December 2025

 

It's December, and I'm going to put this post out on the solstice so I don't have to have it on the back of my mind over the holidays. I plan on spending time doing other things, thinking, and writing other things. 

For writing this month, I tried something new and basically narrated a folk tale about the origin of milk and cookies at Christmas time. It was a little tough because it's not how I usually write, but fun overall. Jen worked on some illustrations and carved the block print for the cover. We added a page at the front and made this month's zine our Christmas Cards this year. 

Jen also reached out to other folks on her friends list. For people looking for some weird Christmas cheer, we sent those who responded one of the zines/holiday cards as well. 

So this monthly zine thing may likely be a consistent thing for a little bit becasue its fun to work on these with Jen. Currently, the only way to get one is to reach out to us or pick one up from Ellard Studios in downtown Lewiston. We are trying to think of other ways we may want to share these, and maybe we'll figure it out. 

Part of the thought around zine distribution may involve creating a publishing company. We are still working on what that might look like, but if we can find time to make some stuff happen, there may be more details on that next month.  

Here are some books I read.

I finished the second book in the Indian Lake Trilogy by Stephen Graham Jones, Don’t Fear the Reaper. As I mentioned last month its Very Slashery and a fun read if you are a fan of Horror.

I'm reading the last book in the Indian Lake Trilogy now. The Angel of Indian Lake. It still has the same vibe, and if Stephen Graham Jones is not a smoker, he's likely a former smoker and misses it. So many words about smoking.

I am still reading Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríquez, and it’s taking forever, not because I don’t like it, but because it’s my nighttime read and I have not been getting to bed and staying awake long enough to get through a couple of pages at a time. It is a weird book, though, and pretty creepy. I’m very curious to see where it ends up.

Some movies/series watched.

Welcome to Derry - it's a pretty brutal show, lots of jump scares. I like that they built off from and used so many parts of the Steven King universe. Basically Maine. And having spent some time in Bangor, it's even easier to get into the spookiness.

The Conjuring, Last Rites - These are quality spooky movies; they are mostly the same as the last one, but like the Final Destination series, I don't mind.

Becky - While more of an action thriller, it was pretty brutal, so I'll nudge it toward the horror genre. 

Strange Darling - They made a point to note it was filmed on 35 millimeter, so already I'm going to go into it thinking it looked great, whether it did or not. It was an interesting twist/not a twist, but it did make me second-guess a few things. I liked it.

Thats it for December. Happy Holidays, regardless of what you celebrate. I hope you get some time to chill and reflect, and be awesome. I'll be trying to do the same.

If you are on BlueSky and interested, follow me here: https://bsky.app/profile/spwhite.bsky.social

This is an image of the block-printed covers of the Zine/Christmas Card/Story we worked on for December. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

June 2025

Image
It’s June, and I just nudged past a milestone birthday, so this will be a quick post so I can get back to some June vacation activities. Here are some books I’m reading and have read: Coffin Moon by Keith Rosson - I’m a little over halfway through it and enjoying it so far. I’ve liked the other books I have read by him as well. I just finished Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052–2072 by M.E. O'Brien and Eman Abdelhadi for our Difficult Books book club. It was an interesting look at a possible and likely more realistic outcome after a complete world government collapse. I like that folks band together to help everyone and themselves. While bleak, it was still better than the dystopias where it’s every person for themselves. This week, I’ll be starting the next book in the Difficult Books series, Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. I’m coming into it blind and don’t know what it’s about. I’ll also be starting To Be Taught If Fortunate by one of ...
Read more

April 2025

Image
It has been a cold, rainy, and snowy April in Maine. Just dark, dark, dark. We've needed house lights on and a fire almost every day for the first two weeks because the sun has not been around to warm things up. You'd think that would make me more productive in my writing, but guess what? Not really. I watched season 3 of Yellowjackets because what is more horrific than crashing a plane in the middle of nowhere with a thing that maybe or maybe not exist and requires the occasional blood sacrifice, and you and your friends have to decide who that is and then eat them - Quality Television. It was interesting to see them bring it back to the pilot from season 1. It's a good spot if they want to end it, but it also left open a bit if they want to run it for another season or two.  As for horror movies, I did watch 'In a Violent Nature'. It's basically a nature film, following our slasher protagonist walking around in the forest and doing slasher horror movie things....
Read more

March 2025

Image
  It's the end of March, and I managed to spend a little time editing a story to an ok point, so I'm adding a story along with a monthly update.  The story is called The Last Automator. I was thinking about how difficult it must be for science fiction and futurist writers who try to envision new technologies and incorporate them into their stories. Then, depending on how far into the future their story is set, you have to get it published quickly. That technology could show up, or a newer technology could show up that's better than what you envisioned, making the story a little weird.  The story is one of those. I wrote it in 2022 when robot process automation was all over the news. Then I sat on it for a year, and all the large language models started coming out, and that was it. My first sci-fi/futurist story is a little late to the game. I still like the story, and it's still worth a read, but I have massive respect for the dedicated science fiction writers racing to...
Read more