I didn’t grow up in a winter place. The high plains of New Mexico got snow, sometimes, but it was a rare and fleeting thing — not the defining element of a season. It wasn’t until my 30s that I discovered I am a winter person. Lucky for me, since I now live in a Very Winter place.

The first snow of the season feels like an old friend, draping an arm across my shoulders. And if I will come to resent that friend’s lengthy visit by the time the last snow melts away in May or even June, I can’t imagine it yet. Not with the world a fantastical snow globe all around me.

As we wade into the deep snowdrift of The Winter Holidays, I hope this email finds you cozy. I hope it finds you surrounded by people you love. I hope it finds you searching for the light and the magic, and sharing them with everyone you can.

Winter is, ideally, a time for building ourselves back up. Wallowing in our provisions. Stretching out and slowing down. We rest. We take time for slow rejuvenation. We contemplate what has passed and take a deep, loving breath before we turn our attention toward what’s to come.

So, I’m not going to hurl a bunch of productivity metrics and stats at you. Instead, I’m going to share a couple of pieces of news, tell you about some of my favorite winter stories, and offer a list of other stories and art that have brought me joy. I hope they’ll be a comfort and a bright spot in the long dark.

December News!

My short story, “Music, Murder, Murmuration,” about a siren who gets kicked out of her family band and the lengths she goes to in order to sing again, was published in Haven Spec last month. You can now read it online for free!

I also started a new podcast with my friend Mona West. It’s called Unfortunately… and it’s all about failure in writing and publishing. The world is full of writing master classes, we wanted to facilitate a disaster class. Find out more and listen to our first three episodes here!

This last one is not even a little bit publishing related, but you all absolutely need to know that this month I celebrated my 8th annual Charlie Day (aka, the day I adopted my first dog).

My Favorite Winter Books

Winter is prime reading time, and over the last several years I’ve particularly enjoyed reading books about winter while winter rages on outside and I’m ensconced cozily inside. Here are my favorites:

• Early Riser by Jasper Fforde – everything Fforde writes is exactly my cup of tea, and this is exactly my winter cup of tea. 

• Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett – a fantasy classic that, in classic Pratchett fashion, manages to be cozy, hilarious, and thought provoking all at once. 

• Heather Fawcett’s Emily Wilde Series – especially books one and two. So delightful, and perfect for reading during a raging snowstorm and power outage.

December Recommendations

In case you aren’t the snowy sort, here are some other recent things I’ve really loved:

• BBC Scotland’s Dinosaur, which is available on Hulu, is a fantastic story about sisterhood and identity and autism. I have rarely felt so seen in mainstream media.

• TV on the Radio’s NPR Tiny Desk Concert! Wolf Like Me? YES PLEASE.

• The Framed Women of Ardmore House by Brandy Shillace – another story featuring an autistic protagonist. This novel’s representation of neurodivergent found family was on point, and heartwarming AF.

• A Dreadful Splendor by B.R. Myers – I listened to this gothic romance while carving linoleum for a block printing project, and it was a lovely spooky read.

Upcoming Releases

A few of this month’s recommendations aren’t available quite yet — but you can pre-order them!

• Swordheart by T. Kingfisher, a previously self-published novel getting re-released by Tor’s Bramble Imprint.

  • Halla’s surprised to inherit her wealthy uncle’s estate when he passes, despite the fact that she’s been the person caring for him during his waning years. What should be a positive thing quickly turns sour, with gold-digging relatives ready to take control of Halla’s life–and force her into a terrible marriage. While locked in her bedroom by said relatives, she discovers a magic sword––and an ancient swordsman bound inside it. With Sarkis at her side, Halla sets out to regain control of her life, and her inheritance. Along the way, Halla grapples with what it means to be a respectable widow and what she actually wants her life to be. I found the story cozy in the best sense––deeply substantive and meaningful within the scope of a single life and the lives it touches. The secondary characters are fantastic, and the world is brimming with interesting and horrible (delightful) things. I particularly loved the paladins.

• Direct Descendant by Tanya Huff

  • Cozy horror with a queer romance subplot in a small Canadian town? Count me in! Cassie Prewitt is the mouth of the dark, and as such she’s learning to live with her power and responsibility in a small town where everyone knows who she is and has preconceived ideas about how she’ll handle things. When a strange man comes to town and sacrifices himself to the dark, Cassie’s got to step up and quickly. But when Melanie comes to town not long after, sent by the strange man’s grandmother to find answers, things get complicated. Everything from the world-building to the characterization to the relationship dynamics was delightful–and delightfully creepy. One of my favorite reads of the year, hands-down.

• The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

  • Minerva is an international student, researching obscure horror novelist Beatrice Tremblay–or trying to. Most of the author’s papers are held not by a university but by private parties who won’t give her the time of day. At least, not until a chance encounter with the heir of one of those parties gives her the in she’s been looking for. But as Minerva’s research unfolds it reveals startling parallels between the stories her great-grandmother told her when she was growing up. And, perhaps more troublingly, the odd happenings she’s experiencing now. The Bewitching reminded me a little bit of A.S. Byatt’s possession if it had been populated by witches and the supernatural. Juxtaposing the oral tradition with the archival record and intertwining them with lived, in-the-moment experience was such a smart and compelling choice on the author’s part. The novel’s layered, interwoven stories are anchored in a stunningly rendered 1990’s New England college setting that creates a gorgeously gothic horror story with a compelling and poignant intergenerational plot.

Thanks for wallowing with me this year!

~Courtney