And now it's December...

The Winter rains are fully upon us here in Ireland, and this morning there was frost and ice everywhere. We don't get much snow here, but around the Winter Solstice, it will get cold enough to flurry a bit. It's enough to be beautiful and bring a smile to your face, but not enough to make slush. If I don't have to shovel the snow, I call that a win.

The lights in the town square are all up, along with a little nativity scene, making things feel pretty festive. The pubs have been busy with Christmas things and decorating their windows with Christmas artwork. I've even got fairy lights in my office! Although, I'll probably just keep them up all year. The lights look really cool on stream!

We're not doing anything particularly special for Christmas and New Year's, except to go and visit some friends and have a nice dinner at the local fancy restaurant for Yule. I was thinking of doing a Yule vigil this year, but I've decided not to. After all the events of the last three years for me personally, quiet holidays at home with the Wife is perfect.

This year's Diamine Inkvent Calendar has been an interesting one so far. I'm definitely getting the "Smokey Tobacco" ink in the larger bottle, as that's my favorite so far. I liked it so much, I put it in my Visconti Homo Sapiens pen! They've had some interesting pigment inks this year, too, and it makes me wonder if they're going to bring out a pigment ink line. If you want to follow along, do subscribe to the blog! The blog is free, and always will be!

I've been talking about this for a bit on stream now, but you'll notice that the eBook links have been taken down. I've gotten tired of Amazon and other digital sellers not really being great, and so I've decided to sell directly through Lulu.com. I hope to have the 2nd Editions of the first four Survey books out in the next few weeks, then Book 5, Nemetona out in February, along with Loba Hot Springs Book 1, The White Queen, as well. Survey Books 6 and 7 will probably be out closer towards late Spring. (This is another reason to subscribe to the blog, since then you'll know as soon as books are released.)

The audio versions of the first four Survey books are still available, if you prefer audio, and I plan to start reading Nemetona live on Twitch a week or two before the release date.

Speaking of Twitch, I'll be adding a Sunday stream starting in January as part of my January Slump Challenge, which is a month-long NaNoWriMo-style creative/work challenge. There will be a separate post about that next week. You can join in through the blog, through Twitch, or on my Discord.

And lastly, I've put out my pastoral shingle, and am open to doing spiritual direction and other pastoral care work for folks. If you're interested, feel free to contact me for more information.

I hope all of you have a very Blessed Yule, a Happy Christmas, and a wonderful New Year! May we all find some joy and comfort this season, despite all that's going on.