Weekly Roundup Vol. 14

Decorations and Housekeeping

Welcome! Hope you’re all having a wonderful holiday time. (Merry Christmas Eve!)

I’ve had some good writing time these last couple of days - writing about Roman Trier for my crystal short story in the larger novel I’ve been working on this year. Other than that it’s been a week involving lots of cloth and ribbons and wrapping paper and tape. It was also the Midwinter Solstice, and I watched English Heritage’s livestream from Stonehenge for the first time, though it focussed more on some Morris dancers rather than lining up the sun through the stones but it was still special.

Here on Substack, I released the last writing journey post to focus on my self-published universe:

And I released the last chapter of my novella Children of Shadows:

Speaking of Substack…

Most of you just receive this newsletter in your inbox, so this won’t impact you, but for the few reading this on Substack’s platform itself, I should bring this up.

Alex Segura

said it best in his recent post (go subscribe to him!). I share the same thoughts and plan on the topic:

HOUSEKEEPING

I should also note that recent comments from Substack’s leadership about their stance on the proliferation of Nazis on the platform have really given me pause about continuing to post here. I’m going to take the holiday break to mull it over, and I’m also looking at other platforms like Ghost or Buttondown (suggestions are welcome!). Haven’t decided anything, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t say something.

Some that I admire on Substack have completely left, others are carrying on without mentioning anything, but it is giving me pause. I was planning on slowing down what I release on here anyway. My serialised novella Children of Shadows is finished, and I’m not too far off finishing sharing my writing journey. One of the major benefits of Substack for me is that it’s free and easy to use, and I’ve only really just got started here. So yes, I’m mulling it over. At the moment I’m planning to continue the regular schedule next week, then in what will be a yearly roundup of sorts next Sunday, I’ll share my decision. The newsletter might go on a bit of a hiatus, or I might just continue my writing journey posts up to the present and have fortnightly or monthly roundups, either on Substack or with something else.

Anyway,

Christmas Stuff!!!

Hopefully this’ll lift your holiday spirits more than any newsletter drama. For a Christmas Eve special, I’m going to share the Christmas Lego, a collection that’s grown for ten years, that’s on display here (in retrospect I should’ve taken these photos last night but hey ho… ho ho). I think it rivals

Cavan Scott

’s!

First, here’s our Lego North Pole:

The only downside to displaying stuff like this is that you can’t see the lovely interiors of the buildings. Three big sets combined here, plus that smaller Gingerbread House in the bottom right.

This year was the first time we brought down the spare tree generously given to us by family, and it was a great opportunity to give it, and our Lego Christmas train, a time to shine, or choo.

With that controller the train does go round in a circle, the tree on it spins, and you can stop it at that station. Fun times. And as you may have seen on the wider tree shot, we have more Winter Village sets.

The carousel spins round with a manual lever, but that’s a special set as it’s the first big one we got, kicking off the tradition. We didn’t go for this year’s one though - basically no room and it was just another village house.

What we did go for again this year was the Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar - why not eh? I mean it combines two major aspects of my childhood which is nice to keep alive every year at this holiday time.

The highlight of this year’s was the Christmas Ewok!

Hopefully that was of some festive value on this eve. I normally share books I’ve gained the current week - none this week, though I’m sure this time tomorrow it’ll be a different story.

I have been reading this wonderful book though. What a wonderful father he was, Tolkien not Mr. Christmas. Each year he’d write wonderful letters to his children, and in typical Tolkien fashion they kept on getting longer, with more watercolour illustrations, wider story world elements, runic writings, goblins, new languages and cave art. Yes, cave art - he invented an ancient goblin cave art language for his kids to translate. If you know a bit about me and my writing, you’ll know it was a wonder to turn the page and see Tolkien-illustrated cave art - and I could recognise the different styles from sites around the world known to him in 1932… What was perhaps more special was his messages to his children reminding them there are many people around the world much worse off that need Santa much more than the Tolkien’s needed new Hornby trains.

I hope you and your family have a restful, rejuvenating, joyful holiday time. I’ll see you again next Wednesday for the writing journey post taking you through my process of writing the version of Children of Shadows that I’ve been bombarding your inboxes with.

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Thanks for reading! Let me know how your week went, if you feel like it.

Cheers,

Harvey