December 26, 2013
Thursday
The Feast of Stephen

There is creative reading as well as creative writing.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882
American poet, critic, and philosopher

The snow lay round about this morning, about two inches of “a few isolated flurries” sparkling off the driveway when I went out for the paper. I sang about Good King Wenceslas as I walked down to the curb, stepping back into my own footprints as I came back up, although there was no heat in the very sod I had printed.

The Feast of Stephen is a designation for this day that has puzzled some of my younger readers in critique groups. My character’s boyfriend will be back from visiting his family on December 26, he tells her. “The Feast of Stephen,” she says. “It was my grandmother’s birthday.” I had to explain it so many times I finally took it out, but I think I will put it back in.

The Feast of Stephen was my father’s birthday. He would be 97 today. During my prayer time this morning I remembered this day in 1965. I was dating a boy named Stephen, whose father was also Stephen. They invited our family over for brunch, and the three men toasted each other on their natal and name day. I last saw the old boyfriend in 2004, at a school reunion event. On a whim this morning, I sent him a note via Facebook recalling that brunch, remembered as a lovely time, along with a friend request. I haven’t heard anything back.

The Feast of Stephen is the day I traditionally go back to work after the dislocations of the special events and preparations for them of the holiday season. I made this a planning day, working out how I am going to meet several manuscript deadlines between now and March 31. I went back into my journals and day planner to see what patterns of productivity and procrastination were evident, determined, once more, to make it better in the next year.

And I put into practice a productivity tip I’ve known for a while, and which has brought me some success: Get current and stay current, going back to fill in the past as you have the time.

It was hard, and tedious, to extract the titles of all the reading I did in 2013 by going through the pages of my notebooks. And it wasn’t even all that much, just 17 books. If I am going to increase my reading, both its breadth and its depth, I should keep a current list, so I can tell at a glance what the score is.

I created a new page on this site. A Year’s Reading — 2014 will be the index. December 2013 is nearly complete. I’ve read 11 short stories — the equivalent of a book –  and one nonfiction essay. I’m reading in a story collection that I intend to finish. So I’m already ahead of last year.

I hope you’ll follow along. Thank you for reading, so much, so often.