I’ll be honest with you. I’ve spent way too much of my precious life paying attention to things I have no control over.

I’m finding that simple pleasures are the key to my happiness. I’m writing—though most of it stays in the “draft” folder. I’m also knitting, working out with my trainer twice a week, and binge listening to the Thursday Murder Club series.

I resisted Thursday because I tend to be skeptical of runaway bestsellers—my taste doesn’t tend to run in the same direction. While I love a cozy mystery, there’s a fine line between cozy and fluffy, and I worried Thursday might cross it. Finally, after five years, I gave in—and they’ve been an absolute joy, with intricate plots, nuanced characters, and loads of humor. Sure, there’s blood, but never excessive or gratuitous—the Brits are much better at that than the Americans. The movie adaptation is coming out on Netflix this year.

I’ve been collaborating with Joan Lunden on her legacy memoir, which will be published in March of 2026. Joan was the longest-running female host ever on early morning television, and her post-Good Morning America career has been equally fascinating and full.

I’ll let you know when she settles on a title and cover design. It’s been a deeply satisfying project—not just because Joan is as delightful in person as she is on TV, but because distilling her life and accomplishments into 100,000 words was a rewarding creative challenge.

Without giving anything away about the book, approaching her life as a story—even a novel—helped us pinpoint the defining moments that best capture her remarkable journey. Just as novels have key themes, so do life stories. If you’re writing a memoir, thinking of yourself as the protagonist in a novel can give you the emotional distance needed to focus on the most essential moments and themes of your life’s journey.

I wrote about this in my recent newsletter with an example of how to do this using The Wizard of Oz as an example.

Traveling to Arizona via Roswell, New Mexico

After finishing Joan’s memoir I’ll head out to Arizona on my motorcycle to spend time with family. It’s been six years since I crossed the Mississippi River on my bike and that’s much too long. This time of year I plan to take the southern route and I’m thinking of stopping in Roswell, New Mexico. Why? Because I am a connoisseur of roadside kitsch and conspiracy theories.

Speaking of the latter, If you’re unfamiliar with what happened at Roswell in 1947, near what was then Roswell Army Air Field (later Walker Air Force Base), here’s the recap. A rancher named Mac Brazel discovered strange debris on his property and brought it to local authorities. The Army Air Forces briefly announced they had recovered a ‘flying disc’ but retracted that statement within a day, explaining that the debris was from a military weather balloon. Flash forward to the 1970s, and Roswell became ground zero for claims that the government was covering up evidence of an alien spacecraft—and possibly even alien bodies.

Here’s an interview with Garrett Graff, who wrote about Roswell and the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence in, UFO: The Inside Story of the US Government’s Search for Alien Life Here — and Out There. According to the author, Roswell conspiracy theories contributed to the rise of the so-called “deep state” in American politics. “The foundation of our modern conspiratorial age in our politics begins in the wake of Watergate with UFOs…You don’t get January 6th and the big lie in the 2020 election without the foundation of those UFO conspiracies in the ’80s and ’90s.”

Whatcha Watching?

Staying with conspiracy theories, here’s an Apple TV show steeped in them, Prime Target.

Edward Brooks is on the verge of a major mathematical breakthrough. If he succeeds in finding a pattern in prime numbers, he will hold the key to every computer in the world. Soon, he begins to realize an unseen enemy is trying to destroy his idea before it’s even born, which throws him into the orbit of an NSA agent who’s been tasked with watching and reporting on mathematicians’ behavior.

If you appreciate the Coen brothers’ dark humor and storytelling, and the quirky art direction of Wes Anderson, I have a show for you. Tree on a Hill (original Welsh title ren ar y Bryn) combines dark humor and complex character interactions with a stylized portrayal of community life. I watched it on Brit Box, and if you don’t have a subscription, you can get a free trial. It’s also on Amazon Prime and Roku.

The pacing is much slower than we Americans seem to crave, but I couldn’t stop watching and was rewarded with a literal “bang” in the last ten seconds.

Until my next update, I hope you’ll find something crafty to do with your hands that will keep them from doomscrolling.

Godspeed!

If you’ve been missing me on “the socials,” most of my online activity is at my two free email newsletters. I narrate every newsletter, so you can listen in the Substack app or in your favorite podcatcher.