Good morning, Lab Coats and all Storybellers today. Here is a Writers Lab for everyone, as we barrel toward Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving 2015Some News!

Starting today, I’ve paused all paid subscriptions until January 5, so no one will be billed from this date (Nov 21) through Jan. 5. If you are a paid subscriber (i.e. a Lab Coat), you’ll have the next six weeks “paid for” — that is, your subscription is extended by six weeks.

You can enjoy the Storybelly archives to your heart’s content, as well as your cookie baking and tree decorating, menorah lighting, Karamu feasting, temple visiting and midnight bell ringing, song singing, ancestor honoring, tradition fulfilling… and family dramas to the hilt — ha! I’ll be doing the same, enjoying or surviving it all. :>

Storybelly Digest posts and Writers Lab posts will resume in January.

Where I’ll Be:

Meanwhile, while scribbling my lofty thoughts and plotting crazy notions in the margins of my work-in-progress, Charlottesville, I’ll continue to be present — here are links to where I’ll be:

Substack Notes (open to everyone),

Writers Lab Chat (a community space for Lab Coats),

DeborahWilesBooks at Instagram where I check in frequently, mostly on IG Stories, which I often save to IG Highlights on that same page.

Come visit any and all of these places and say hey when you’re not up to your eyeballs in life and work and love.

Writers Lab Second Sunday Live! on December 14 at 11atET:

Lab Coats — this next is for you — we’ll use CHAT to keep up with your/our various writing projects including the Zine, the 20 Projects Poem, and weekly writing suggestions. Also, we WILL be doing our Live! on December 14, when we’ll host a special guest who is going to share an in-depth look at independent publishing — hooray! — so put that date on your calendar — I’ll share the details in Chat.

I’m still working on my Zine (I found the graphic I wanted; see below!), and I’ll post more about our Zine project — and the accordion method I’m trying out — in CHAT as well, where we can all participate and contribute.

What I’ll Be Doing:

In these next six weeks, I’m hoping to barrel ahead with Charlottesville.

At the same time — I know, I know — the holidays will roll over me, but that’s a good thing; I want to enjoy whatever comes my way. Secretly that includes some work on a middle-grade novel that I shelved this past spring and want to read and get back to. It’s a lot for a scant six weeks, eh? What about you?

I think we’re about to be thick into “the messy glory,” as Uncle Edisto calls it.

“Open your arms to Life! Let it strut into your heart in all its messy glory!”

I love that chaotic and loving family in Each Little Bird That Sings. Comfort’s story takes place from Easter to Thanksgiving Day. I’d like to read a story about how her family runs the town funeral home while navigating the holiday marathon. Maybe I’ll play with that this week. I’ll need to come up with some Southern holiday food and decorations and maybe it would be a prequel so Uncle Edisto and Great-great Aunt Florentine are still with us… and would Peach make an appearance? Would there be a funeral at Snowberger’s to cook for over the holidays? Let’s not run out of Snowberger handkerchiefs. Hmmm…

And what about you? What calls to you in these next six weeks? What is your messy glory going to be like, do you think? Or have you planned six weeks of utter solitude? I don’t believe you!

I would LOVE to hear from y’all about what the next six weeks might hold for you. Questions for you to answer, with my answers in parens:

What are your plans? ( Many !)

What are the wild cards? ( Charlottesville! )

What are the sure things? ( Dominoes! )

What are you making? ( Good Trouble, I hope .)

So that’s where I am right now, and where Storybelly is, at the end of this glorious and surprising inaugural year. It has been such a privilege! Truly. I appreciate you all so much. Thank you for your presence, your willingness, and your generosity this year.

I’m looking forward to the next few weeks of seeing y’all in Notes, on IG, in Chat, and to celebrating a first birthday for Storybelly in February — more on those plans after the holiday season.

I’m off to post in Notes and Chat. See you there — Happy Thanksgiving!

xox Debbie