THE ABCs of 2025

Oh look, another year. 

Decembers are coming and going like a kid on an old-school metal merry-go-round; if they keep speeding up like this, I'm going to stop being able to tell how many of them have passed. I barely have time to acknowledge them before they've gone all the way around and come back again. I feel existentially dizzy. 

Maybe this annual ABCs Of exercise is becoming more of a grounding thing? A way to notice which things happened in which space in time so that when I'm fifty and it's all even more of a blur than it is now, I'll be able to know for certain where everything was.

So, without further ado:

A - Author friends came to visit! I always say that the best part of being an author and having author friends is that sometimes organizations just fly said author friends in so you can hang out with them (and so they can do events or whatever). In March, the Sask Writers' Guild flew Marissa Stapley in for Talking Fresh and I got to show her around Regina (Lake Fries at the Bar Willow, live music at The Cure, gift shop shopping at the Mackenzie Art Gallery, etc). In July, The Festival of Words flew Jennifer Whiteford in, so we got to hang out in Moose Jaw (I tried to take her for a walk along the river but I accidentally took her to an abandoned train yard instead. She said she still had fun) (We also spent a lot of time at the spa and I think she maybe liked that better than the abandoned train yard). And Adelle Purdham stopped by in April on her book tour; we went for tacos and then I interviewed her at the Everyday Kitchen, which was very fun.

B - Books (shocker). I read maybe 50 books this year? I don't think this is very many, compared to some people. I have seasons where I'll gulp down four books in a week, and then seasons where it takes me literally three months to finish one novel. Some of them were ARCs for upcoming releases, some of them were audiobooks (these were mostly thrillers), some of them were new releases, and some of them were books that have been on my shelf for a while. 

C - College! I was invited to speak at a college creative writing class. It was a really cool little group of folks and we had such a blast (or at least, I did for sure and they definitely appeared to, but maybe they were in acting classes as well?). I hope they all write stuff that I get to read someday. 

D - Denver! I got a grant from Sk Arts to fly to Denver, Colorado to do a couple of book events (Reading Den and an in-conversation at the Center for the Arts in Evergreen). Both of these were so much fun; I met a billion lovely people, but most importantly I finally got to meet some previously-only-online friends: Sarah Ann Noel, a friend I speak with literally every single day but had never met in person (we wrote a little article about our meeting and it was published on Write or Die), Melissa Payne, a fellow Lake Union author, and Eunice Brownlee, a friend from Instagram via Sarah (I think? Right, Eunice?). A very special, slightly surreal week!

E - Extra. In the summer, a friend of mine (Tim Lenko! Hi, Tim!) texted to ask if I would like to be an extra in a film his friend was directing. We shot our scenes at a funeral home, which felt kind of irreverent and hilarious. I wore a dress from my mom's closet from the 70s and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. 

F - Film Screening. Tim—the same Tim as the one from the letter E—is a filmmaker too, and he screened his award-winning film in Moose Jaw in November. He invited me to come to the premier and be part of an artists' panel, along with another filmmaker and a visual artist. It was a really fun conversation and all of these interactions with Film People are really making me want to be Film People too.

G - Goodreads Choice Awards. I had the shock of my life when I saw that I Think We've Been Here Before was nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award, and then an even bigger shock when it went to the finals. I was relieved of the heavy burden of imposter syndrome for three glorious weeks. What a vacation. (It's back now.)

H - Happy to finally receive the Russian copies of Sorry I Missed You, which was published over there a few years ago.

I - I dyed [some of] my hair purple on a whim. I was dying Scarlett's, and she said, "YOU DO IT TOO, MOM" and it was one of those reflex-without-thought moments. I just...reached up and ran the glove with the dye on it through the ends of my hair, as if I were scratching an itch. Scarlett was delighted, and that was that. Her hair dye faded within a month. My hair is very blonde, so it sucked in that color, and it hasn't completely gone away even now. Glad to see my impulse control is still so lacking at 38.

J - Just spent a lot of hours in my living room this year listening to Sully play the guitar and requesting that he play my favorite songs. 

K - Knorks. I went out for breakfast with Sarah one day, and there was this utensil that was almost like a fork, but not quite, on the table. She picked it up and said, "Hey, so here's something cool. My friend's brother invented this. It's called a Knork. It's like a fork but also a knife." And I used that Knork to eat my bennie, and then when I got home I ordered a set of four Knorks for my family because I liked it so much. 

