In this letter:

 

* Where I've been the last four months.  

 

Photo of the night sky in Chile by Jim Barringer, Joyce's husband.


March 30, 2015

 

Dear Friends,

 

There is a reason why you haven't heard from me in a while.  

 

Last November, four days after getting his mountain bike tuned up to tackle the steep trails behind our house, my husband Jim was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. 

 

In the four and a half months since then, my focus has been on Jim, and seeing him through a very tough course of treatment.  This is a bad cancer, but we are not even close to giving up.  

 

As much as I wish we were back on that hilltop in New Hampshire where we stood together reading each other our marriage vows just a year and a half ago, this experience has been filled with lessons and even gifts.  I don't think I fully understood what it was to be a partner, or to have one, before I came face to face with the prospect of losing this good man I waited so long to find. 
Jim and Joyce, on their recent trip to Chile.

 

We are fighting hard here.  And meanwhile, we are living our lives, with an awareness of how precious ever day is.  (This should be true for us all, of course.  Whether or not we've taken on a battle with cancer.)  In February, Jim joined me in Guatemala after my annual writing workshop on Lake Atitlan -- always a wonderful, inspiring time.  We plan to be back there in November, and again in February for more workshops there.  

 

And two weeks ago, we flew to Chile together on a travel assignment.  (Check out the photograph Jim took of the night sky.  I've never seen so many stars.)

 

Though Jim is on the toughest chemotherapy regimen they have for this cancer -- in the hope of shrinking the tumor to qualify for surgery -- he made it 12,000 feet up into the Andes, and I was there at his side.  The hardest trek of my life.  No, cancer is harder, and making it to the summit after six hours of climbing showed us we are equal to that one, too.

 
Joyce and Jim at the summit of their hike in the Andes.

There is much more to say, and eventually I will.  For now, I thought I'd share with you an essay of mine that ran a few weeks back in the  Boston Globe , along with  the story of our hike into the Andes.

 

I want to add that I always love hearing from you, and I never fail to read an email from the readers in the group who receive this letter, who feel to me like friends.  Please forgive me if I can't write back, though I will try. 

 

And I hope you'll take a look at my upcoming appearances and workshop opportunities on my website. This coming Thursday, April 2, I'll be reading and speaking at Yale University -- the Pierson College Common Room on the Yale campus, at 6:30 pm.  On April 25, I'll be at the Newburyport (Mass.) Literary Festival.  And for those who live in the SF Bay area: on May 1, you can attend what should be a terrific event, part of my ongoing series of monthly interviews with authors at the Lafayette, Ca. library. 

 

And if you're looking to work on writing:   I'll be hosting a one-day memoir intensive at our home in Lafayette, California, on May 23.  Or join me for ten days on the lovely island of Patmos, Greece, from June 29 - July 9, for a salon-style gathering all about writing and storytelling.  Details to come at Goodworldjourneys.com.

 

Finally, I'll be back in the beautiful coastal town of Rockport, Maine for two weeks, hosting two different sessions of my five-day memoir workshop at the Maine Media Workshop. 

 

Publication of my new novel, Under the Influence -- originally scheduled to come out this May -- has been delayed until early next year.  My desk and my laptop will be there when I'm ready, but right now, I'm focused on living.  I know you'll understand. 

 

With warm friendship as always

 

Joyce Maynard