $50 CAD ($37 USD) and you can email me at kateheartfield@gmail.com to arrange payment. We already have several sign-ups so it's going to be a good group!

My friend Dominic Bercier has launched a new concept musical you can check out here, in advance of his graphic novel SIGNAL Saga, which is coming out from Renaissance Press in April. I've read some of it and it's very exciting. It's set in an alternate Ottawa and explores themes of neurodiversity, family and identity.

I just finished reading an early copy of The Shadow Key by Susan Stoes-Chapman, and it's really lovely -- if you like Gothic historical fiction, do put it on your pre-order list. It's coming in April too.

I wish you all the best in 2024.