Wait, what happened next?
Wait, what happened next?
I made some of you cry during a big talk I gave about story, self-love, and why we do what we do in life, and I want to hear what touched you. Were the tears of joy or sorrow?
I helped a woman write a pitch for her memoir about how the very thing that makes her creative also makes her life hard. I want to know when that book gets published because I want to read it.
So many unfinished stories. So many people have touched me by their earnest lives, perfect oddities, human-ness, stories. I wish we’d had more time.
This is my toxic trait, as they say—I want to keep everyone I have a real moment with (okay, not everyone. That Uber driver who asked me if I had a husband, if I was traveling alone, and if I’d like to go to Comic-Con with him—that twenty minutes was quite enough).
If you have a chance, I’d love to hear what’s happening in your life.
If you put something in the comments you can be coy with the information. Like, you don’t have to say the name of the person you flipped off behind their back when they walked away–you can just tell me you did it and I’ll give you a little psychic high five.
With much nosey, heartfelt curiosity,
Ann XO
PS: I did a lot of this: So fun and relaxed
Maybe you want to do this with me: Take a look
These are my jokes and photos: Lots to catch up on
Hi Ann! My book Unraveled was finally published! That’s what happened! Thank you for help along the way (Tall Poppy Writers perfect pitch contest semi finalist, logline class, ParisWriters.com, Zibby’s retreat in the Hamptons, etc.). I hope you’ll read it, and we’ll discuss at the next workshop/class/search for a restroom. Happy Holidays!
Wow!! What a great update. This is sooooo great. I’m so glad. Send me the info. I will read it. I’m so excited for you. Googling it right this minute and buying it.
xx
Hi Ann,
I just want to tell the woman who liked to read about submarines that I loved a novel called, Submergence by JM Ledgard— if she hasn’t already come across it.
Now I’m thinking about submersibles, too, and also remembering the emotions and images I had while reading that book. So, thank you. Kim A.
You’re welcome.
I can’t believe you came up with a book about submarines. I hope she is here to see it. Although I suspect not because there is nary a submersible in my books.
Thank you for writing. It’s fun to see your name in my email–if not your person at my house.
xx
May I recommend “SUB TALES: Stories That Seldom Surface” – fun title, fascinating stories, and the narrator is a treat. Don’t worry if you know nothing about submarines, the author makes it accessible.
Yes you may!!
I love that title. I will check it out.
This is quite a sub-genre. wink wink
You sure can!! I’ll take a look. I love it.
I was literally just thinking of reaching out to thank you. At the 2023 CWA Conference you asked me THE most uncomfortable question anyone has ever asked about my protagonist, “Why do we care?” (I think I responded meekly with something like, “Because she’s nice”
).
But when I finally got over my mortification and was able to articulate why we should care (to myself— you were long gone by then), I got down to business and finished my novel! AND, because of that one simple question that I never thought to ask, I just signed a two-book deal! So thank you, thank you, thank you!
Lauren,
Sometimes I make people cry and then I want to cry.
BUT OMG a 2 book deal. I’m thrilled for you . THRILLED.
AND this a really an update. The best kind of update.
I can’t wait to hear more.
xx
right back to you.
Hi Ann, I found my bag and I got my tooth fixed and I’m querying that book we were talking about. I am still laughing about the dolphins and I can’t help but notice we are no longer in Paris but sometimes when I see and hear you in videos, it feels for a minute like we are there, laughing about all those things together.
Your tooooth!!! I forgot. Seriously how amazing was our time in Paris??
We were so lucky and I knew from your first WATSAP that I would love you.
Hi Ann.
I met you a few times at Mountain View Grand Resort in NH while you were teaching. (My husband was the managing director and I, the farmer) Since meeting you, my book club has read all your books!
Here’s my update:
I took my 30+ year hobby of raising farm animals and crafting goat milk lotions, soaps, balms, yarn and felted items (from the fleece of our llamas, alpacas, sheep, goats and rabbits), and turned it into what I call “My Second Career”. My Vermont home business is called Wiggly Goat Farm. I’m a vendor at lots of farmers markets, have an online store, offer daily barn tours, am a vendor/speaker at the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival, offer farm coaching, and will be opening our farm shop this spring.
Come visit if you ever find yourself in Vermont. Can’t wait to read your next book!
I just ran over to your site and orders stuff!!
This is amazing. I’m so glad you are doing tis and I love the name of your farm.
I will come visit sometime. I will!!
Thank you so much for reading my books and keeping in touch. You are the real deal. xxx
I arrived in Salvador Bahia Brasil in the wee hours. Haven’t seen Carlos since the end of October. He’s been here since then, but my true hearts desire was an ice cold coconut and the water inside. Sorry honey, but a girl has NEEDS (that and it’s hotter TF here).
