• winter yule

    Love Winter, yet I remember a time when I didn’t

    When you grow up in suburban Chicago, you know what it means to suffer through winter. I’m talking bone-chilling cold, wicked ice storms, wind-whipped skin, days-long power outages and blizzards that dump feet of snow. All those stories our grandparents used to tell about walking to and from school, uphill, both ways, against the wind? Yeah, that was true for me too. Plus, I was a member of my high school’s pom-pom team so I also spent entire football games trying desperately to inspire spirit while my knees turned a startling shade of blue.

    Halfway through high school, my parents split up and we moved down to South Florida. I’m a bit ashamed to admit this, but I was one of those mean bastards who would call or write my friends back “home” in the middle of February and brag about going to the beach after classes ended. It was just such a novelty not to suffer through winter anymore — and I reveled in it.

    Of course, there was a cost to be paid for living in paradise, a condition known as blood-thinning. Basically, your body acclimates to the heat and humidity so much that any amount of cold becomes intolerable. When the temperature would drop below 60 degrees for three days in winter, I would actually search the back of my closet for a sweater.

    A decade later, I landed a dream job at The New York Times and moved to New York City — in February. That was when the curse of blood-thinning made me rue. Although I had purchased an old winter coat from Goodwill before I left Florida, it was no match for the wind that blew cruelly through the buildings in Manhattan. Every trek from the subway to the newsroom felt like a death march; I spent much of it with my head down, willing my frozen feet forward, and swearing profusely.

    It would take a full year for the curse to pass and my body to adjust to the cold. Once it did, however, the profanity stopped. The cooler temps became a delightful antidote to my heat-induced migraines and whenever the first snowflakes would fall, my spirit soared. (Didn’t hurt that the first snow storm each year usually occurred between Thanksgiving and Christmas, making the city’s holiday decorations look even more festive and beautiful.)

    Now, I’m a winter-convert. I crave the sound of snow plows grinding through feet of fluff and the hush that settles on the world after they pass by. I adore wearing layers of clothing and thick wool socks, drinking hot tea and cocoa, curling up in my library with a good book or in the living room by the fire, cooking comfort food and baking delicious treats for friends and family.

    That said, I wish this video had been around 19 years ago when I moved from Florida to New York. Even though I remembered most of the “tips” from my childhood, I’m sure it would’ve made my life a little more tolerable:

  • Where do my story ideas come from?

    My muse likes to be wooed.

    One of my favorite methods of courtship involves giving her a bouquet of words. I quickly glance at a bunch of words — in a novel, a newspaper, a map, a cookbook, hell, even a cereal box — and I grant her permission to autofill the rest. I then use what she gives me as fodder for stories and poems.

    For example, one night I was scanning the items in my Dataminr folder (which lists some of the latest tweets about possible breaking news events) when a subject heading caught my eye. It said:

    Update Icelandair #FI688 passengers are now disemb…

    and my muse immediately changed that to:

    Update Icelandair #FI688 passengers are now disemboweling each other.

    Yep, what was a simple tweet about a mechanical failure on a plane (cockpit window broke, no depressurization, passengers removed safely from the aircraft) was transformed into a zombie nightmare of apocalyptic proportions.

    Ever appreciative of her “gifts,” I gratefully added that prompt to my “future stories” folder. And the next time I’m in the mood to write a truly scary tale, it’ll be there.

  • Typewriter

    Quote of the day

    “You don’t start a story with a character regarding themselves in a mirror because that’s how you end up swapping places with Your Other Author, the Evil You with black inkholes for eyes and demon poems tattooed on the tongue.” –Chuck Wendig

  • Good news sticky

    A bit of good news I’d like to share

    I worry a lot. Not needlessly or aimlessly. I worry with purpose.

    For example, I don’t worry about what could happen. I worry about what has happened, what is happening and what’s about to happen.

    When you spend your life covering death and destruction, it’s hard not to worry about the state of the world. And if you take a step back from the daily grind of news, peer at the big picture and see very little progress, it can be wearing on the soul. 

    World events, natural disasters, personal crisis, Murphy’s Law… they can all wreak havoc on one’s ability to look forward to the future. But since it’s the first day of a new year, I’ve decided to combat my worries with action. As I noted in my list of 2019 goals, I aim to focus on the good.

