Into The Holidays, Gently We Go
Welcome to the November 2025 edition of…
What I’m Into, What I’m Up To
#61
Okay, before I begin, a confession (the first of two):
Instead of writing this from scratch in my notes app (currently using Obsidian for fellow notes app obsessives), I basically started stream-of-consciousness writing the stuff I wanted to include in this month's update into ChatGPT, then copied and pasted one of my other email update/blog posts in so it could get a better sense of my usual format, style, and voice, then asked it to draft this month's email based on that.
I had to ask it to use more of my actual words because the first draft was just too professional and polished and concise (although you may have preferred it, to be honest) and generate a second draft, then I edited the stuff I didn't love and added a few other things I thought of.
What follows is me and Chat's collaborative effort...
Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow American readers—I hope you’re getting some time this week to rest, eat some fantastic home-cooked food, and maybe sneak off for a nice long walk and/or onto a comfy couch with a good book.
And to my Canadian friends—I was in your beautiful country for Canadian Thanksgiving with my fam this year, and, even though we didn't get to celebrate it in a Canadian home with all the trappings and trimmings, it felt special just to be there at that time (we didn't realize it until the day of).
What I’ve Been Into Lately
Apparently my current vibe is relaxed, gentle, slow stories, because that’s what I've been veering toward the past couple months.
Three Thieves, Vol. 1 & 2 by Scott Chantler
Kids’ fantasy graphic novels with beautiful art, interesting characters, and a fun story. I finished them and thought, 'I wonder if my kids would like these?' They did not, because apparently none of my three kids are into medieval fantasy tropes. Not enough vehicles or unicorns.
Days At The Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa
Wendy grabbed this one from the library, because it was really thin and had a cool cover. Not the kind of fiction I usually pick up, but enjoyable in a settle-in-and-relax-to-an-English-translation-of-a-popular-Japanese-novella kind of way.
A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny
Okay, second confession, Dear Reader: I listened to a mystery novel on audiobook during a road trip… and I really liked it.
In October, we went on a long road trip up north for a few events with friends and some exploration. Leaving Quebec City and heading back toward Maine, I wanted to listen to something about Quebec. I was thinking non-fiction history, but Wendy didn’t see anything interesting on Libby, so instead she started playing book two in Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache series (she had read the first one already), which takes place in and around Montreal.
It was a little slow and confusing at first since I hadn’t read the first one, but I got sucked in pretty quick and ended up finishing it on my own after we got back.
The Accidental Garden by Richard Mabey
Another gentle, relaxing, surprisingly compelling book about one man’s garden. Although... he's British... and the word 'garden' seems to mean something quite a bit more there than it does here (which I fully endorse, by the way).
The American Revolution by Ken Burns & Co. (PBS)
I’m two episodes into Ken Burns' latest doc and loving it. Out of all the films he's ever made, this is the one I've been most excited about watching. Colonial America is my favorite historical time/place and I really like the familiarity of a Ken Burns film.
Klaus (Netflix)
We watched this one again the other night, and it has officially taken a place in our holiday must-watch rotation. Beautiful artwork, funny, and a feel-good story about embracing a very imperfect place and working to make it better as a community. To me, it's the best of the Santa-Clause-origin-story movies.
Nobody Wants This – Season 2 (Netflix)
Still so good. I think this might be Wendy’s favorite show of all time, and one of a handful we both equally enjoy.
Sanibel (Prime)
A documentary about the island in Florida and the people whose lives were wrapped up in the seashell industry until the hurricane hit in 2022. We’ve spent time on Sanibel several times over the years (I bicycled the length of the two islands, Sanibel and Captiva, a couple of times—not as impressive as it sounds, but a cool, fun ride), but haven’t been back since the hurricane, so the footage of the destruction was extra-shocking.
What I’ve Been Up To
I’ve been posting audiobook chapters on YouTube—one chapter per video. I’m trying this out as another way of pulling in potential readers/listeners/watchers for my books.
Playlist here—https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwTbgAFqBcsyRbP0NJOQna2RNKz3Nwjkt
I found another author who seems to be using YouTube really well to get people into his book series, and I recommend checking out his fantasy stuff—
I only listened to the very beginning, so I can’t personally vouch for the series, but the narrator’s voice (AI-generated) is one of the most listenable(?) voices I have ever heard—real or artificial—so it’s worth checking out for that alone.
SKYTRAILS is also available in these formats—
So however you like to get your story fix, SKYTRAILS will meet you there. Unless you—like me—get most of your books from the library. I'm still working on libraries and bookstores.
Two Small Favors
- If you’ve enjoyed any of my books in any format, the best way to help me keep making things is incredibly simple...
• Share the YouTube audiobook playlist with a friend who might like it.
That’s it. No pressure. Just a quiet nudge. Word-of-mouth from readers like you makes a huge difference, and I’m really grateful every time it happens. - I'm looking for a good name for this email list and the readers who read my books. D. J. J. Watson, who I mentioned above, calls his list The Legion.
The only thing I've been able to come up with so far is Freedom Guard, from Greysuits.
But it doesn't even need to be something from one of my books, just something that sounds fun and is relevant to the types of stories I like to tell.
That’s the update for this month. Fun stories, slow documentaries, a bit of history, and some new experiments in getting these books out into the world.
Thanks for being here.
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