Across the Fence: New Year, New Beginnings

The count-down has started towards midnight this last day of the year. I admit, I’ll not even stay up – haven’t done so in years. What for?! To watch a ball drop 3,000 miles away in a city that’s not even our capital? Or for the fireworks around the Space Needle? Both basically events on TV – this to me, as a person who usually doesn’t even switch on the TV …

Still, I count down. Especially this year. Funny enough, it seems as if with the change of the last number in the count from ‘22 to ‘23 would make a big change. Something like a new beginning. An opportunity for the better. A change. Because, let’s face it, 2022 has truly acted up on all levels. “2020, too” – but its even more evil twin. Think of the chagrin that politics have brought about all around the globe and add to that all that happened in ecology, in economies, and other fields … no, I will gladly say good-bye to 2022. Annus horribilis.

Sometimes, it feels good to close the door on an old year and push open that to a new one. It’s almost like a return to the basics. A “version 1.1” on January 1. Some of us have made new resolutions for the new year. Let’s hope we can turn them into realities. I plan to finish what was ruined for me in 2022 – writing and publishing that novel I started in June. And still try to stick to my 2023 original plans. It will be tough. But it might be doable. Keep your fingers crossed. Also, I’m planning some memorable outings for my husband and me. I’m updating our new calendar. And I’ll rake up all the leaves tat are still left-over from 2022.

I will shift my column “Across the Fence” to Thursdays and write on a less strict routine. There might be weeks when there is none. Instead, I’ll introduce a new Friday column about a species to you in whose neighborhood you are living but might not even be aware of. The species of writers. I’ll talk to them about what it takes to be a writer, what makes them tick, their habits, and their tips to you about books, their own work and that of others. You will be amazed what different approaches everybody has – and that YOU also may have it in you!

Meanwhile, I am preparing our New Year’s Eve dish – not much but really fancy. At least, as fancy as I can create on a humble home cook’s level. And then, I’ll simply lean back, and I have a hunch that my sweetheart will have bought some bubbly to toast the New Year in my old European ways.

So, here is to Ben Sclair, the friend, the publisher, the patient editor, who brings so much joy to this reading community with The Suburban Times. Here is to you, my readers, whose response I so gladly read and answer. And here’s to another year of writing, meeting authors, readers, neighbors, friends old and to-be. To a year of new hopes and great anticipations for all of us. Happy New Year 2023!