Category Archives: News
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day 2024
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Charles Ray – Lifetime Achievement Award
Congratulations to fellow writer and blogger Charles Ray!
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March 2024 Literary Calendar
Events in the month of March for writers and readers
National March into Literacy Month
National Reading Month
Small Press Month
- March 1-7 – National Ghostwriters Week
- March 1 – Fredric Chopin’s Birthday; International Hug a Librarian Day; Plan a Solo Vacation Day; World Compliment Day
- March 2 – Theodore Seuss Geisel’s (Dr. Seuss) Birthday; Read Across America Day
- March 3-9 – Read an E-Book Week; Returned Borrowed Books Week
- March 3 – Alexander Graham Bell’s Birthday; I Want You to be Happy Day; If Pets Had Thumbs Day; World Book Day (Ireland and UK)
- March 4 – National Grammar Day
- March 7 – National Cereal Day
- March 8 – International Women’s Day
- March 9 – Amerigo Vespucci’s Birthday; Get Over It Day
- March 10 – International Day of Awesomeness
- March 11 – Worship of Tools Day
- March 14 – Albert Einstein’s Birthday; Johann Strauss’ Birthday; National Write Your Story Day
- March 15 – Everything You Think Is Wrong Day; Ides of March
- March 16 – Everything You Do Is Right Day; Freedom of Information Day
- March 17-23 – World Folktales and Fables Week
- March 17 – St. Patrick’s Day
- March 19 – International Read to Me Day; Let’s Laugh Day
- March 20 – First Day of Spring (Northern Hemisphere); First Day of Fall (Southern Hemisphere); Extraterrestrial Abductions Day; International Day of Happiness; World Storytelling Day
- March 21 – World Poetry Day
- March 22 – As Young as You Feel Day
- March 24 – Harry Houdini’s Birthday
- March 26 – Robert Frost’s Birthday; Tennessee Williams’ Birthday
- March 29 – Smoke and Mirrors Day
- March 30 – Vincent van Gogh’s Birthday; I Am in Control Day; Pencil Day
- March 31 – Johann Sebastian Bach’s Birthday; René Descartes’ Birthday
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February 2024 Literary Calendar
Events in the month of February for writers and readers
African-American History Month (U.S.)
Library Lovers’ Month
- February 1 – Abolition of Slavery Day; Change Your Password Day; Decorating with Candy Day; National Dark Chocolate Day; National Freedom Day (U.S.); Spunky Old Broads Day; World Read Aloud Day
- February 2 – James Joyce’s Birthday
- February 3 – Norman Rockwell’s Birthday; Take Your Child to the Library Day
- February 4-10 – Children’s Authors and Illustrators Week
- February 7 – Charles Dickens’s Birthday; Sinclair Lewis’ Birthday; Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Birthday; World Read Aloud Day
- February 8 – Jules Verne’s Birthday
- February 9 – Read in the Bathtub Day
- February 12 – Judy Blume’s Birthday; Charles Darwin’s Birthday
- February 14 – International Book Giving Day; Library Lover’s Day; Valentine’s Day
- February 15 – Galileo Galilei’s Birthday
- February 18 – Toni Morrison’s Birthday
- February 19 – Amy Tan’s Birthday
- February 20 – Ansel Adams’ Birthday; President’s Day (U.S.); World Day of Social Justice
- February 20-26 – Freedom to Read Week (Canada)
- February 21 – Erma Bombeck’s Birthday; International Mother Language Day
- February 22 – Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Birthday
- February 25 – Pierre Renoir’s Birthday
- February 26 – Tell a Fairy Tale Day
- February 27 – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Birthday; John Steinbeck’s Birthday
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Happy New Year 2024!
“May all your troubles last as long as your New Year’s resolutions.”
Joey Adams
“New Year’s resolution: to tolerate fools more gladly, provided this does not encourage them to take up more of my time.”
James Agate
“Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on.”
Hal Borland
“‘Out with the old, in with the new’ is a fitting expression for a holiday that is based on vomiting.”
Andy Borowitz
“Happiness is too many things these days for anyone to wish it on anyone lightly. So let’s just wish each other a bile-less new year and leave it at that.”
Judith Christ
“I would say, ‘Happy New Year,’ but it’s not happy; it’s exactly the same as last year except colder.”
Robert Clark
“If you want an interesting party, combine cocktails and a fresh box of crayons for everyone.”
Robert Fulghum
“He who breaks a resolution is a weakling; he who makes one is a fool.”
Farquhar McGillivray Knowles
“I made no resolutions for the new year. The habit of making plans, of criticizing, sanctioning and molding my life, is too much of a daily event for me.”
Anaïs Nin
“The proper behavior all through the holiday season is to be drunk. This drunkenness culminates on New Year’s Eve, when you get so drunk you kiss the person you’re married to.”
P.J. O’Rourke
“Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365-page book. Write a good one.”
Brad Paisley
“Come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all unkindness.”
William Shakespeare
“It wouldn’t be New Year’s if I didn’t have regrets.”
William Thomas
“New Year’s is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks, and friendly calls and humbug resolutions.”
Mark Twain
“My New Year’s resolution list usually starts with the desire to lose between 10 and 3,000 pounds.”
