Well, young and old and in-between, another winter solstice had swirled us into darkness, which means it’s time for my annual attempt to rack up a few more hits by shining a light on what I consider the highlights of a year of blogging.
So let’s get going.
January
In light of the Murdaugh mess, I became more aware of just how disloyal our computers can be, whether they’re ratting us out as we’re careening 80 miles an hour heading down a dirt road to Mama’s looking to cop an alibi or merely chatting it up in a bar and having our words transported to blood-sucking capitalists, which happened to me in The Saint James Infirmary iPhone Blues
Also, I at the start of the new year, I went all self-defacing with some un-wistful memories of motor incoordination. I went all Spasmadaco.
February
Got to meet one of my literary heroes in Savannah. T. Coraghessan and Me.
Also, I mused about what it would be like to have Hunter S. Thompson cover the Murdaugh trials in the The Hyper Gothic Murdaugh Saga: Hunter S Thompson Edition.
March/April
My novel came out 31 March and Buxton Books hosted a launch in early April.
A Reading of Today, Oh Boy at Buxton Books, Charleston, SC 11 April 2023
Caroline, Brooks, and I-and-I also went with some friends to Mexico City in April.
May
I wrote a limerick – ha ha! – and guess what? It’s rated PG!, not surprising given it’s a Limerick.
June
Of course, death is one of my favorite subjects, as is music. So here are two posts on those timeless subjects.
You can’t Be Any More Out of It Than Dead.
And that’s the godless truth!
Here Comes the Night features a Van Morrison music clip, which in itself is worth a click.
July
July was fun. I wrote a nostalgic piece claiming not to be nostalgic called A Nostalgic Dismissal.
And I hitched a train up to DC, got to see my son, daughter-in-law, grandson, and fellow grandparent. Alas, though, I suffered misadventures after making some bad choices on the train trip home. There’s no fool like an old fool. You can ride along in Choo Choo Ding a Ling Ling.
August
Kirkus reviewed my novel: Kirkus Review of Today, Oh Boy.
And the delightful Montgomery Boat Brawl balmed my wizened heart.
Afterbirth of a Nation: The Montgomery Boat Brawl.
September
Alas, Jimmy Buffet died: So it follows that Jimmy Buffet’s Party’s Over.
October
As she’s wont to do, Nancy Mace made an ass out of herself by thinking being slightly snubbed is the equivalent of standing on a scaffold and being humiliated by an entire town and then being further sexually shamed by having your status as adulteress emblazoned on your breast for the rest of your life.
Now that level of self-pity is truly shameful: Nancy Mace’s Scarlet Letter.
November
My friend, the incomparable, Vaughan Murzursky died: The Czarina Defies Death for a While.
December
And, finally, let us end with the beginning, a meditation on your mother’s and your Birth Pangs.