We’re officially past Halloween and rocketing toward the Thanksgiving/Christmas season, which means it’s time to start thinking about your holiday shopping.

In all seriousness, you might want to focus on getting your shopping done ASAP. With the pandemic ramping up again, brick-and-mortar stores might be impacted — or at least, highly undesirable places to be — which means folks will be turning to mail-order again, and the US Postal Service has been experiencing slowdowns in service for a few months now. That’s only going to get worse as the holidays draw nearer.

A further recommendation: do as much shopping as you can with small businesses and independent artists. Major chain stores are better able to endure lean times than local mom-and-pop businesses, and I include indie artists in that category. Every sale is someone’s rent or grocery money, so make sure to spend some of your holiday budget on them.

And remember: throughout the pandemic, you’ve been relying heavily on the arts to keep you going, so perhaps it’s time to pay that back a little.

To that end, next week I’ll be posting a holiday gift guide filled with items created by independent artists, so give that a look and think about picking up a few things for your loved ones. Thanks!

WRITING PROJECTS

Action Figures – Secret Origins: On hold until 2021.

Action Figures – Issue Ten: Unintended Consequences: Second draft is finished. Tentatively set for a winter/spring 2021 release.

Action Figures – Issue Eleven: Draft one underway. Scheduled for a winter/spring 2022 release.

The Action Figures Omnibus – Volume One – Stepping Up: The omnibus is fully edited and formatted, and is now awaiting cover art.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Sworded Affairs: Audiobook recording is underway. Tentatively set for a fall/winter 2020 release.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Elfish Motives: Second draft of book five undergoing beta-reading.

APPEARANCES & EVENTS

• Nothing scheduled

MISC.

The New England Speculative Writers group has a new preview book for newsletter subscribers. Pick it up and read the opening chapters to Well-Behaved Women – Awakening and other stories.

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