Happy New(sletter) Year***!

***I agree that this joke would’ve worked better if I’d sent this out on January 1st.

SO IT’S A SHAME THAT JANUARY 2026 NEVER HAPPENED AND ALSO LET’S NEVER TALK ABOUT THAT AGAIN.

(If you had a nice January, that’s also okay.)

Moving on!

Keep Reading For

1. The Next Big Thing

2. Leaving the Evil Empire

1. The Next Big Thing

Folks who’ve been following along will remember that I’ve previously announced (both here and at the very, very back of A Dark Hole Darkly) that my next thing out is going to be a novella called:

And that is probably (!) still true, but also I have another next thing that I can start talking about:

I am excited to announce that I have officially started work on the third book in the Percival Gynt series.

(And yet again it is not Esme Klieg and the Vargoth Gor is Not Dead. Sorry, Esme! Your time will come.)

As I write this, I am three-ish chapters into writing the prequel to the prequel to Percival Gynt and the Conspiracy of Days that I teased in the end notes to Percival Gynt and the Inevitability of Fire and Other Cases:

It’s a boarding school adventure in the tradition of [NO ONE HAS EVER DONE THAT BEFORE, WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?].

I’m writing it for my kiddo, who’s ten, and for other ten year olds. But also hopefully other people who are older (like, 11?) will also like it.

It may include some references to pees and poops, but otherwise it will be very sophisticated.

Expect more updates and previews in the months ahead.

2. Leaving the Evil Empire

As an indie author with three books out and two more on the way, I’m always thinking, “What’s the one thing that I can do that’ll really boost my profile and turbo-charge my book sales???”

And the other day, it finally hit me: What if, instead of that, I did the exact opposite?

Long story short: For all the reasons, over the next couple of weeks, I’m going to be pulling my books off Amazon and taking down my Facebook author page.

My books will continue to be available through Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, and other vendors (including ebook only storefronts like Kobo and Itch).

And directly from me if you attend any of the in-person events I’ll be doing this year!

(More details on that to come.)

Will this oh-so-brave-and-principled act have any actual impact on anybody’s bottom line? (Besides mine?)

No. But.

This is 2026. And some days (most days?) the horrors of the world seem insurmountable. Like everything’s hopeless. Like there’s nothing you can do.

The way to fight off that feeling of paralysis, the only way to fight off that feeling of paralysis, is to do one thing.

Then, do another thing.

Then… I don’t know. Other things happen. LISTEN, I DO NOT LIKE PLANNING MORE THAN TWO STEPS AHEAD STOP HASSLING ME OLD-MAN!!!

(Sorry. That last bit was for… um… Gary Oldman, I guess?)

Anyway. Best way to follow me is still this newsletter and/or Bluesky.

Thanks for reading.

I’ll see you out there.