We have a new Pintopia project! My co-creators in our new partnership (called S’mortal Wombat after our first joint project, S’moregasbord) are offering a new set of enamel pins and vinyl stickers for 2026, celebrating resistance, resilience, and renewal. Please check them out and see if anything catches…
Wrap-up? Get it? Gift wrap? I kill me.
Also, we collectively killed that fundraising goal!
It’s snowed.
We had a proper snow this time, probably about 5″ (a little less than 15 cm, in my rough mental rounding). The dogs are indifferent to the snow but are annoyed at the cold and would like me to fix it. I have not been able to oblige. I did build a nice wood fire for sitting in front of, and that has helped.
I’ve been participating in Giftmas, raising charity funds with other authors, for — wait, that can’t be right. A decade? Really? That’s amazing. Most of that support has gone to the Edmonton Food Bank, occasionally elsewhere, and I feel good about that.
Our Giftmas theme this year is connection, and I’m not sure what to write about that. 2025 has been rough, right from the start. After a whole year of 2025, it’s hard in December, and especially this week for personal reasons, to think about human connections.
So, I’m building an ecosystem.
I needed a mental health project, something where I could see tangible results for my efforts and feel I was actually accomplishing some good, and a bonus would be something that was physically tied to my locality. I decided to expand my fight against our local invasive species into a prairie restoration.
Now, to be clear, my particular neighborhood was never high prairie, not the kind you’re thinking of with bison and grizzlies. (Yes, grizzlies were once plains animals, before they were pushed out!) Indiana did have bison, as seen on our state seal, but my county was historically closed canopy forest, often over bogs and fens, and our state grasslands were a different kind of prairie than what people usually picture.
The forests have been fully clear-cut, no original woodlands remaining, and the bogs and fens mostly filled in or drained. I can’t restore an old growth forest in my lifetime — but I can recreate another environment we also had in central Indiana, and bringing back restored native grasses and forbs (wildflowers) is practical and useful, even without a bison to browse it. My restoration is really more of a recreation, but it will benefit both pollinators and people.
Every year, I offer to send Christmas cards to anyone who wants one. I’ve sent cards nearly all over the world (still need Africa and Antarctica), and it’s been great fun.
The last couple of years, we’ve had several card tiers to choose from, whether a totally free card or a handmade card with ornament, bookmark, or story to help defray the costs of cards. This year, due to some outside constraints, we’re going to have only the free cards.
Let’s go!
I recently turned in a short story which featured a natural gas fire burning eternally in deep in the forest. This was based on real life sites, but when I started reading up on this rare phenomenon, it was slightly less rare than I’d thought! Here’s a quick…
Thanks for participating in my quest to find an extra book box a suitable home! A winner has been selected. To keep it fair, this was the process: The name to which the books were already signed was Lisa. I had four Lisas back the campaign — thank…
Enter your guess at what name is in the books’ inscription, and the winner will receive a free box of books and swag!
While signing and shipping to fulfill the Backerkit campaign, I ended up signing an extra set of books to the same name. Honestly, one bonus signing is a pretty good error rate among so many packages, but now I have an extra set of books. Ordinarily I’d donate them to a library or one of our semi-regular tell-me-where-to-donate-a-book polls, but I thought it’d be fun to play a little game.
Let’s guess the name in the books!
The Eyes of Mandoral are creeping into the world. The Poet’s Eye and The Prince’s Song have been delivered in ebook form to all campaign backers, and paperback fulfillment is being assembled. (Hardbacks and special editions are in transit to me.) Physical print copies will not be available…
Our new collection of gothic winter tales is out–and sleighing. (Yes, I did that.)
But seriously, it hit #1 on Amazon’s horror list at release.
