The End of an Era!

Hello (and goodbye, I suppose)!

If you regularly read the blog you'll know that we're closing up shop, and are all posting are last ever offerings to you fine folk. This is mine.

I would have had to, regretfully, leave after this last month of 2023, anyway, but I'm sad to know that it's all ending entirely because I enjoy reading everyone's posts each month. This year has been crazy, so packed with responsibilities, new things, and obligations. I've hit the point of complete and utter burnout, so much so that I've come to the reluctant realisation that moving forward in 2024, I'm going to have to drop some of the plates I've been spinning.

I'd like to thank Koz for inviting me on as a contributor a couple of years ago, and everyone else for having me in the clan, amongst all the other wonderful posts that I've got to live amongst. And obviously, to anyone reading - thanks for being here! I hope you've enjoyed my ramblings as much as I enjoyed writing them!

So to close out, I'd like to share the good word about one last thing, a festive book that I'm currently reading! John McNee's HAIL SANTA is currently available, and satisfies both my love of horror, and my extremely intense and all-encompassing love of Christmas!

Reject God. Worship Santa!

With a failing economy and dwindling population, the once-flourishing mining community of St. Nicholas in northern Canada is on the road to ruin.

That was until the arrival of the Bingzhen Group, a Chinese-American conglomerate with ambitious plans to buy the town and transform it into the most popular ski resort and holiday destination in North America.

With the deal done and Christmas approaching, the community is buzzing with excitement about the future and the influx of new residents, like Binzhen envoy Ling Wong, Scottish schoolteacher Shona Fleming, new school custodian Curtis Tate and a small army of contractors. What none of them realize is that St. Nicholas was never theirs to sell.

There is something else here which has long laid claim to the land. Something which has long held the town in its thrall and does not intend to give it up without a fight. Something strange and inhuman. Something cruel and powerful and very, very, hungry.

The children call him Santa Claus.

I'm only one chapter in and already I recommend it. The mystery, the scary folk-horror(ish - don't know where it's going yet!) vibe, and the tone it's written in is thoroughly entertaining!

If you want to check it out, you can find it HERE.

Okay, for the last time, that's it from me. Happy Holidays everyone, love to you all xxxxxx