You have your priorities straight.
Brasil,
Man.
It’s freezing here.
Blah.
Love you.
I’ll be honest, Ann, it’s been a sh*tty year. My writing has suffered because of everything external.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Oh Denise,
I’m so sorry to hear that. Really. You are the kindest most generous person.
You deserve so much.
Is there anything I can do to help?
xxx Ann
Thank you!
Hi Ann,
I kind of feel like your question is the adult version of “What I did on my summer vacation”! I retired! That’s what I’ve done and let me tell you it’s brilliant! Best thing I’ve done in AGES. I took 2 months off and am enjoying the holiday season immensely-volunteering, working out at a new gym and allowing the stresses from this last year to flow up and out of me. I’ve not given up completely on corporate life but now as a consultant. I’ll be working again a bit but when I want starting in January.
Spending Christmas up with John and his SO. Hi to your family from us.
Julie,
I have your note and the photos you sent me right on my writing desk. I’ve been meaning to write back, either through snail mail or message but, life — you know? I know you know from what you wrote above.
It was so kind of you to send those photos of my family. I miss them every day even though I feel them around me.
I’m so glad you are with John this holiday. I’m so happy we are conneccted and I hope I see you this year.
Much love to you,
A
Ann, we’ve never met, and I’m not even sure how I got on your mailing list. I’ve read one of your books and I love your newsletters. Send them more often
Alexis,
Wow! That’s kind of amazing isn’t it? Sometimes I wish social media would go away but then I get a note like this and I change my mind. However we e-met, it’s so good to have you here. Thank you for sticking with this stranger. I hope we meet in person some time. xx Ann
Hi Ann,
We’ve never met but I’d like to think that if I ever did, I would totally geek out as a fan girl. I was lucky enough to win one of your books a few years ago and loved it. Have loved your newsletters and every book since. Your newsletters always make me smile and your newsletters are some of the few that I actually read from top to bottom. I’ve had an interesting year. My day job went from barely finding enough to keep me busy to being so overwhelmed, I’m lucky I leave my desk to go to the bathroom and don’t mention lunch – that seems to be a luxury anymore. The good news is I work from home so I can run to the bathroom pretty quick, haha. Who knows what kind of accidents there might be otherwise. I also self-published two more of my books this year and while I have no following whatsoever, the true dream was to publish and hold my book in my hands. That dream has been come to fruition with a delight that is uncomparable. Your inspiration is part of what took me there. Thanks for brightening my day with your wonderful words of wisdom and sassy attitude that makes me laugh! Nicole
Nicole,
How did you publish two books with that super busy job?? You are one of those heros that we talk about–the world couldn’t run without you.
I’m just so happy we found each other–it feels like kismet. Thank you for being here and reading my words and offering your friendship even though we haven’t met.
Thank you for your energy in the world,
Much love,
Ann
ps–please pee more. hahaha
Hi Ann,
Not a hero but a stubborn person determined to accomplish what truly makes me happy and writing makes me happy. I’m learning life is way too short to ask what might have been. Instead, the question should be what’s next?
Peeing more is definitely on the agenda!!!
Have a wonderful holiday season,
Nicole
We all need to pee more. xxx
Remember that book we chatted about ages ago? I currently – finally! – have it out on submission. I’m also currently homeless. Our house was badly damaged in the bomb cyclone that hit the Seattle area last month. We’ve been surfing airBNBs while insurance finds us something through the reconstruction (which will be 9-12 months). There’s a book in this somewhere, if I don’t lose my mind in the process.
Sonya!!
OH my GOD you are kidding me. That’s insane.
I just saw the photos!
I’m so sorry to hear this.
I hope you find a publisher for the book–a bright light to look forward to.
There is a book in here somewhere!!
I’m so glad you stay connected with me. I often think of you staying down the street from me–on the water. How nice it was to walk and chat about writing during the conference.
xxxx ann
Just saw your comment (after posting to your last). Yes, fingers crossed for that bright light!
Thoroughly enjoyed our chats during the conference. I still think about things from your notes from the U of Madison workshop you gave me. My log line is a thousand times better from it.
All the best!
Xxx Sonya
We’ve never met either. I’ve mostly lurked. I think I got on this mailing list from a free book I won.
I turned 70 and am suddenly old and feeling I’ve wasted my life and am rushing to get things done fast enough so I can enjoy the few years I have left. (Hopefully 25 if family genetics are in play but I could get hit by a bus tomorrow)
I’m repairing a gate and length of fence that has been broken since 2018. Building two more raised beds and going to plant some fruit trees in January.
