Winter is for the babooshkas (and maybe Shirley Jackson).
A letter from the homestead from November. ✍️ Inside: hibernation, a Shirley Jackson winter, my winter writing plans, what I'm reading, etc.
Emily Dickinson called her Amherst home “The Homestead.” I lovingly call my apartment in St. Louis the same thing (though I definitely get out more than Dickinson). This monthly newsletter is my attempt to work through what it feels like to put down roots as a writer in my own Homestead.
My winter hibernation has begun.
I am a hobbit by nature. I love a cozy fire, good soup, and going to bed early. The dark days of winter are not always kind to my mental health, but they remain my favorite time of the year. The early sunsets and the long nights are an excuse to go inward, to read, and, yes, to write. This time of year, I venture out only for friends or work. My home becomes a babooshka’s warmest little hovel, safe from the cold.
My Emily Dickinson Autumn is sliding into a Shirley Jackson Winter. Ghosts come out in the chill when everyone else is hibernating, and I can’t get those spooky Jackson vibes off my mind. This is mostly due to watching Haunting of Hill House (thank you for the encouragement, Rachel!), reading a Jackson biography, and listening to the audiobook of Haunting of Hill House while driving back and forth to the prisons to teach.
I want a winter full of ghost stories, not jingle bells. This winter, I’m looking for ghosts to write about.
Unrelated to Shirley Jackson spooks, one of the first things I noticed about moving to the Midwest after 28 years of living in the South is the reality of seasons. Georgia and Texas were temperate all year long. Even a very cold day had relief at some point. I distinctly remember a beautiful Christmas Day in Waco— it was 75 degrees and perfect.
Climate affects the speed of life, though. My theory is that the South moves “slow” all year round because it doesn’t experience the whiplash of big temperature shifts. The Midwest is relentless in its activity come Spring, Summer, and early Fall. But everything slows in the Winter. I’ve lived here for nearly ten years and this slowness still surprises me.
I love the winter slowness because it matches my preferred, default pace. I’m a slow walker, a slow thinker, and a slow dreamer. With me, things take the time they take, unless I’m on a hard deadline. I like to look at things for a long time. I often spend a year just thinking about a play before I sit down to write it. I am the queen of calculating buffer time because I struggle without it.
I will be hibernating this winter. I will be looking for (and writing about) ghosts. I will be eating a lot of soup. I wish the same for you, my babooshka.
Winter is for writers (and babooshkas). Here’s my winter writing plan.
This time of year is my most productive writing season. I’m so well-rested in the winter that I can’t wait to sit down and write. Ideas are everywhere. The days get shorter, so the nights are longer for writing time. Candles are out. Twinkle lights are everywhere. Cats are cuddled.
In the winter, I write whenever I want. Sometimes, I write first thing in the morning. Or maybe I write late at night. Or all day. There is no firm schedule during this time of year because time seems open anyway. When I have space like this, I think in terms of project-completion, not hourly work.
✍️ I have three big projects for the winter months:
A “lost boys” play for a men’s prison. This is a commissioned play for Prison Performing Arts that will go up in summertime at a men’s prison. It took me a long time to find my way to this idea— we’re going for a “lost boys family reunion” of sorts. Now that I’ve found a concept (thank you for the idea, Adam!), I’m spending December writing this 1-hour piece. The core question for this Peter Pan-inspired play: When was the moment you knew you had to grow up?
Revisions on the first 30K words of a new novel. My agent advised me to start writing the sequel to the novel she’s trying to sell right now (light a candle, please), so I drafted the first third this year. I’m trying to write this novel in segments: write 30k words, revise what I’ve written, write the next 30k, revise, next 30k, and so on. Not only is this helping me think productively about the book’s structure, but it’s also keeping me in touch with the promises I make to the reader in each section— promises I’ll ultimately have to make good on. My plan is to finish these current revisions by the end of December.
Start the working draft of “WILD NIGHTS: a sleepover hosted by Emily Dickinson during which we will (hopefully) see the Face of God.” My plan is to begin writing in earnest on January 2nd. This is my favorite day of the year to start plays. By Easter, I plan to have a full draft so I can hear it out loud.
What I’m reading this month.
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. I listened to the audiobook version of this novel (highly recommend listening) while driving back and forth from my classes at the prisons. It is very, very good. Not as scary as I expected, which was a relief.
On the Road with Saint Augustine by James K. A. Smith. This is a sort-of spiritual biography of St. Augustine. I’ve been dipping in and out of this one. To be honest, it mostly makes me dislike Augustine, but I like an honest portrayal of a saint.
Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin. I’m loving this biography of Shirley Jackson. Essential reading for Jackson fans.
Still reading Middlemarch and The Divine Comedy. It’s going poorly. 🤷♀️
How I made money this past month $$$
I believe freelance artists should be more upfront about how they support themselves financially, rather than maintaining the illusion they are fully supported by their art (they usually aren’t). This is me attempting to live out that principle. So, here are all the ways I brought in money to the Homestead for the month of November.
Teaching artist work for Prison Performing Arts. Teaching a weekly writing workshop on Zoom and teaching Spoken Word regularly inside a men’s prison. Also going to to rehearsals for Little Women Town, my new play which will go up in March at the women’s prison.
Grant funding from the Regional Arts Commission. I received an artist support grant from the RAC to support the writing of my new Emily Dickinson Sleepover Play. Yay for cities that fund writers!
Volunteer stipend for a queer support helpline. I make a small bit of money each month by working shifts on the St. Louis Queer Support Helpline.
Paid Substack subscriptions. Thank you to all of my paid subscribers. It means the world to me you make a financial contribution to my work.
Take a rest, my babooshka.
November was wild. Election results. Busy work weeks. Thanksgiving travel. First snow in St. Louis. November held it all.
Give yourself permission to be a babooshka.
Today starts a new month.
Yours,
Courtney, Mistress of the Homestead (and Noble Midge and Old Linus 🐈⬛ 🐈 )