Get set for the holidays!

Yes, it's that time of year. Christmas is just around the corner, and to get you in the mood for the holidays we've started our run on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. The work is in five "Staves," each of which is quite substantial. As we did with Sleepy Hollow, we will be rather arbitrarily breaking each stave into more manageable chunks. This will enable us to stretch the story out longer, but it will also make it easier for daily reading.

Really the reasons for starting this holiday run in mid-November are purely selfish. First, I love Christmas, and if I could start decorating in October I would. Fortunately my wife keeps me sane in that area. Secondly, by starting earlier we'll have a chance to take a break during the last couple of weeks in December. We don't take holidays around here, so this is our chance to enjoy the fruits of our labours. Finally, it gives us a chance to stretch out our material a little.

Twenty-Thousand Leagues is at long last nearing completion, and will end this week. At the Earth's Core and Gulliver's Travels are likewise close to their conclusions. Once these three novels have concluded, it will be nothing but Christmas until we retire for the holidays. New Christmas stories will be published starting next Monday, with an extra collection of short stories and poems added as a bonus feature.