I’m feeling good about 2014. Perhaps finishing a major revision of your five-years-in-the-making novel four days before January 1st will do that for you. I’ve got the glow of New Year promise.

–I’ve hopped on board that Elena Ferrante train.

–My essay “Frank Black” (as in, the former Pixies frontman) is coming out soon in the lovely Arroyo Literary Review.

–2014 is the year I’ll BART to work. Ah, reading Elena Ferrante on the Richmond Line.

–I’ve got a new officemate at the SF Writers Grotto, James Nestor. (We have designated workdays in a two-person sized suite.) I’ve always loved James’ work—and his décor.

–I’m looking forward to Santa Barbara DANCEworks bringing New York’s Mark Dendy for a month in April.

–I love teaching for Stanford Continuing Studies. Especially personal essay. And the Online Writers Studio’s new platform, Canvas, is clean and luxurious.

–I’ve also long been a fan of Grub Street’s masterful teachers, and I’m thrilled to take part in their Memoir Incubator program as an outside manuscript reader.

–I’m also excited about teaching this new one-day Gesture Writing class with gifted Life Drawing instructor David Tallitsch.

–So much to learn from the notebooks of Reynolds Price.

–Time to venture further into the wild woods of wonderful lit journals: Gulf Coast, Failbetter, Black Clock, the ever-rising ZYZZYVA, AGNI, Guernica. Others you recommend?