Goodbye old Spiral Notebook. Now What?

After two years of transcribing, I'm done. A new chapter begins.

Did you ever start a project with no idea where it’s going?

That was me two years ago, posting my very first entry on Substack. I was looking for a new blogging home, having discovered that all the words I had left on other platforms were essentially stuck there in perpetuity. I was especially sad about 23 Sherwood Drive, my long-ago journal on Blogger. It was a silly little personal thing, my diary from 1964-65, transcribed every day, usually with a comment or explanation from my 2006 self. It was read mostly by my daughter and her soon-to-be husband. On November 24, 2022, I decided that I also had something to say, and so the new 23 Sherwood Drive began here on Substack. First, it was just the three Jos (1964-65 Jo, 2006 Jo and present day Jo) but after few months other Jos joined in. (I had over 30 notebooks and online diaries, spanning almost six decades.) Eventually it was re-christened “Spiral Notebook”, because present Jo is a long way from the teenaged Jo who lived on Sherwood Drive.

Now, I am done transcribing. I’ve destroyed the hard copies, and am looking forward to the NEW Spiral Notebook, which begins in January. (Don’t worry, the complete 366 days of Spiral Notebook will be in the archive, and I also have my own copy.) But this newsletter will begin to reflect my current life and activities: more drawing, more poetry, and lots of stories.

Happy New Year, whatever comes.

The authors.