L - Live Music Challenge. At the beginning of the year, my friend Ashley and I promised each other that we would experience live music at least once per month for the entire year. And we ALMOST did it. In January, we went to an acoustic show at The Mercury. February was open mic night at The Cure. March: Ritchot Textiles, The Moonrunners, and Black Thunder in the basement of The Artesian (maybe my favorite show of the year?). April: Robyn's choir performed at the Knox Met. May: Tiny played at my reading at The Artesian AND I got to see Sully's band perform live for the first time (okay, THIS was my favourite show of the year. Of my LIFE). June: another open mic night at The Cure. July: there was a guy playing his guitar at a restaurant in Vancouver, and also I went to a weird little biker memorial in Grand Coulee where a cover band was playing at the hockey rink. August: Sarah and I went to Nuit Blanche and there was live music in the RPL. September: Ashley and I hit up Swampfest, Regina's finest and most creative DIY music festival on Willow Island. Loved it. Always love it. October: Elliot BROOD & Great Lake Swimmers at Darke Hall. November: fail. December: we'll see if it happens, but I'm hoping to go to Band Swap at the Exchange on the 28th (I'm writing this post early). I'm usually out of town that night, so this is exciting!

M - Meow Wolf. I have always, for as long as I've known of the existence of Meow Wolfs (which is not very long, honestly, but still), wanted to visit one. And this year, I did, in Denver, with Sarah. It was really weird, and I loved it. 

N - New tattoos. I got a cat, in honour of the fact that strangers email me all the time now about the cat in I Think We've Been Here Before. I also got an hourglass and some rosemaling.

O - Okay. So here is a story about scissors: I went to Nuit Blanche with my friend Sarah, and there was a guy there giving out free freezies. I took my freezie and said to the guy, "Thank you. Do you have scissors? To open this freezie?" The guy looked sheepish and said, "No, sorry, I feel really stupid every time someone asks me that. I did not bring scissors. You'll have to take that freezie home, I guess, and open it with your own scissors." It was a hot night, and I was thirsty, and I really wanted to get into this freezie. I tried tearing it open with my teeth, but the plastic was way too strong. I couldn't do it. I carried this thing around with me for a couple of hours, gnawing at it like a rodent. Finally, I'd had enough. Exasperated, I threw the freezie in a garbage can. I could've taken it home, but I was tired of carrying something around that I really wanted but could not have. I sighed as I threw it away and said, "Ugh, my kingdom for a pair of scissors." So here's where the story gets weird and slightly unbelievable, but you'll have to just believe me because why would I make this up? A few minutes later, literally minutes, you guys, minutes after I threw my freezie in the garbage and said my kingdom for a pair of scissors, Sarah and I walked past this table in the park. Just a random table in the middle of Victoria Park. 10:30 PM. And the only thing on this table was, you guessed it, a pair of scissors. Like, I think I manifested them? 

P - Parties—or, to be more precise, galas. In the month of May, Barclay and I attended three galas—one for his work, one for mine, and one fundraiser. We are not gala people, so we had to go out and buy gala clothes and gala shoes and gala makeup (me). It was fun, but a little bit stressful because I'm not a super fancy person.

Q - Quite a lot of public speaking again this year. I thought it would be a quieter one because I didn't have a book release, but that didn't end up being the case. Lots of book clubs, podcast interviews, readings, random other speaking gigs and occasions. I continue to be more and more comfortable in front of people, and this continues to be a thing that makes me really happy, a thing that still surprises me, that a person can be so scared of something but then do it enough that it actually becomes—dare I say it?—enjoyable. 

R - (City of) Regina Writing Award. I did not win this! Courtney Bates-Hardy did! (And she deserved it.) But I was a runner-up, so I got to go to the awards ceremony and read from my [as yet unpublished] novel. I did win a writing retreat at a monastery! Cool!

S - Saskatchewan Book Awards. I Think We've Been Here Before was nominated for four Sask Book Awards: The Book of the Year Award, the Fiction Award, the City of Regina Book Award, and the Publishing Award. It even went so far as to win in one category, which was really neat. There was a gala in Saskatoon and Barclay and I made a little weekend out of it. 

