The ABCs of 2023

It’s the last day of 2023, which is so trippy because if you were to shake me awake in the middle of the night and, before I had a chance to fully come into consciousness, yell, “SUZY, QUICK, WHAT YEAR IS IT?” I would probably reply, “Mm…2008?”

2023 is, to me, The Future. The intelligence is artificial and the cars drive themselves the internet is so fast and people have virtual reality goggles in their houses (this one is very big for me, because when I was a teenager I watched a movie about the end of the world where everyone had virtual reality goggles in their houses and when they put them on there was a guillotine and they were getting their heads actually chopped off in the virtual reality world but also, somehow, in the real life world…anyway. Guillotines were a very present and constant fear for me at that time, and so were VR goggles).

But here we are! We’re in The Future and it is very much like I’d always imagined it would be, minus, so far, the guillotines. Maybe 2024 is the year of the guillotines. Who knows? 

But the point of this exercise is not that. The point of this exercise is to reminisce and recap and recollect; it is absolutely not to worry about whether 2024 will be the year of the guillotine. 

So, okay. Without further weird ado, and as I do every year on this day, my ABCs of 2023: 

A - ARCS: I read a lot of Advance Reader Copies of books written by friends and a lot of friends read ARCs of my upcoming book (see “S”). Some of these friends were ones I already had, and some of them were people who became friends when they read my book or I read theirs (if you are unfamiliar with ARCs and blurbing, a brief explanation: many months before a book is published, the publisher will print up ARCs, which are bound, not-fully-edited copies of the manuscript. They send them out to other authors to read, and hopefully those authors will send back a quippy little blurb to put on the book’s cover. “Neat-O book!” “Read it in a day!” “Suzy Krause wrote another book! Why does she keep doing this to us?” It’s an extremely nerve wracking thing, to ask for blurbs, but I love when people ask me to do it for them. You get to read a book early! You get to say nice things about another author! You get your name on a book cover without having to write a book!). 

B - Brutus fell off a mountain; I’m sure you remember that. But what you don’t know, as far as I know, is that Brutus was kidnapped shortly after he arrived back home. Scarlett took him to school with her, and left him in her backpack while she went to class. When she came out to get him for recess…yep. He was gone. Don’t worry, this story has yet another happy ending! I found another Brutus on Varage Sale, only this time the seller was not willing to part with him as a single. So you can imagine Scarlett’s absolute JOY when she came home to find not only Brutus, but Brutus AND 13 of his very best friends! I tried to pass it off like he’d done another big adventure, swinging by Shoppers to pick up some friends on his way, but this time Scarlett just hugged me and said, “Mom. I think you bought me a new Brutus.” And she seemed pretty okay with that and it was one of those moments that make you feel like you’re in an episode of Full House. (Brutus better not have any more adventures though, I think that was the last one on Varage Sale.)

C - Calgary. We took a sweet little trip to Calgary for a few day days. Our friend Jason chauffeured us around the city and took us to find good coffee and a good library and a good music centre and, yes, even that good aforementioned mountain. We enjoyed it so thoroughly it might have to be a yearly Thing.

D - Dates: Barclay and I went on a lot of breakfast dates while the kids were in school, because when you are your own boss you can be like, sure, go have breakfast and come into work a little late today; that’s okay! We like being our own bosses so much. We are the nicest bosses to ourselves. (Although sometimes we make ourselves work nights and weekends and holidays.)

E - Edits: The summer of 2023 was one absolutely consumed by book edits. A little tricky, with the kids home. I’d get up at 5:30 am and head to Regina’s only open coffee shop and work until 10 or 11, and then I’d trade off with Barclay and he’d work until he was able to come home and then I’d trade off with him again. People sometimes ask how you write books when you have kids around, and the answer is: YOU JUST MAKE IT WORK. THERE IS A CONTRACT. IT HAS TO HAPPEN. 

F - Fourteen: Barclay and I celebrated 14 years of being married. 

G - Globe and Mail: Barclay and I both got into The Globe and Mail this year. I had a short story published about the time I made friends with two elderly gentlemen while parallel parking, and Barclay was interviewed for a piece about being an entrepreneur in Regina. 

H - Hooky. I stole Sully from school a couple of times this year, once to play mini golf and once to hit up the arcade. 

I - I started doodling on Post-It notes again, for fun and to jog a different part of my brain than the part I use for writing. I’d missed it!

J - Job site: I visited a few of Barclay’s job sites this year. They’re very fun to see; his crew does really cool stuff, but also it’s so sweet when someone you love has a big dream and then they go and make it happen and you can literally stand on the tangible evidence of that dream coming true. 

K - Kids: the kids had birthdays this year, which should not be surprising to anyone. What might surprise you, however, is that they are now 7 and 10. That’s old. I am old. You are old. We are all old. And getting older with every passing day! 

L - Left the city without the kids! I mean. I did not go far. But once I went to Moose Jaw with Barclay and once I went to Raymore to meet Becky and eat gas station pizza. 

M - Massage: I had my first-ever-in-my-whole-life-for-real-at-a-spa MASSAGE. It was so nice. 

N - Not a lot of live music this year, very sadly. I saw the symphony, went to folk fest, attended a Sound of Music sing-a-long and a book launch where a few people played music, and overheard a woman humming at the grocery store. If I have a single resolution for 2024 it is MORE LIVE MUSIC.

O - Overlooked this letter.

P - Public speaking: Despite the fact that I loathe it more than pretty much anything I can think of, I did a lot of public speaking this year. When I say this to people, they keep saying to me, “You must be getting better at it! It must be scaring you less!” I am sad to report this is not the case. 

Q - Quantum entanglement: my favourite topic to research and think about and discuss in 2023. (Oh, I love it.)

R - Read quite a few books. Didn’t really keep track of how many, this year. I think that’s okay though! Why would anyone care how many books I read?

S - Sold a book! Sold it twice, in fact—world rights (minus Canada) to Lake Union, Canadian rights to Radiant Press. Its name is I Think We’ve Been Here Before and it’ll be available wherever books are sold on September 24, 2024. More on that to come. 

T - 

U - Upgraded my cell phone, finally. I had an SE from 2015 and it was malfunctioning a lot. 

V - Viewed a lot of movies but nothing really stood out for me as something I MUST TELL YOU ABOUT.

W - Winnipeg: We took a family vacation to Winnipeg! We saw the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and the Christopher Robin statue and the Lego store and polar bears.

X - XXXVI - I turned 36 this year! 

Y - Yes! Thank you for asking, I DID keep most of my houseplants alive this year. Maybe more than any other year in my life! 

Z - Zzzzz… I probably also took more naps this year than any other. Is there a correlation between this and my houseplants not dying all the time?

Possibly. Tune in next year. I will sleep more just to see if more houseplants survive. And when Barclay’s like, wow, why do you take so many naps? I’ll just say, “Science,” and go back to sleep.