“The Sugarplum Favor” — a Christmas story by Tad Williams

I hope you are enjoying the holiday, Festivus, Winterval, or whatever you consider this period of time. I am spending it mostly unplugged, an important thing I do not do often enough, but I had to plug back in to share this with you. I have been an avid fan of Tad Williams since discovering his Otherland saga, a science-fiction series I regularly recommend while never being able to adequately describe it. So when Deborah Beale, Tad’s co-conspirator and wife, tweeted about a new short story of his available for bloggers to post, I was absolutely thrilled to volunteer. And through the magic of the Internet, here it is. Tad Williams’ new short story collection, A Stark And Wormy Knight, is available now, worldwide, as an ebook, $4.99 (or equivalent) for...

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Posted on 24 Dec 2011 | 6 comments

On “Community” and Christmas episodes.

On “Community” and Christmas episodes.

When I heard that “Community” was doing a stop-motion Christmas episode, I started to worry. No, scratch that, I didn’t worry at all. If any show right now could do this idea justice, it would be this one. And it did. Normally I avoid treading into the territory of others’ opinions, but when I read things like “this just wasn’t as funny as the rest of the show has been” I become disappointed in the lack of appreciation for subtlety. Christmas episodes, even in comedies, have never been about bringing the funny. The whole point of a Christmas episode is the warm fuzzies, and this one had nuanced fuzzies, and even some downright sad moments that had my eyes a bit misty. Plus jokes. The show regularly makes me laugh out loud,...

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Posted on 10 Dec 2010 | 2 comments

a photo a day, day 26

a photo a day, day 26

For the photo a day meme: a photo of you at Christmastime. This was taken five years ago by my friend and former coworker AJ while we trimmed the Christmas tree. One of the best parts of working at that library was trimming the tree in our lobby each year. I have always loved holiday decorations, especially Christmas trees, and I look forward to having a tree to trim someday soon.

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Posted on 18 Nov 2010 | Comments Off

on holidayspeak

Yesterday, I tweeted: “In response to someone wishing me a merry Christmas, I said it back instead of wishing him happy holidays. I hope no one reports me.” As is usual for me, I neglected to be specific enough in 140 characters or less, and should have added a very important word to my tweet: accidentally. I did not think about saying “merry Christmas” in return; I just did it. As I was raised Roman Catholic, I celebrated Christmas for many years, and during that time wished people a merry Christmas. I was a child, and did not consider my wish to be harmful or prejudiced. As I grew older, I understood the implications of forcing one’s religious preferences on others, and changed my language accordingly. Even when the words lost...

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Posted on 10 Dec 2009 | 8 comments