Dear Side Questers,

This morning is coloured all in shades of blue. There’s fresh snow on the ground and the sun is a timid thing yet.

Exciting things have been happening. Last spring, I wrote an essay and submitted it to a call for writers and artists to respond to L. M. Montgomery’s 150th Birthday. A peer review process soon followed, which was an interesting experience from a fiction writer’s perspective. Several different editors prodded my piece into their journal’s style by tweaking commas, asking questions, making sure this is really what I meant (it was). The editorial process always fascinates me, so seeing behind the veil into nonfiction was a fun romp. Part of me is still amazed they accepted my essay, but it’s out in the world now, and if you’d like to read it, here is a link to it on the Journal of L. M. Montgomery Studies website.

I think the essay reflects the way I’d been watching the Christofascism rising in North America with growing concern. Taking the first, deliberate steps to stop being triggered and start speaking up. It’s fitting to me that the essay came out around the same time as I was launching Care and Feeding of Your Little Banned Bookshop. The novella was originally a short story, written a few years ago, but I didn’t bare my soul in the short story the way I do in Care and Feeding of Your Little Banned Bookshop. I think I needed to be a little radicalized by current events to finally dig that deep.

The response has been truly wonderful. A writer and teacher I admire listed Care and Feeding of Your Little Banned Bookshop as his #1 for 2024, I’ve had a few cult survivors reach out (this meant the world to me), and more than a few private messages from people who were touched by it.

Reviews have been slowly collecting on Amazon. I’m still struggling to get Ingram sorted and I’m so sorry it’s taking this long, the holiday season has always been a struggle for me and I’m doing my best to reserve spoons for my mental health.

These are a few of my favourite reviews:

Thank you to everyone who has read and left a rating or a review so far, and especially to people who have been sharing this book with people they think would also enjoy it. Thank you for coming on this journey with me.

And, if you haven’t read it yet and are a bit curious, you can find Care and Feeding of Your Little Banned Bookshop right here.

As for this month’s side quest – it’s been marketing. I’ve been making videos and carousels, just doing my best to find the readers who might need this book as much as I did. There’s a decided learning curve, but I’m carrying on, allowing myself my mistakes.

One of the weirdest parts has been determining my “niche” without limiting myself. We’ll see how that goes…

This month has been wintry. A neighbour’s dog from up the mountain a bit has taken a liking to our porch and we often find him sleeping there in the morning, resulting in some rather stunning walks up the mountain for me as I attempt to take him home.

Have you ever seen needle ice? They are ice columns formed by groundwater that pop up above the soil and twist into strange ice flowers. I’ve been enjoying them during our freeze/thaw cycles of early winter.

That’s it for this month, Side Questers. Hold your loved ones close, 2025 is shaping up to be a bumpy ride and we’ll need each other to break through to the other side.

Take care and keep reading,