Merry Christmas from Pens and Poison
And some exciting updates about my work!
Though it’s just another Thursday here in Jew land, I’d love to take this moment to wish everyone a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Hope your day is filled with loved ones, presents, great food, joy, and lots of books. I know my Christmas will be filled with great food—great Chinese food, that is.
If you’d like to get me a Christmas present, you can put a smile on my face by snagging that paid subscription below.
Your contribution means the world to me—and it also means that I’ll continue to push out those spicy essays as we head into 2026!
As we head into the New Year, I also wanted to share an exciting update about my work.
As of late last night, I have completed the first draft of my latest novel, Blue Snow. I’ve already started incorporating feedback from my alpha readers—those of you who have been reading the first draft from the very beginning—and I can’t wait to open up a call for beta readers in the early spring.
Here’s a little bit about the book:
Mia Rozen is a successful yet emotionally unstable indie-pop star—but commercial success hasn’t exactly brought her the fulfillment she was hoping for, and now she’s stuck in therapy because she can’t stop thinking about a man named Teddy. The problem, she tells her therapist, is simple: without Teddy as her muse, she can no longer write music. But Teddy’s gone—though he was never really hers in the first place—and now she’s married to a loyal attorney who doesn’t really understand her creative soul.
Through a series of confessional therapy sessions, Mia reconstructs her past with Teddy and the events that led to the splintering of her career, unearthing a tangle of memory, shame, and longing as she reckons with an uncomfortable truth: her unhealthy obsession with Teddy may be the very engine that has always powered her music. As she comes to terms with her mistakes and sins, Mia must decide whether she is willing to continue mining the chaos of her past for the sake of art—or whether choosing peace and adulthood will require surrendering the version of herself that made her an artist in the first place.
Sound intriguing? Beta reads will only be open to paid subscribers, so don’t forget to reserve you beta reader slot by becoming a paid subscriber below.
Merry Christmas once again and thank you again to all of you who have been reading Pens and Poison over the past year. Wishing you all a fruitful and relaxing rest of your holiday season. See you in 2026!
Love,
Congrats on last night finishing the first draft of your new novel, "Blue Snow." Towards the end of your new age Christmas Chinese food dinner there will be a clear translucent package of blue new age fortune cookies (made from blue corn masa flour and and white powdered sugar). And when you take one of these blue fortune cookies and break it in two, a small strip of blue paper will fall out of the two broken pieces. It will read, "You will have an excellent literary agent soon!"
Thank you so much for your Christmas wishes, Liza! I made sure to renew my paid subscription to Pens & Poison. At first, I wasn't sure if I could afford it, but I'll just need to make sure Pens & Poison and Guerre & Shalom are my only paid subscriptions. While it is far from your only source of income, you deserve to be compensated for your time writing these stupendous and thought-provoking articles plus writing IS what you want to do for a living in the near future. It's really been such an immense pleasure reading your pieces throughout the year and getting to know you to the extent one can on Substack!
You've definitely helped enrich my life and opened the door for me to explore the vast and unendingly amazing and insightful, world of literature, sort of like when Willy Wonka first lets his guests into his world in the classic movies with Gene Wilder made in the 1970s. My paternal grandmother who passed away a decade ago, would always take me and my sister to museums, plays and poetry and introduced me the Humanities through children's television on PBS and books she read to us and bought for us. With her passing which hit me hard, I lost touch with that world. My bad experience with my college English classes and the local history museum with all their far-left agendas didn't help.
But you helped me to get back in touch with the wonderous world of the Humanities especially literature and re-access memories of my grandmother and the world of the Humanities. I now can enjoy and look back on those times without grief or pain because of been reminded on both how amazing it was to explore and the emotions and lessons I learned from it but also all the great times I spent with my grandma, but I repressed them because it was just too painful to think about but now I don't need to do that anymore and I can relive the joy of those moments and expand upon them today and continue forward because I have read maybe one percent of the classics and have so much more to see and learn. Nor do I need to reject all things fine arts and cut it out of my life.
I'm sorry to get so personal, I know that was probably more information than you wanted but I felt like I should let you know that. That what you do is so important to me and made a real difference in my life. I am also thankful just for you and my other Substack creators I follow. Your work has helped me through many a hard day and your posts and Substack notes always bring a smile to my face! They definitely help my mental health and keep my spirits up. I hope you have a wonderful day with your family and eat lots of delicious Chinese food!