• 2018: The Year In Review

    December 27, 2018 / 1 Comment

    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.

  • My Top 10 favs of 2018: A year spent reading, watching and listening to stories

    December 16, 2018 / 2 Comments

    Amidst the madness of the world, I consumed 54 books, 35 movies, dozens of TV programs and many podcasts this year. These were my favorites.

    (Note: Not all were released during the past 365 days.)

    MY FAVORITE BOOKS

    1. “The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century” by Kirk W. Johnson

    2. “The Outsider” by Stephen King

    3. “Neither Snow nor Rain: A History of the United States Postal Service” by Devin Leonard

    4. “The Name of the Wind” by Patrick Rothfuss

    5. “The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean” by Susan Casey

    6. “It’s All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World’s Family Tree” by A.J. Jacobs

    7. “The Little Book of Lykke: The Danish Search for the World’s Happiest People” by Meik Wiking

    8. “Elevation” by Stephen King

    9. “The Year of Living Danishly: My Twelve Months Unearthing the Secrets of the World’s Happiest Country” by Helen Russell

    10. “Why We Sleep” by Matthew Walker

    (Honorable mentions: “Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader” by Anne Fadiman, “Dinner with Edward: A Story of an Unexpected Friendship” by Isabel Vincent, “The Switch” by Joseph Finder, “I Remember Nothing: and Other Reflections” by Nora Ephron, “From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death” by Caitlin Doughty, “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury, “Cherries in Winter” by Suzan Colon, “Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks: A Librarian’s Love Letters and Breakup Notes to the Books in Her Life” by Annie Spence, “Our Bodies, Our Shelves: A Collection Of Library Humor” by Roz Warren, “How to Find Love in a Book Shop” by Veronica Henry and “Flat Broke with Two Goats” by Jennifer McGaha)

    Overall reading ratio: I read 16,276 pages across 54 books — 51% fiction, 49% nonfiction; 43% male, 57% female.

    MY FAVORITE TV SHOWS

    1. Sense8
    2. The Great British Baking Show
    3. Love Your Garden
    4. Grace and Frankie
    5. The Kominsky Method
    6. 9-1-1
    7. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
    8. One Day at a Time
    9. A Million Little Things
    10. Escape to the Country

    (Honorable mentions: Timeless, The Great British Baking Show: Master Class, Santa Clarita Diet, This Is Us, Big Dreams Small Spaces, Jessica Jones, The Punisher, Elementary, The Good Doctor, Madam Secretary, Grimm, Escape to the Continent, How I Met Your Mother, Salt Fat Acid Heat, Castle Rock and Altered Carbon.)

    MY FAVORITE MOVIES

    1. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
    2. Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold
    3. Last Flag Flying
    4. Feminists: What Were They Thinking
    5. The Man Who Invented Christmas
    6. Ready Player One
    7. Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
    8. Unrest
    9. Between the Folds
    10. Avengers: Infinity War

    (Honorable mentions: Bohemian Rhapsody, Shape of Water, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Molly’s Game, Love Between the Covers, Black Panther, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Tag, Game Night and Skyscraper.)

    MY FAVORITE PODCASTS

    1. Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me
    2. Small Town Dicks
    3. Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda
    4. Criminal
    5. Death, Sex and Money
    6. The Anthropocene Reviewed
    7. Fresh Air
    8. Nocturne
    9. Dear Hank and John
    10. The Daily

    (Honorable mentions: The Bookshelf, Everything Is Alive, 99% Invisible, Radiolab, Rumble Strip, Sidedoor, This Is Love, Let Me Google That, Awards Chatter, Reply All, Word of Mouth, The Sporkful, Outside/In, Something Wild, The Penguin Podcast, The Science of Happiness, Remembering the Passed, Back Story, You Must Remember This and I Was There Too.)

  • Anger

    The email subject line read: Are you ready for the 2020 election?

    December 11, 2018 / 1 Comment

    My first thought was quite laden with profanity. I’d print it here, but I’m sure your imagination can fill in the gaps. Let’s just say I became a giant squid of anger.

    The frustration and fury I felt was quickly followed by some rather uncharitable thoughts that involved lashing the sender 40 times with a wet noodle until a promise was exacted to never write those words again.

    And then I remembered… It’s Christmastime, Walker. Ho ho ho, merry merry and all those silver bells ringing. I recalled my conscious decision to be more charitable during this season of joy and my plan to continue a practice of kindness into the new year.

    Fine.

    So, after taking a large gulp of hot tea and a few cleansing breaths, I calmly deleted the email without responding.

    This year has been politically dreadful. Actually, the political arena in America has been abominable since, oh, 2015. After all the death threats and rape threats and bomb threats, the political sign pollution, the endless ads, the doxxing, the interminable debates, the vicious tweets and the mountains of lies, I was well and truly ready to put all thoughts of elections firmly in the past and just enjoy the rest of the year.

    Due to my job, this is an impossible task. But for the sake of my health — nay, for the sake of my sanity — I have decided to do everything I can to avoid focusing too much on the past election cycle or dwelling on the next one. Particularly since it’s two FREAKIN’ YEARS AWAY, DAMN IT.

    Sorry.

    Sorry.

    Reminder to self: Love. Kindness. Goodwill toward all.

    Deep breaths.

  • Typewriter - Once upon a time

    Quote of the day

    November 28, 2018 / 1 Comment

    “Remember that pianist who said that if he did not practice every day, he would know, if he did not practice for two days, the critics would know, after three days, his audience would know. A variation of this is true for writers. Not that your style, whatever it is, would melt out of shape in those few days. But what would happen is that the world would catch up with and try to sicken you. If you did not write every day, the poisons would accumulate and you would begin to die, or act crazy, or both. You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.” –Ray Bradbury

  • Making dough

    “You usually have to wait for that which is worth waiting for.”

    November 18, 2018 / No Comments

    The hardest part of baking isn’t the measuring and weighing of ingredients, the kneading and folding of dough or even cooking food at the proper temperature.

    It’s the waiting.

    Waiting for yeast to blossom. Waiting for dough to rise and rise again. Waiting for pastry to chill. Waiting for cream or egg whites to whip into clouds. Waiting for butter to brown. Waiting for butter to soften in a cold room. Waiting for cakes to come to room temperature so you can frost ’em. Waiting for mousse or puddings or creams or custards to set. Waiting for caramel to form. Waiting for pie to get cool enough to eat.

    All of this waiting feels uncomfortable when one lives a life in the rush of now, the breakneck pace of busy. Which is also why I appreciate baking’s long wait times. Waiting forces me to slow down, to take my time, to recognize that I’m trying to create good food — not fast food.

    Waiting requires patience and I feel like that’s a virtue few, if any of us, cultivate anymore. Perhaps we should.

    –Title quote by Craig Bruce