Katrin's Newsletter #36: Celebration...

This brief missive is a way for me to make connections with people interested in art and creativity (sign up here). I'm an author and editor, always on the lookout for inspiration. 

We're all thinking back to this time last year, taking stock. #1 on my list of to do's when we're back to normal is to go dancing. What's your #1?

For me, it's been a year of deep contemplation. What am I doing--am I doing enough? Am I learning enough, and giving enough? I am so lucky that, despite the challenges, I've grown over the past year both personally and professionally.

A year ago today, I had a launch party for my second book at Shakti Yoga here in Key West. It was awesome to celebrate with new friends and family. A week later I launched with dear old friends at Belmont Books in MA. That was the last crowded, festive, joyous event that I've participated in. What a great sustaining memory! Thank you to my friends and readers who have been with me in spirit during this intense and seriously tense year. (Click on image for some groovin' music.)
 

In celebration of the anniversary of my launch, I'm giving away three copies of THIS TERRIBLE BEAUTY (U.S. only). Click here and email me with your address and I'll pick the 4th, 8th and 12th person (four is my favorite number). 

I'd really love to hear from you about a few things you feel proud of having achieved or endured during the pandemic. Please will you let me know? While I did not train for a marathon or learn to embroider, I did a lot of reaching out.

I started teaching again, thanks to Zoom, and rediscovered my love of helping writers. I volunteered my time by offering free critiques of opening pages (I completed almost 50!) and by working on a project for my East Coast writing community, GrubStreet. And I finished writing the second draft of my next novel! Friends, that was so hard, and I did it.

This month I was blown away by Gabriel Byrne's memoir, Walking with Ghosts. What an incredible meditation on what it means to be human, to yearn and strive and make sense of the world. It's written with great skill--a nonlinear narrative that looks not at the facts of a life but much deeper.

“I realized that the landscape doesn’t belong to you, and what you think of as home doesn’t belong to you,” Gabriel Byrne said. “What you do own is the memory.” I highly, highly recommend. Here's a NYT article and here's a link to purchase from my favorite bookstore, Books and Books in Key West. Happy reading!