I am going to be reupholstering a free rocking chair I rescued from the alley, a chaise lounge that has been done twice because the springs keep popping and am going to learn to hand weave a cane seat for another free chair rescued from the alley. Because if you want something done right, you do it yourself even if you have to learn a new skill.
This year I baked and am still baking up a storm as it may be the last Christmas I have to bake for my parents, who both turned 95 this year and both have dementia.
I haven’t seen my parents in over a year because my younger, spoiled brat sister and her spawn have managed to manipulate my parents and my brother into estranging me from the family. I’m not welcome in the house and no longer get so much as a birthday card. Thanks for 50 years of spending time with my parents every week making excuses as to why my sister and brother don’t call or visit.
I should write a book warning all young people to live their lives and not sacrifice them for family thinking there will be any gratitude, appreciation or thanks for it. If you’re not selfish, then learn to be. Because if you don’t look out for number one, no one else is going to put you first over themselves.
Blood may be thicker than water but it just stains the carpet.
Mary,
You should be the main protagonist in a book. I read this with interest and a furious outrage against the family who has shut you out. I can feel the unfairness and it’s stunning.
That last line, Blood may be thicker than water…..
Wow, that’s a good one.
It sounds like you are doing you now. And I’m all for it. Go and get it girl. 70 is the new 40.
Much love to you, xx Ann
Some years ago, I had the car radio on (you remember when that’s how you listened to music) while driving) and I was stuck on some sort of interview with a woman who was relating the story of her alien abduction. Nothing new about the story. But the interviewer asked har how she was dealing with her presumably terrifying experience ( and I should say here that I don’t know if these are actual events or some some of collective consciousness experiences for certain people or like sleep paralysis or something), and her answer stayed with me. The young woman said, “I refuse to be the victim in the story of my own life.”
I thought about that comment often over the next three decades and about how we craft our own mindset and reaction to what we perceive as adversity. When I was with my oncologist the other day, he was talking to me about my attitude and his belief that it has a huge effect on the efficacy of treatment. I replied that I had chosen my story archetype after diagnosis and a warrior does not stand down.
While my body is under siege, I do not tell it stories of fear or victimhood or embarrassment ( those eyebrows weren’t necessary and what a lovely head shape you have….I couldn’t appreciate until that troublesome hair was gone). I am just having a life experience in common with at least a dozen people I know at this very moment.
And as always, stories and narratives and insights emerge, some hilarious. Illness can heighten your perception of even the most mundane. People pass on wigs to you while you work at trying to buy one online ( slow to arrive btw, and tricky to return until you find one you like and is comfortable). So, for a while, I was wearing a beautiful waist length red number looking like I was the oldest member of a non-Celtic Riverdance troupe. But the older men at the grocery store couldn’t get enough of me.
One doctor I saw…and only once…said,cheerfully, “Oh, well…everybody dies.” Great material.
Happy turning of the Light, one and all
I’ve always said that you should write for the world.
I laughed, groaned, smiled, and teared up reading this, Inga.
You are a warrior and always have been.
I love you and thank you for sharing your words here.
You have always inspired me to write.
Love you,
xxxA
Just plugging away here. Glad for your newsletter… it truly is like hearing from an old friend! Happy 2025. Someone told me HEALTH is the word for the New Year!
I’m so glad!!
We are old friends.
My new word is “settle down Ann,” but because I’m an over achiever I need a whole sentence to pay attention.
Glad you are here!!
Ann
Hi Ann!
I am out in Beverly Hills now, as I think you know. I am working on bringing my story to the screen. Thanks for your donation to my Go Fund Me. I hope to have a reading at Creative Visions in Malibu this spring.
I’m so excited for you Lowell!!
I’ll be excited to hear more about your success!!
I *finally* convinced Anne Lamott to participate in a virtual online workshop for the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop. She’s one of my favorite authors. I caught her in a weak moment after the election. “We need to hear your words,” I told her. Thanks for all you do for writers, Ann!
She is perfect for Erma! You are magic.
I’m so glad you and I are connected!
Thank you for being my friend. I am a lurker and very good at it. I am rolling the idea of posting around in my head. It is a pebble that has now worn smooth and I am more comfortable with it.
I have torn my box apart and am doing risky new things. I bought a cutting horse, I keep her with another trainer, I sold our giant ranch and bought a little one, I took charge of our finances. I designated an impartial executor in my will. I am empowered.
I am not all me me me, but I am no longer passive,
Hell yeah Bonnelyn, I’m thrilled to hear this.
I’ll join you!
Ann