T - Toured the Globe Theatre. I got a DM on Instagram one day from an account called Hidden Regina, out of the blue, asking if I'd like to go on a tour of the Globe Theatre here in downtown Regina. I was like, "Well yeah!" So I did that. 

U - Upset about...baseball???!!!?? I, and a whole bunch of other Canadians who normally do not care one iota about sports, got really, super invested in the Toronto Blue Jays this year. It was surprisingly fun, and time will tell, but maybe I'm a sports person now.

V - Vancouver! We hopped on a plane and went to Vancouver in July. It was the first Big Family Vacation we've taken since Scarlett joined our crew, and, therefore, the first time she's ever been on a plane. Barclay's sister lives out there, so we stayed with her for a week. It was really lovely! And now the kids, having had their eyes opened to the possibility of air travel, just want to fly everywhere.

W - Wrote The End on a new book! More on that later!

X - XXXVIII (I turned 38) & XVI (Barclay and I celebrated 16 years of marriage)

Y - Yes! I said yes to every single fruit I saw in the grocery store which I had never tried before. This was the year of rambutan and lychee and prickly pears and and pomelos and a few others I can't think of right now. (This is also the year I discovered I'm mildly allergic to pomelos.)

Z - Zipped off to Medicine Hat for my Grandma's birthday party. Almost the whole extended family on that side was there. That's a LOT of people. It was so good to see all of them again.

THE ABCS OF 2024

Well there's another year gone. It flew past, a racecar. 

Or am I the racecar? Or maybe time is the car and the year is the track and I'm in the car? No, I think time is the track. The year is the vehicle that carries us through time. Right? Or is time the vehicle that carries us through the year?

This metaphor is not great. I'm spending too much time on it. 

No, that's it, actually: time is the fuel in the vehicle. The track is the year and the time is the fuel and I'm the bobblehead figure on the dashboard. Who's driving? It seems to be one of those autonomous cars. Terrifying concept, but probably safer than having me behind the wheel.

Anyway.

Once again it's time for the annual ABCs of post. I love writing these; I have done it for many years (since 2016, to be exact). You should do it too. They're fun to read at the end of each year—and helpful. I find that the years have started to literally blur together and I can't always remember which important things belong to which years. 

So! Ahem:

A - Arlo! My sister had another adorable baby. It feels like you should get used to babies, the more of them you meet. You should get used to how tiny and perfect they are, to their impractically-sized nostrils and hilariously small toes, to the way they look like all these other people you know but still manage to be a brand new special-edition never-seen-before human being. But somehow they just get more miraculous, the more of them you meet. 

B - Birthday filling. I went to the dentist on my birthday for a filling. I asked him, before he froze my mouth, if I'd be able to eat right after and he said, "Yes, why?" And I said, "Because I'm a dummy and I made plans for a birthday lunch right after this." And he was like, "It's your birthday?!" And I was like, "Yup!" The hygienist said she thought it was ridiculous that anyone would schedule a filling for their birthday, and I was like, "Well, I was just hoping this place had one of those deals like at Starbucks or Dairy Queen where you get a free filling on your birthday. And she laughed and I laughed but then when I went to pay at the end I found that the dentist had discounted me $300 off the price of the bill (I do not have dental insurance) and the receptionist said, "He said to tell you it's your free birthday filling." And the hygienist said, "Well good, because no one ever comes in here on their birthday." And I said, "Well from now on I am ONLY coming in here on my birthday."

C - Conferences: I got to take part in the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild's annual conference, on a panel with my friends Iryn Tushabe, Rhea McFarlane, and Peace Akintade-Oluwagbeye. I also went to a literary conference at the RPL and Talking Fresh in the spring. 

D - Did a lot of interviews—podcasts, TV, radio, internet, in person, and newspaper. I tried to count them up, and I can think of almost 20 but feel like I'm missing some. 

E - Enjoyed my summer. For the most part, this year, I was able to just hang out with the kids and have a real summer (with a few stolen hours here and there to get work done). The summer of 2023, my edits schedules destroyed any semblance of relaxation, so this was loooovely. 

F - First Reads. I Think We've Been Here Before was selected for Amazon's First Reads program in the States, which means that it was available one month early, as an ebook, for anyone who subscribes to Amazon Prime. This was my third time in the program, and it's always such an honor (and a rush).

