To lead off with a bit of exciting news: In December, I was informed that my short story “Groverville’s Own” had been named an honorable mention in the Saturday Evening Post’s Great American Fiction contest! It will be published in an ebook anthology alongside winners and finalists early this year—I don’t know the exact release date yet, but I believe it may be in February. I’ll be sharing more about the story and a teaser excerpt from it here on Substack when the anthology releases.

• Of the various top-ten-of-the-year book lists I read over the last couple months, these were my two favorites: from Claire at The Captive Reader and Dominika at Gathering Light.

• For my fellow Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion enthusiasts, Summer Smith at Realms of Gold has put together a list of books, plays, and poems mentioned or referenced throughout the series.

• This quote from Flannery O’Connor about her mother’s views of success in writing, shared by Ruth Gaskovski, made me laugh so hard. I think all mothers of writers, even the most loving and supportive mothers, have a tiny sneaking bit of this mindset somewhere.

• Claire Laporte at The Duck-Billed Reader has been doing a series on “What to Read After You Run Out of Jane Austen”—and her answer, Anthony Trollope, is one I heartily agree with. I particularly enjoyed her post pairing Pride and Prejudice with Framley Parsonage.

• This is interesting—new scholarship has made the case that a passage from the works of Josephus mentioning Jesus Christ, which for years has been claimed to be not entirely original, is likely authentic after all. I find this kind of historical detective work fascinating!

• Something rather bittersweet for lovers of history, architecture, old movies and theater: Proctor’s Theater in Troy, New York, built in 1914, is currently undergoing a somewhat controversial restoration and conversion to city offices. Some local photographers recently had the opportunity to photograph the interior in its pre-restoration, abandoned state, and the pictures are both amazing and sad. John Bulmer has also shared some restored and colorized pictures of the theater in its heyday. [Update: more restored photos of the interior here.] (My late grandfather used to love telling stories about going to the movies as a kid in the 1930s, and it’s something to know this is one of the theaters he would have sat in.)

• Some beautiful poems I read for the first time this month: “Winter” by Coventry Patmore (what a marvelous name, that), “Rules and Lessons” by Henry Vaughan, “To a Skylark” by Percy Bysshe Shelley.

• And some newer poetry from right here on Substack, a lovely and moving New Year’s poem by Brit McReynolds.

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