Day 21 of #HooklandChristmasTree. Midwinter. Only one ornament is apposite - the porcelain Bone Horse Grigest - the grey mare of winter. Clip-clop, clip-clop, where will the Bone Horse stop? Roast your ale, make sure your torch is alight, the Grisgest roams tonight. #WinterSolstice

I've had a great time selecting some pieces to mark the solstice and year's end at @necessaryfiction.com, and am grateful to the writers who shared their work. Here is the first gathering of lights, with three more to follow in the days ahead.

there is a crack in everything / that's why

Happy #WinterSolstice. Today's #LentoAdvent day 21 theme is 🌇 sunset 🌅 Did you see a particularly amazing sunset this year? Or enjoy or make some sunset art? Please share with alt text.

In other solstice pleasures, BBC Sounds may be gone in the US (boooo!) but their adaptation of The Dark Is Rising remains available for listening.

I've had a great time selecting some pieces to mark the solstice and year's end at @necessaryfiction.com, and am grateful to the writers who shared their work. Here is the first gathering of lights, with three more to follow in the days ahead.

You will be haunted by three spirits

Are you a writer who can't get away for a residency? Spend your holiday break at Barrelhouse Write-in’s Imagine Cabins Writing Retreat! Join us between Christmas & New Year’s in a (make-believe, Zoom-based) Imagine Cabin in the woods, and get some writing done! www.barrelhousemag.com/writeins

Be on the lookout for a carrot-infused xenomorph out there somewhere

'tis the season to be annoyed that publishers sell their backlists in poorly printed, thin papered, hard to read, unpleasant to touch POD editions and you don't know which books you asked for are going to get that cruel treatment until it's too late

Poetry mashup: a mind of winter doesn’t love a wall

My most fundamental belief is that we do not have to live like this.

Universal sign

Something reminded me this morning of this song and its brilliant album, to which it is has been too since I listened

ending the day doing clumsy things to a tune that deserves to be heard like this instead

"I don't know what most things are called in fiction, being a writer and not a scholar; I am, as a colleague once suggested of creative writers in a literature department, an amoeba teaching in a biology lab." —Elizabeth McCracken, A Long Life

Triptych

Over at NF we've offered our annual list of book recommendations. Two of mine are from big publishers and I'm as surprised as anyone!

The Ghost of Christmas Present appears in the form of a Cool Teen. He keeps saying “you’re killing it, bro” and “no notes,” but you’re pretty sure he’s fucking with you in some way you don’t understand.

Get festive, friends, get festive

happy first annual spin of The New Possibility: John Fahey's Guitar Soli Christmas Album to all www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qkw4...

looking very much like the grinch, sir, wonderful, they're saying nobody has ever looked more like the grinch

Imagine a slower, simpler, and sloppier version of Reischman's tune and that's what I'm up to as the day darkens

Untitled Light snow falling at sunrise—enough to obscure the identity of a line of tracks emerging from under the house. In the patch of dead bracken, one frond sways gently on its stalk.

VIP tree

Playing chess in a beautifully rendered park with an AI reconstruction of my deceased grandfather. I think of all the things I never got to say to him, and also review the DLC hat options

What is the opposite of rage bait? That's our word of the year.

As the backyard growth of summer and fall dies down, all the dog's lost tennis balls come into bloom.

Easing into the short Thanksgiving break by spending the afternoon trying to pick up this tune (without sounding like John Reischman, alas).

coming to a mailbox near you in the next 2-4 weeks (eurozone and UK subscribers should have copies in the next ten days, US and Canada in the next three weeks, outside Europe and North America in the next four weeks). it's a volume of #AbundantNumber that can only be described as "frenetic"

This was a lovely part of my December last year and I'm glad to see it return. Perhaps your inbox could use some poetry, too?

POSSIBLE NEW IDIOMS: Baby’s gone absolute brush bristles Soup’s too thick Rhinestone choker & gun in the garter Kkssh! Check your upstairs window. & THAT’S a Uruguayan mouthful Picnicking the analysis Shaking a pie tin while saying you’re Stevie Nicks Loper, loper, time to get a corset

The stump detective is on the case.

The rest of the human family are out so I'm doing normal stuff, i.e, playing Nic Jones songs and trying to get the dog to sing along with me

#Hookland calls for aid.

Solstice submissions are open for a few more days. Folklore! Snow! Wild creatures! Cabin fever! Coffee with a little something extra in it, perhaps, to soften the dark hours until a late dawn?

New perspective on things.

I'm reading submissions of short solstice writing for the next few days, so hold up your candles and walk into the woods.

We come upon the scene of a ritual, and nearby its sign

Goodnight from The Sisters fish and chip shop, where the pickled goose eggs are sold-out due to rumour they cure lover’s droop. Goodnight from the steps of the Foundling Hospital at Coreham, where the temporal shades of abandoned babes wail for their mothers. Goodnight from Hookland.

I'm reading submissions of short solstice writing for the next few days, so hold up your candles and walk into the woods.

Well that's a lovely thing! I'm honored and grateful to @barrelhouse.bsky.social for publishing my essay, and for this nomination. www.barrelhousemag.com/blog/issue-2...

That’ll do nicely, thanks

Very exciting news about Elisa Gabbert's next book forthcoming from @fsgbooks.bsky.social

On the sidewalk I saw two women approach each other to talk, one wearing a leopard sweater and the other a leopard skirt, and as they drew together it felt like I'd encountered Voltron in the wild.

If somebody local and fun wants to see Bruce Molsky and Darol Anger at Passim on Sunday (and who wouldn't?) they should buy the seat sharing a table with me.

In a couple of days I'm going to open a quick, experimental call for very short, solstitial submissions at @necessaryfiction.com, something I've wanted to do for the past couple of years but didn't quite get it together. Further details TK.

If somebody local and fun wants to see Bruce Molsky and Darol Anger at Passim on Sunday (and who wouldn't?) they should buy the seat sharing a table with me.

Boston: I'm excited to announce that Winter Night Hikes are back for the 2025-26 season! And we're kicking off this round by soaking up the briny magic of Dorchester Bay from two altitudes on Wednesday 11/19 at 6pm! Come out and meet fellow adventurers walkingcitytrail.substack.com/p/upcoming-e...