It’s here! The Fall/Winter 2025 edition of Teach. Write. I hope you will take a look at it. Many fine writers from all over the globe have contributed poetry, short stories, creative non-fiction, and essays to this edition. You can find the journal here. For those who are not aware, I began Teach. Write. as part of this site in 2017. In 2023, to become a member of the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (clmp.org), I was required to create a separate website for the journal, but I am still the sole editor and publisher. I am grateful to have more time to dedicate to the journal now that I’m retired, and I hope that this edition demonstrates what I’ve been learning and attempting to put into practice.

Everyone told me I would stay busy during retirement, and that’s true. The difference is, however, I get to choose. Most things anyway. I certainly didn’t choose the health issues in my family, but I’m grateful to have the freedom and flexibility to go where I’m needed and continue most of the activities I want to do.

My biggest chosen project is my teaching memoir that is in the final stages of editing. It isn’t what I thought it would be, but with the help of a fine editor, it’s becoming better. Furthermore, the process is birthing new ideas and future writing projects that I may pursue.

I’ve also chosen to travel. I went to Davidson College for the Squire Summer Workshop, a program of the North Carolina Writers’ Network in July. In September I attended the Appalachian Writers Conference in Berea, Kentucky at the Historic Boone Tavern. I would have never been able to go to a September writing conference in the middle of the week while I was teaching.

Soon after I got back from Berea, my family traveled to Europe where we spent 16 days with my brother and his family in Nagold, Germany, right on the edge of the Black Forest and then a week in Provence. Magnifique!! Then, it was back to Nagold for a few days, including a trip to nearby Tuebingen, where my husbund and I spent an extended vacation when we were first married.

I’m in Alabama visiting family but soon I will be home in western North Carolina, choosing, God willing, to spend time with my husband and daughter, cuddle and play with my cat Flint, cook and bake, sit on my porch and read, drive up on the Blue Ridge Parkway to leaf watch, hike, help out as assistant stage manager for a stage version of Clue at the local community theater, meet with friends, and write, write, write.

I choose to do a lot, don’t I? Good thing it makes me happy.