Reflections on a year of Honing House

And teasing a sweeter future

Hello, my friends.

First things first, I want to wish you happy holidays. The news continues to be dreadful. The weather in Amsterdam can’t make up its mind. But the festive lights are up, and even through the gray fog, I can feel my spirits lift a bit whenever I see these twinkling lights of communal celebration.

Speaking of community, last weekend I had the great pleasure of visiting The People’s Forum Art Market at Gallery W139. It was a warm, welcoming place and a chance to feel the energy of artists coming together in solidarity for peace. Our ability to create and to support each other in times of trial is something to hold onto and celebrate.

In this final free newsletter of the year, I want to give you a brief state of the Honing House Hive and how things are going to develop into the new year. I want to talk about creativity, what it means in my life, and how I hope to encourage other people’s creativity in the future.

Honing House is ready to grow.

Honing House has always been an ambitious project. Lessons, newsletters, meetups—I will admit to a certain amount of difficulty launching everything that was promised this year. As a one-person operation, time is always in short supply. There’s been quite a lot of gig juggling of irregular copywriting and translation projects, adjunct teaching gigs, etc. I thought I could do it all, but as they say, lesson learned.

Still, Honing House is going strong in its second year. In fact, better than ever. We’re growing beyond a one-person operation and developing more classes and initiatives.

Due to this growth, I’ve come to a bit of a crossroads. Do I continue to overstretch myself, or do I make Honing House stronger this year and into the future by throwing all my efforts behind it?

In other words (to use one of my favorite idioms): Do I shit or get off the pot?

So, this newsletter is an announcement. This year I will continue teaching at Emerson—a fine institution with wonderful, bright students—but all other efforts will be going into Honing House. This is going to be my full-time job.

I’ve got some scratch, a lot of energy, and the support of a very talented marketing person helping behind the scenes. With a lot of hard work and a little luck, I will build Honing House into the educational resource and community I’ve always envisioned it to become.

Next month’s newsletter will come with a slew of new announcements. I would really appreciate it if you could share the newsletter with anyone who is a writer or who is curious about writing. Word of mouth is still the most powerful way to advertise.

Paid subscribers will receive another email later this month. To the rest of you, happy holidays, and I’ll see you in the new year.

All the best,

Daniel