For various reasons, a sizeable portion of my family moved to the suburbs of Houston in the last year! My parents have found a retirement community, one sister has moved with her family to Spring, and the other sister has moved with her family to Katy. I’m here visiting now that everyone’s moved in and the dust has settled a bit.

As I write this, I’m sitting in my sister’s guest room (read: my nephew Peter’s room; thanks for letting me temporarily displace you, Pete!). Both of my sisters (and their husbands) are great cooks! There are also some excellent restaurants around here, and we found a farmer’s market nearby where we picked up some incredible garlic jam, some marvelous BBQ sauce, and some absolutely killer brisket and cheese tamales. They might be my favorite so far.

In other news: we’re planning events for the release of Let’s Make Cocktails! for the spring! There will be at least a few events in the Chicago area, and probably elsewhere around the Middle West. If you’re a bookstore that might be interested in a signing or talk for Let’s Make Cocktails!, just let me know!

In other, other news: I don’t have a lot of details to divulge yet, but I am actively working on the pitch for a new comic book cookbook and I’m ⭐extremely, extremely psyched for this project.⭐ It’s already so much fun, and I can’t wait to tell you about it!

Shameless Self-Promotion:

You can always buy books and prints (and holiday cards!) from me here: any book you purchase through my site will arrive signed with a cute little doodle. And you can always buy books and tote bags and other sundries from me at Threadless! Threadless is once again having a pretty great sale with $15 Tees + other discounts!

The Only Upcoming Thing:

December 6: I’ll be speaking on a few panels and selling books and prints at Sulzer Regional Library in Chicago!

What I’m into lately:

I’m going to double down on Rachel Harrison’s Play Nice this week! I’m close to the end and I’m really loving it. The haunted/possessed house is truly terrifying at times, and the interpersonal family drama is unnervingly real and intense. I’m also a real sucker for a story-within-a-story. I’m listening to the audiobook, which is very well done, but I think I need to pick up a physical copy just to see the demon-annotated commentary on the novel within the novel.

What Toki’s into lately:

I’m not home! I don’t know! He’s probably being extra clingy with Niles and meowing a lot. In the meantime, please meet my sister’s cat Mister Buttons, who is a very dapper and chill little gentleman with dainty be-gloved paws. His interests include sitting in sunny windowsills, and kibble topped with just a soupçon of Delectables squishy meat.