Epiphany

Or, how I spent my holiday writing time

Greetings, faithful subscribers, and Happy New Year.

I’m excited to take this annual turn with you. We’re brewing up all kinds of interesting things for the pod, as well as for a monthly newsletter to accompany our daily posts. Watch This Space.

Speaking of daily posts, we want to keep them interesting for you. So I’m going to be briefer today than usual.

Today is the Day of the Epiphany in the Western, Christian tradition, the final of Christmas’s 12 days, commemorating the arrival of the three kings to the manger where the infant Jesus Christ lay as there was no room at the proverbial inn.

Epiphany also means “sudden or striking realization.”

During these past two weeks of visits to and from family, cooking and baking, drinking and dining, I was also writing. I’ve had a couple of professional setbacks, truly small in the scheme of things, the kind that haven’t set me back, but have forced me to look at things differently.

I’d been planning to go for something, a job I’m perfect for (at least in my mind), and a few days ago, I had an epiphany. I realized I was going for that job for the wrong reasons. What I really want to do is finish a complete first draft of the fiction manuscript I’ve been working on (30,000 words so far).

Today, a star in the East — or, in my case, a friend traveling East to West, in from Europe. She was able to offer me the use of her wonderful home for two weeks at the end of April, in the very city in which my manuscript is set.

I’ve already booked a roundtrip ticket. Sometimes, when you have an epiphany, there is a wondrous gift waiting for you.

Thank you for reading. Tomorrow, my first Top 5 book recommendations of 2025!