Calling on [B]old Women to pause

I’m taking several weeks off… join me in celebrating an end-of-year timeout!

Happy Holidays! If you’d prefer to listen, click below.

Instead of offering you something new for my last post of 2024, I’m taking the next several weeks off–without apology! I could give the excuse that I’m a bit frazzled, as so many women are during the holidays, but that’s really not the whole truth; I’m deliberately clearing these upcoming days for time to dream, to noodle, and to brainstorm ideas for this newsletter for 2025. If you are a [b]old woman writer, and, like me, you are concluding a word-packed year of publishing, I hope you will join me in taking a pause! Part of our charge, as [b]old women, is to model how to live fully in old age. Deliberately slowing down and taking time for ourselves to notice, to appreciate, to listen, and to learn is a big part of that.

I wrote back in April ‘24 that pressing pause was hard; not this time! This time, I am ALL IN for a timeout.

Coming up in January is a [B]old Woman Q&A with beauty editor

Valerie Monroe

, who writes the bestselling newsletter How Not to F*ck Up Your Face. I’m also planning more essays in a series I’m calling ”shit happens,” and there will be more Ask Debbie columns answering your heart-felt questions about getting old. Also coming up, and related to experiencing [b]old age, is the multi-generational women’s IRL storytelling event, Island Women Speak, that I direct in Maine every January.

Seven very [b]old women taking a bow after ISLAND WOMEN SPEAK, the women’s storytelling event I direct in Maine. The next performance is Jan. 23, 2025.

There’s something else too; by the time you read this I’ll be in Tokyo on my first trip to Japan. My husband and I are joining our son, daughter-in-law and their two children for a whirlwind visit that will include Naoshima Art Island, Kyoto, and a few days of skiing in Niseko on the northern island of Hokkaido. The trip was our son’s idea and he invited us to come along. How cool is that?! (When one of our adult children invites us to do something, the answer is always YES.)

I’m also excited to report that my Substack IRL encounters, which began in

Kate Hill

‘s kitchen in Southwest France, will continue in Japan with a get-together with

Jeffrey Streeter

, who lives in Tokyo and writes English Republic of Letters; as well as a quick visit with Valerie Monroe, who lives there for several months every year.

For now, I hope you’ll join me to pause for a moment of gratitude; I am so grateful for all my readers¹, for my brilliant editor

Erin Shetron

,² and for, well, all the things, including sex and, currently, for me, a brighter state of mind. I wish you a lovely holiday, filled with friendship, family, good food, enough rest, and time to dream. I’ll be back Jan. 10th.

Questions for readers (and writers)

• How do you make the decision to pause for a timeout from your normal routine, whether it’s a weekly deadline, or something else?

• Do you have a specific practice around expressing gratitude?

• Got any tips for traveling in Japan?

And IRL in Tokyo…

Celebratory cocktail with

Jeffrey Streeter

(and my husband Sam on the right); we’re on the 39th floor of the Otemachi One building.

1. My Substack became a bestseller about six months ago.

2. So looking forward to working with Substack whisperer Erin Shetron in 2025!