PicoBlog

Welcome new readers! I’m delighted that so many of you have found this little corner of the internet since The Frozen River published on December 5th. My long time readers know that there’s a rhythm to what I post on this newsletter. But I thought I’d explain for those just now joining us. I usually alternate between personal essays and my ongoing writing series in which I’ve been sharing everything I know about the craft of fiction. But you’ll also find the occasional book review, cut scene, or roundup of my current favorite things. I like to think of this space as my online living room and these posts as the conversations we’d have if you were here with me, sipping coffee on a random afternoon. Feel free to stroll around ariellawhon.substack.com. And in the meantime, I hope you enjoy this glimpse into all of the things that I loved in 2023.

The best career moment(s): Publication day is usually a bit anticlimactic. I wake up and eat breakfast. Putter around the house. Change out laundry or run errands, etc. But that was not the case at all on December 5th.  Several of my dearest friends came over to watch the Good Morning America December book club announcement with me. They know that I struggle to let myself be celebrated. It’s a weird quirk that they refused to indulge that day, so they showed up with bagels and mimosas and let me cry happy tears on my couch. I’d been keeping that secret since June, so one hand it felt like a weight was lifted, and on the other it felt like getting shot out of a cannon. I looked at my FitBit later that night and my heart rate didn’t drop below 115 all day! It was a twelve hour adrenaline rush. Apart from The Big News, the entire week surrounding publication was filled with a constant stream of happy surprises. The book was a People Magazine Book of the Week. I was interviewed by NPR’s Scott Simon. And also by Audible and my friend Anne Bogel at What Should I Read Next. There was not one but two reviews in The New York Times. It was an NPR and Kirkus best book of the year. This is my fifth novel. I’ve been writing books for a long time and I’ve never had a book launch like this. I do not take it for granted. I am so, SO grateful.

Best family moment: taking my kids on vacation to northern New Mexico, where I grew up, and showing them the two-room schoolhouse that I attended from Kindergarten to eighth grade.

Best beauty purchase: I have bought every single product that Merit Beauty sells. With my own cash money. This isn’t sponsored or affiliate linked. Just pure appreciation for their makeup. 10/10. Highly recommended. 

Best trip: Listen, New Mexico was deeply meaningful and book tour was amazing—I absolutely loved meeting so many readers. But nothing compares to the twelve days my husband and I spent in Ireland with good friends. It was a bucket list trip. It was perfect. And I feel like I can’t even talk about it without sounding like an a**hole.

Best quote: “All of the meaning in life comes from the things that give you wrinkles.” — Helen Andrews

Best feeling: Sleeping in my own bed again after nine days straight on book tour.

Best books I read: I don’t think there’s any such thing as a “best” book. There are only the books that make you laugh or cry. The ones that leave you with a feeling you can’t describe. The ones that tell the truth. The ones that teach you something or the ones you’re still thinking of eight months later. The ones you put on the “keeper” shelf in your library. The ones you make your friends read, or the ones where you find a line so beautiful that you call your sister and read it aloud on her voice mail. I read a lot of those books this year. But I also read books so that I can write another one. I went through a dozen plus research books in 2023 and have more on deck for next year. But mostly it’s the novels that I remember. Fairy Tale. The Wishing Game. Fourth Wing and Iron Flame (just good old fashioned reading fun—loved thsse novels). Ninth House. (Clearly I’m on a fantasy bender at the moment). It’s One Of Us. Divine Rivals. The Secret Book of Flora Lea. The books you re-read like Lonesome Dove or True Grit or Watership Down. There are countless other books that I read. Those are just the ones that come to mind without looking at my selves. For every book that I finished, I bought three more and they sit on my shelf waiting for the right time. Reading is a mood, you know? I’m saving Demon Copperhead, Tom Lake, Lessons In Chemistry, Hamnet, The Marriage Portrait, and Wolf Hall for the darker days of winter—when it’s cold outside and I turn inward with my thoughts. I’m a seasonal reader. I’m a moody reader. I’m the reader who reads what I want, when I want.

If I have one motto, it is this: read what you want. There are no rules. It’s not a competition. And you should never punish yourself. Read to be entertained or to escape or to be edified or educated. All of those reasons are valid. You don’t have to choose just one.

Best view I had all year: the Cliffs of Croaghaun in western Ireland.

On this last year of 2023, I want to say thank you. For being here. For reading these posts and my books. For leaving such fun and thoughtful comments. It might not look like it from Instagram, but the writing life can be lonely. Mostly it is me, here at my desk, trying to turn Nothing into Something. But this year you kept me company and I am profoundly grateful for you.

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