Dear Nancy,



In the tumultuous fall of 1939, with war looming in Europe, Ursula Parrott wrote to the writer Alec Waugh (whose papers are at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas), that



“the 1920s and the 1930s with no tomorrow ever guaranteed [and] the bombs always bursting in the not too remote distance, have probably been as exciting an era in which to live one’s life as any since time began. We saw so many things without faith in anything. We loved so many people, meaning only to love one—the one we usually never met. We spent a lifetime’s emotions in twenty years, and had the twenty years, after all.”



Her summation—equal parts reality check, regret, and gratitude for having been part of an unprecedented age—seems like a fitting way to close the year. It is certain that 2023 was my year of all things Ursula Parrott.



I did 12 podcasts about Ursula and the 13^th will come out on in January.



I did events in Raleigh (NC), Cary (NC), College Park (MD), Greenbelt (MD), Washington DC, Silver Spring (MD), Chapel Hill (NC), Bloomington (IN), Cleveland (OH), Milwaukee (WI), Madison (WI), Los Angeles (CA), Hollywood (CA), Westwood (CA), New York City (NY), Astoria (NY), Lansing (MI), Chicago (IL), Durham (NC), and Boston (MA).



I published 2 Ursula articles, one in LitHub and the other in The Conversation.



BIG REVEAL #1: “Becoming the Ex-Wife” will be coming out in Paperback in late summer/early fall 2024! I’m so grateful to my editor, Raina Polivka, and the folks at UC Press for caring so much about my book and Ursula’s legacy.

BIG REVEAL #2: I’ve begun wrapping my head around my next book project, a biography of Dorothy Arzner, Hollywood’s only woman director of the 1930s and 1940s. Arzner directed films starring Katharine Hepburn, Joan Crawford, Clara Bow, Lucille Ball, Maureen O’Hara, and Claudette Colbert.  After my batteries are recharged, I’m excited to dive into her amazing life and accomplishments.



For now, I want to thank everyone who came to or hosted an event for me this year, listened to a podcast or read an article, bought a copy of my book, wrote a review online (which it’s not too late to do if you haven’t), or read the McNally Edition reprint of Ex-Wife and shared your enthusiasm for Ursula on social media. I am grateful for all of the opportunities I had this year to tell Ursula’s story and for the many people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting along the way.



If you are looking for a holiday gift, my local independent bookstore, So & So Books, who hosted my launch back in April, has signed copies of “Becoming the Ex-Wife” (I’m happy to personalize them too) and they will ship anywhere in the U.S. I’ve loved working with so many indy bookstores this year—they care so much about authors. Let’s help them keep their doors open by buying local!



If you’d like to continue to get more Ursula updates, please consider following my Ursula Instagram account since I will only be doing newsletters on occasion going forward.



Take good care and I hope you have a wonderful holiday season.

 
Sincerely and Gratefully,

Marsha Gordon

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