On the Ides of December and a very special upcoming holiday presentation
Rest assured, friends, the fall quiet here at the Green Room is not in vain.
Dear Reader,
First, an apology. I’m sorry for neglecting the Green Room over the last month. I haven’t published words here since that flurry in mid-November. Yet I have reasons!
I’ll start with the sad one and end with the exciting one.
The Smaller Sad Reason
These days from Thanksgiving through mid-December, are turbulent for everyone, with the swirl of the holidays and the onset of darkness at 4:30 and, for us and countless grieving others, so many shocking anniversaries.
I find myself glancing through Facebook Memories to remember what happened when, because I feel the timing of brutal memories as surely as my birthdays, though they’re far more likely to hide under the surface.
Mindy died on a Sunday, December 15th, so that date is seared in me, but what’s surprising this year is seeing through social media posts how the lead-up to her death—and particularly the transition from Let’s hope chemo extends your life beyond six to twelve months, to Please, hospice, get here and keep my wife alive, to Mindy’s final breaths—all happened between the afternoon of December 12th and the early morning of the 15th. What sort of shock was I in while writing these posts?
One word which stands out today in rereading these today is terrific, which I suppose I meant in a positive sense, because my experience with hospice care was that our nurses were exceptionally gifted at navigating end-of-life waters. Yet the meaning of terrific is “of great size, amount, or intensity” and the word must be connected in some way to terror. Terror is what I felt in those days.
On reflection, I can see how the speed of Mindy’s decline was maybe a mercy. And I feel mercy myself because this fall, nine years later and outside the briefly resurfaced and painful recollections, I’m more likely to feel gratitude and great joy. While these days remain heavy in most every way, and while I look forward to Mindy’s death anniversary passing and the focus shifting toward Christmas, I see places where change and healing have happened. Like Reason Number 2.
The More Substantial, Happier Reason
Some of my healing has been through work, and the fruit of that work is cause for the more joyous and prominent reason for my lapse in posts.
The Blue Beacon, my first novel, will be serialized this winter.
I have a deadline to meet and plenty of rewrites still to make, so that’s absorbing a lot of focused creative work. I know I’ve taken so long already, yet I feel assured the wait and my diminished Green Room output will be worth the cost. The Blue Beacon is a gratifying story to tell, and I’m eager to finally bring the first Cascadia Chronicles novel into the world.
When I first began work on this story universe, I was engaged to Mindy, working as a grocery clerk. That first story, about four mammal friends on a quest to rescue their young ones, was intended to keep me writing after we moved to Arizona. I’m astonished at how Cascadia unspooled in the almost fifteen years since. I feel pleased to have a finished draft far more fascinating and intricate than the original vision.
The Blue Beacon was awhile in gestation, though my passion for animal life, my homeland’s geography, and adventure stories stretches back far before. This feels like the culmination of a project I’ve worked on all my life. So, again, I feel some awe and terror at finally bringing this creation into the world. Have mercy, Holy Spirit! May this story bless readers to some measure the way it blessed me.
As a peace offering, dear reader, please accept The Blue Beacon’s book cover, along with some other Cascadian concept art I’ve ordered The Machines to churn out.
If you’re also into animals, or novels, or adventures, then I invite you to follow along and help me build this world. You can track progress at CascadiaChronicles.com. Currently, the site is quiet, with a few samples chapters I released over the last year. That will soon change.
Thank you, Reader, for your patience! I’ll be back with more posts, hereabouts and thereabouts, soon. May the remainder of your Advent season be rich with beauty and meaning and love.
Hopefully,
Jordan
On the Ides of December and a very special upcoming holiday presentation
I LOVE the book design! Just makes you want to read it....
You need to show me how that's done. Incredble.
Jordan, What an emotional time for you. I wish you all the best. D