On miniatures and other things

What I did over winter break

I wish you a happy and healthy new year.

DUET FOR ONE has its birth-day on May 6, 2025. I look forward to taking the journey with you.

Over the holiday break, I caught up on some reading. Below I’m holding THREE GUESSES, Chris McClain Johnson’s beautiful cream puff of a book, coming out in June. Definitely pre-order it! (The tuffet was made by my dear friend Nancy as a housewarming present. I feel very lucky!)

I was also delighted to catch up with extended family in Washington, New York, and Philadelphia. I visited my treasured Auntie Char, the remaining sibling in my father’s generation. Auntie Char keeps a volume of the complete Jane Austen on her walker, replete with red ribbon and gold rimmed pages.

Being with Auntie Char is bathing in a fountain of love.

Some of you may know that I am crazy about miniatures. Our family visited the holiday show at the U.S. Botanic Garden on the National Mall, which, in addition to spectacular plant life, has a yearly display of miniatures of many of the iconic buildings in Washington.

Cacti at the US Botanical Garden.

Here’s a mini-replica of the Capitol made entirely from plant life.

And speaking of miniatures, here are my daughter Naomi’s amazing ceramic minis of THREE MUSES (the real book is in the back of the first picture for scale.)

I can’t explain why I’m so fixated on miniatures. But it got me thinking—I’m going to need to focus on the micro this year. The macro overwhelms me. To me, the micro means the close-in, the beloved, the meaningful. Family and friends, continuing to try for the creative life, seeing art, reading…. You know what I mean!

(And baking, of course.)

Cake I baked for our New Year’s Eve with friends.

If you live in the DMV, please join me at People’s Book in Takoma Park, 7014-A Westmoreland Avenue, Takoma Park, MD at 6 PM on January 16, where I will be interviewing Varun Gauri about his wonderful debut novel, FOR THE BLESSINGS OF VENUS AND JUPITER.

Love,
Martha

P.S. ICYMI - here’s my most recent newsletter, “Overtures.”