Every year, we try to get our Christmas tree and decorations up as soon as possible after the American Thanksgiving holiday. It just makes sense to do so, since in the USA this holiday is our only four-day weekend. And because Thanksgiving falls so late in November this year, if we dawdle on decorations, Christmas will be here before we are ready for it.

In our house, decorating for Christmas means at least two, possibly three, train sets…

This month I’m participating in the 100-word #adventghosts2024 flash fiction event run by writer Loren Eaton. You'll find links to all the stories participating in this event at his blog, I Saw Lightning Fall. Here’s my piece. Loren will be adding links to more stories as we get closer to Christmas, and as writers submit them. So be sure to check back. Here’s my story…

Here are my thoughts on the last batch of 10 stories of the 2023 “advent calendar” of stories published by WMG Publishing, as edited by writer Kristine Kathryn Rusch.

Just to remind you…

What is Christmas?

Good question. Technically, Christmas is the day on which Christians celebrate Christ’s birth. But like all things grown large in a troubled world, Christmas has become so much more…

I’m back with capsule reviews of the ongoing “advent calendar” of stories published this season by WMG Publishing, as edited by writer Kristine Kathryn Rusch.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, this writing project delivers a short holiday story to your email inbox each day from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day, 40 stories in all…

As of today I’m participating in the 100-word #adventghosts2023 flash fiction event run by writer Loren Eaton. You'll find links to all the stories participating in this event at his blog, I Saw Lightning Fall. Here’s my piece. Loren will be adding links to more stories as we get closer to Christmas, and as writers submit them. So be sure to check back. Here’s my story…

I’m back with capsule reviews of the ongoing “advent calendar” of stories published this season by WMG Publishing, as edited by writer Kristine Kathryn Rusch.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, this writing project delivers a short holiday story to your email inbox each day from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day, 40 stories in all…

I’ve long been a fan of the prolific writer Kristine Kathryn Rusch, who writes romance, mystery, SFF, and incisive nonfiction on the craft and business of writing. She and her equally prolific writer spouse Dean Wesley Smith offer the best craft courses for writers I’ve seen online. (I’ve taken 9 of them—I think.) For the last five years, Rusch has offered her Annual Holiday Spectacular, a kind of advent calendar that ticks off the days from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day, delivering a short holiday story to your email inbox of varying lengths and genres…