G - Grant! I got my first ever arts grant from SK Arts to take a book-related trip in 2025—to Denver, Colorado! More on that in next year's ABCs Of post, hopefully.

H - Hiking. People from mountainy places would maybe take issue with this one and say I should move it down to W and just call it walking. But I already have one for W and we did find a few places to "hike" in Saskatchewan this year. Our hills may be tiny but shut up; they count.

I - I Think We've Been Here Before was published, first in Canada in September, and then in the rest of the places in December. I had a party in November and so many wonderful people came out. 

J - Just taught one writing workshop. The people I met that day were so lovely. I don't think teaching is for me, but I'm glad I did it.

K - Kept on doodling on sticky notes to try to keep my brain fresh.

L - Live music: This year, the only live music I saw was at festivals! Cathedral Village Arts Festival (Marissa Burwell, Andy Shauf, Natural Sympathies, lots of other sweet bands), Regina Jazz Festival (my mom's cousin's husband's jazz quartet played a set in a park on a rainy day and that was lovely), Shake the Lake (Steven Page, George Thorogood and the Destroyers). I continue to be sad about how scarce live music has been in my life since about 2020. This year! This is the one! Bring back the music!

M - Met so many author friends IRL—such a treat, for a person who lives in the actual middle of nowhere. Amber Cowie came to Regina in the spring, and then when I went to Toronto I met Samantha Bailey, Marissa Stapley, Kerry Clare, Sherri Vanderveen, and Vikki VanSickle. Robert Penner flew in from Winnipeg to go on tour with me, and I know she's from Weyburn, which isn't very far away, but I met Victoria Koops this year too! 

N - News! My most exciting news in 2024 was probably the thing about my book being optioned. It was very fun to announce that and be excited with everyone. I reeeeealllly hope to have more exciting news on that front in next year's post.

O - On TV! Was pleasantly surprised a few times to hear that my book went on TV without me. This is my preference—not being the one on the screen, but still getting the publicity.

P - Public speaking. Dare I say that this is the year I finally conquered my fear of talking in front of people? This has been on every single ABCs list I've written since V&V first came out and I recognized both my intense fear of public speaking and also the frequency with which I would have to do it if I were to hang out in the author sphere. I had, for a while, begun to believe that my lot in life was just to be perpetually in panic attack mode, but I had an event just the other night and at one point I picked up my book to read from it and realized, with shock and awe and excitement, that it wasn't shaking in my hands. Like, at all. This is a huge deal for me! 

Q - Quantum Entanglement! This was the year of it. And hopefully every year from here on in also is.

R - Read lots of books. I don't know how many. Lots! Not lots compared to some people, but so many compared to others.

Or!

R - Russian copies of Valencia and Valentine landed in my mailbox.

S - Started working, EXTREMELY part time, for Barclay's landscaping company. 

T - Toronto! I still need to do a whole blog post about that trip. What a daydream come true. 

U - UM! The lovely people at Indigo put my books at the front of the store by the cash register. Thrilling, truly.

V - Voted! It felt like there were a lot of elections this year. Three, I guess? We voted in the ones we could vote in and tuned in to hear the results. 

W - Worked on three books. Finished none of them. That's okay! I was busy doing other things.

X - XXXVII (I turned 37) 

and 

 

X - XV (Barclay and I celebrated our 15th anniversary!)

Y - Yes! We started doing Fart Walks with the kids. I saw a lady on Tik-Tok talking about the benefits of a post-supper walk, including steady blood sugar, better mood, increased circulation, and smoother digestion. She and her husband go every night and they call them Fart Walks, because of the digestion thing, I guess. I don't know about noticeable benefits, but I'm sure they're good for us. And like, one time, it was raining when we left and Sully said, "Well. I guess tonight we're going for a wet fart walk," and that was gross and funny and we all laughed and I've heard that laughter is the best medicine. 

Therefore, fart walks are the best medicine.

Z - Zapped my friends in lazer tag, competed against them at that live video game place (the name of which escapes me right now), did an escape room, went to a dance party, and went to the arcade SEVERAL times. Apparently this was the year of acting like a preteen? Wonderful.

Okay! I'm sure there were other notable things about this year, but those are the ones that I thought of today. Tag, you're IT.

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 - Tattoos. Got a couple.

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.