    Which is why I’ve launched A Bit of Good News, a newsletter that features positive stories, inspiring quotations and a few simple pleasures. I hope you will subscribe:

    powered by TinyLetter

  • 2018: The Year In Review

    At the end of each year, I always take a moment to examine the ups and downs I experienced. Due to work and our current political/social climate, the majority of my year was so stressful that I often worried I would suffer from a heart attack or stroke. Somehow, I made it through.

    What follows is my personal and professional review of 2018. I:

    * Produced/edited hundreds of breaking news stories about the second year of Donald Trump’s presidency, the wars in Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan, the genocide in Myanmar, the 2018 Winter Olympics, the peace deal between North and South Korea as well as the Trump-Kim summit, the Austin bomb attacks, the mass shootings in Parkland, Fla., Pittsburgh and Thousand Oaks, Calif., the pipe bomb attacks on the media, former presidents and Trump critics, the midterm elections, the California wildfires, numerous earthquakes and hurricanes, dozens of celebrity deaths, the birth of a royal baby and two royal weddings.

    * Penned 30 journal entries.

    * Passed the 54,000th tweet mark on my personal Twitter account (@jadewalker).

    * Worked on Sift, a new iPhone app that launched in October.

    * Launched the Tumblr page Oddly Titled Tomes and relaunched Hooked From The First Page.

    * Updated The Written Word and The 10th Muse mailing lists.

    * Maintained two Instagram accounts: @thejadewalker and @catsofjade.

    * Worked on two novels.

    * Wrote 5 poems (two of which were broadcast on NHPR).

    * Read 54 books — thus completing my 2018 reading challenge — and numerous magazines.

    * Watched 35 films and dozens of TV programs.

    * Went leafing in the White Mountains.

    * Participated in The Society of Professional Obituary Writers, the New Hampshire Writers Guild, the New York City Writers Group, the South Florida Freelancers Group, the Authors Guild and the Silent Book Club (Manchester, NH chapter).

    * Created my first sourdough starter and baked a loaf of bread from it.

    * Completed an escape room adventure and saved my partner from a serial killer.

    * Thrice hosted vacationing friends in our home. Also suffered from food poisoning after eating at a local restaurant. Sadly, one of our friends came down with it, too.

    * Took a class called “The Science of Well-Being” at Yale University.

    * Signed up with the Parker Solar Probe: A Mission to Touch the Sun to have my name added to a memory card that will be included on the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft.

    * Bought new glasses.

    * Joined a gym. Went for a while and stopped. Plan to return.

    * Tried to get more sleep. Failed miserably, due to stress.

    * Planted herbs and flowers in deck boxes. Amazingly, only the thyme died!

    * Installed a second bird feeder and a water bowl.

    * Took a Sunday Mourning Haunted Trolley Tour through Portsmouth, N.H.

    * Saw comedian Juston McKinney in concert in Concord, N.H.

    * Saw the play “Love Letters” at The Palace Theater in Manchester, N.H.

    * Attended the Comics Come Home cancer fundraiser in Boston.

    * Attended a Q&A with astronaut Scott Kelly in Portsmouth, N.H.

    * Dressed up as a butterfly for Halloween. M was a (successful) butterfly catcher.

    * Voted in the 2018 midterm election.

    * Decorated two Christmas trees and the front of our house and mailed 40+ Christmas cards.

    * Suffered from at least 32 migraines and lost 61 days of my life to pain. Average headache duration: 22 hours, 16 minutes. 

    * Mourned the deaths of an aunt who shared my birthday and a friend I’d known for 20 years.

    * Celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary.

    * Reconnected with a friend I hadn’t spoken to in 33 years.

    * Adopted a litter of kittens.

    * Turned 45.


    End of the year

    Goals for 2019

    * Change careers.

    * Organize the pantry and replace the stove.

    * Plant more flowers and veg in the garden.

    * Sleep at least 7 hours a night.

    * Work on my fiction.

    * Read at least 60 books.

    * Focus on the good.

    * Practice hygge.

    * Win the lottery.