And just like that, Dear Reader, here we are in 2025!

My friend Valerie Biel has just spent 2024 focusing her efforts as a writer and marketing guru on one word: MOXIE. She verbed a quirky noun and, by her own admission, “moxied the heck out of 2024.” And it seems to have worked out well for her.

This year her byword will be TANGIBLE. We’ll have to check back in January 2026 to see whether this new focus yielded any results that were real . . . concrete . . . touchable.

Reluctant though I be to jump on anybody’s bandwagon, even a good friend’s, I hereby announce (Ta-DA!!) the Larry F. Sommers Word of the Year for 2025: 

PANEL.

This word has a good start, for already, 2025 has given me two and one half paneling opportunities.

Merriam-Webster tells us that “panel” comes from Middle English panel, panele, pannel, meaning a piece of cloth. From an expanse of fabric it has come to mean a similar expanse of wood or other rigid material, as used in constructing houses, cars, etc. And since “a piece of cloth” may be a piece of parchment, used as writing paper, on which lists can be made, we get the idea of a jury panel—a list of jurors. And thus, by extension, almost any group of people gathered to inquire, consider, or discuss topics. 

It is in this latter sense that I have recently been, and hope further to be, impaneled. 

Panels were a standard feature of radio game shows, and then television game shows like What’s My Line? and I’ve Got a Secret, in the days of my misspent youth. 

Little did I dream that panels would become an important part of literary gatherings, book festivals, and publishing industry conferences. Who would have thought that Your New Favorite Writer—in the increasingly late part of middle age—would ever become that prized and valued thing: 

A PANELIST.

(We used to have a saying for this kind of surprise: “Six months ago I couldn’t even spell ‘panelist.’ Now I are one!”)

Yes, it’s true. At six pm Central Standard Time on January 14—just eleven hours after this item is posted online—I will panelize by the medium of Zoom on “The Art of Marketing Your Book.” 

As if I had a clue.

Dear Reader, I know a lot less about this topic now than I did four-and-a-half years ago, when I posted “Six Simple Steps to Literary Lionhood.” 

Why not click in on tonight’s Zoom panel so that you can achieve a like state of bewilderment? By the way, there will be four other panelists. Some of them may be able to tell you how to market your book. It’s worth a shot, right?

But my whole point is, I’ve been a Literary Lion for nine years now, and this is the first time someone has asked me to be on a panel. My ignorance must have reached the take-off point. 

Likewise, I’ll be an author-panelist at the Faith Forward Writers Retreat April 24-26 at Sparrows Nest at the Abbey, Sparta, Wisconsin. That one’s an in-person event. I don’t have a lot of info yet, but when I do, I’ll pass it along. For sure you’ll want to be there.

Wow, that’s two panels booked, and it’s still the first half of January. My paneling career is on the upsurge.

Yes, I know I said two and a half panels. That’s because the third one is not in the bag yet. Thus far, it’s merely proposed. But if that panel is accepted and booked—I’m on it. Don’t worry, I’ll let you know if it happens.

What’s the point of all these panels? 

Well, they’re meant to give aspiring writers some grounds for reflection, perhaps even hope, about the writing life, chances of publication, and possible ways to sell books. It’s that simple.

For Your New Favorite Writer personally, it’s a path to wider recognition—which, in turn, leads to a more satisfying journey, more opportunities for publication, and greater book sales. 

Ah, so.

At least that is the theory. 

So my leading theory at the moment is: BE A PANELIST.

It takes a lot of MOXIE. I’m waiting with bated breath to see if it yields anything TANGIBLE.

Don’t hold your breath. I’ll let you know.

Blessings,

Larry F. Sommers

Your New Favorite Writer