Nia Vardalos
“Youth is when you’re allowed to stay up late on New Year’s Eve. Middle age is when you’re forced to.”
Bill Vaughan
“Deep breaths are very helpful at shallow parties.”
Barbara Walters
“This New Year’s, I was going to make a resolution never to be late again, but I didn’t wake up until January 2.”
Melanie White
“Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.”
Oscar Wilde
“Making resolutions is a cleansing ritual of self-assessment and repentance that demands personal honesty and, ultimately, reinforces humility. Breaking them is part of the cycle.”
Eric Zorn
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January 2024 Literary Calendar
Events in the month of January for writers and readers
National Braille Literacy Month
- January 1 – J.D. Salinger’s Birthday; Copyright Law Day; New Year’s Day
- January 2 – Isaac Asimov’s Birthday; National Science Fiction Day
- January 3 – J.R.R. Tolkien’s Birthday
- January 6 – Carl Sandburg’s Birthday
- January 9 – Judith Krantz’s Birthday; National Word Day; Poetry at Work Day
- January 14-20 – Universal Letter Writing Week
- January 16 – Martin Luther King, Jr., Day (U.S.); Book Publisher’s Day
- January 12 – Jack London’s Birthday
- January 18 – A.A. Milne’s Birthday; Thesaurus Day
- January 19 – Edgar Allan Poe’s Birthday
- January 23 – National Handwriting Day
- January 24 – Library Shelfie Day
- January 25 – Robert Burns’ Birthday
- January 27 – Family Literacy Day (Canada); Nazi Holocaust Remembrance Day
- January 31 – Zane Grey’s Birthday
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Merry Christmas 2023!
“I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.”
“Christmas: It’s the only religious holiday that’s also a federal holiday. That way, Christians can go to their services, and everyone else can sit at home and reflect on the true meaning of the separation of church and state.”
“It’s always consoling to know that today’s Christmas gifts are tomorrow’s garage sales.”
“Santa Claus has the right idea. Visit people only once a year.”
“Christmas is a baby shower that went totally overboard.”
“The main reason Santa is so jolly because he knows where all the bad girls live.”
“What I don’t like about office Christmas parties is looking for a job the next day.”
“It’s easier to feel a little more spiritual with a couple of bucks in your pocket.”
“It’s Christmas Eve! It’s the one night of the year when we all act a little nicer; we smile a little easier; we cheer a little more. For a couple of hours out of the whole year, we are the people that we always hoped we would be.”
“There are three stages of man: he believes in Santa Claus; he does not believe in Santa Claus; he is Santa Claus.”
“I love Christmas. I receive a lot of wonderful presents I can’t wait to exchange.”
December 2023 Literary Calendar
Events in the month of December for writers and readers
Read a New Book Month
- December 1 – World AIDS Day
- December 2 – International Day for the Abolition of Slavery
- December 3 – International Day of Persons with Disabilities
- December 4 – Wildlife Conservation Day
- December 5 – Walt Disney’s Birthday; International Volunteer Day; World Soil Day
- December 6 – Ira Gershwin’s Birthday; Joyce Kilmer’s Birthday
- December 7 – Hanukkah; International Civil Aviation Day; National Letter Writing Day
- December 9 – John Milton’s Birthday; Christmas Card Day; International Anti-Corruption Day; International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide; National Llama Day
- December 10 – Emily Dickinson’s Birthday; Dewey Decimal System Day; Human Rights Day; International Animal Rights Day; Nobel Prize Day
- December 11 – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Birthday; International Mountain Day; UNICEF Birthday
- December 12 – International Day of Neutrality; International Universal Health Coverage Day
- December 13 – National Day of the Horse
- December 14 – Nostradamus’ Birthday
- December 15 – Bill of Rights Day
- December 16 – Jane Austen’s Birthday; Ludwig van Beethoven’s Birthday; National Chocolate Covered Anything Day
- December 17 – National Maple Syrup Day; Wright Brothers Day
- December 18 – International Migrants Day; National Twin Day
- December 20 – International Human Solidarity Day
- December 21 – Crossword Puzzle Day; Look on the Bright Side Day; National Short Story Day; Summer Solstice (Southern Hemisphere); Winter Solstice (Northern Hemisphere)
- December 22 – National Short Person Day
- December 23 – Robert Bly’s Birthday; Harriet Monroe’s Birthday; National Roots Day
- December 24 – Mary Higgins Clark’s Birthday; Jolabokaflod
- December 25 – Christmas Day
- December 26 – Boxing Day; Kwanzaa
- December 27 – International Day of Epidemic Preparedness
- December 28 – National Call a Friend Day; National Short Film Day
- December 29 – No Interruptions Day
- December 30 – National Bacon Day
- December 31 – Henri Matisse’s Birthday
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Happy Thanksgiving 2023!
“If you stand in the meat section at the grocery store long enough, you start to get mad at turkeys. There’s turkey ham, turkey bologna, turkey pastrami. Someone needs to tell the turkey, man, just be yourself.”
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Moving Forward
Today marks 60 years since one of the most fateful days of the 20th century – the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. I wanted to republish this essay from a decade ago. A good deal has changed – for me and this nation – in the decade since I first posted it. But one thing remains certain: time always moves forward and our hope for a better world never dies.
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Chief Writing Wolf 