I’m going to write something each week and publish it on this blog, each time taking some inspiration from a playing card and a letter of the alphabet. If I can keep it up for a year, I’ll have gone through the deck once and the alphabet twice, and I’ll be back in the habit of actually writing instead of just telling people that I used to write.

Usually I will post on Sundays, but I will begin with the Joker on February 29. Those of you who have read The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder will understand why. In subsequent weeks I’ll make sure each piece is somehow inspired by, or makes reference to, a different card. I’m going to interpret that pretty loosely to start with, because I’m not even sure I can produce something once a week, and I’m not sure yet whether the extra constraints are going to inspire or constrict me, or conspire to instruct me. So sometimes I’ll let them restrict, sometimes they’ll let me respire.

Joker Day is today, which means I have less than five hours to finish my composition and post it. I intended to have it finished already. I also intended to have finished the new versions of my other websites by now, so that I could link to them from here, and would have fewer other things competing for my time. Maybe after a year, I will be out of the habit of leaving things till the last minute. Maybe not. Check back soon.