Day Twelve: X Marks the Spot

A Map of Antarctica, I guess
In which we discover the name of Pancake’s home village

Waddleberg. That’s the name of the place where Pancake the Penguin set out for her journey to find the mystical treasure chest that will give her the power of flight on Christmas Day. I’ve never heard of such a place, and it doesn’t come up when I do a search for it on Google Earth. I doubt such a place exists, particularly in Antarctica.

There is a forest called Snowflake Forest that will be part of the journey of Pancake and Pep, and apparently an icy monster lives there. Beware! I wonder what fate will befall our adventurers?

I am about 95% sure this adventure is happening on the land, and I still think it’s unfair that Pep the fish does not have a backpack with a land-SCUBA outfit. How is she supposed to survive on the land? Poor little fish.


In writing news, I submitted my 100th manuscript today! Now I’m going to take a break from submitting until the new year. My stats for the year (so far):

SUBMISSIONS: 100

ACCEPTANCES: 2

REJECTIONS: 87

OUTSTANDING SUBMISSIONS: 11

One of those acceptances, “Blank” is up and available on the Dark Recesses website (see my “Bibliography” page for the link). The other will be published soon in LOLCraft: A Compendium of Eldritch Humor, and when that goes live I will be sure to let you know. I had dreams of making a professional sale this year, but apparently that was not meant to be in 2022.

‘Tis a navigatable season for Holidailies!


Today’s entry in the Episcopal Advent Calendar reads, “Take a new or different route to work, or school, or out to run errands. See how using a different route requires you to see the world differently — to pay a different kind of attention. What do you notice along the way that makes you stop and take a second look? Does anything on this new route inspire your faith journey or remind you of lessons learned?”

This is a really difficult one for me to put into practice, since I work at home 100%, and my commute is literally from the bed to my workspace at the dining room table. Most days, I don’t go anywhere. I have plans to go to Target tomorrow evening, but that’s about it.

I’ll keep pondering this, though.

Day Eleven: Well, I Was Wrong

Papercraft fairy shaped like an ice cream cone, with cat in the background
The ice cream fairy! With bonus Potpourri in the background!

Well, there were no monsters in the mysterious ice cave. Instead there was an ice cream fairy named Nea. Now, I don’t know if the fae folk actually have outposts in Antarctica, or if they are as trustworthy there as their counterparts in other parts of the world (that is to say, not at all). In the picture above, you can see Nea the ice cream fairy, along with our foster kitty Potpourri.

Nea claims to know about the shining key that Pancake the Penguin carries. “But it’s been hundreds of years since I’ve seen one,” she says. This, of course, brings up the possibility that there’s a whole slew of these keys that open the treasure chest at the end of Pancake’s journey. Are there other adventurers wandering around, looking for keys and treasures that grant penguins the gift of flight on Christmas Day? Will there be a flock of flying penguins?

I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see.

But kids: DON’T TRUST FAIRIES!

‘Tis the season for fairy holidailies!


Advent calendar with three lit candles
It’s the third week in Advent, so we light the third Advent candle

Today is the third Sunday in Advent, but I didn’t go to church today, because we had people over for our monthly board game session. I’m a bad Episcopalian.

Today’s Episcopal Advent Calendar entry (worship) reads, “Imagine the faces you’d like to see at church — an all-star list of folks you want to worship with. This could be people you know from summer camp when you were a kid, people who might have already died, people you work with — all your favorites. Commit to pray for those folks this week. And make a commitment to ask one of your all-stars to come to church with you in the next month.”

I have a long list of “all stars”, people I’d like to go to church with, from friends to long-lost family. Most of my friends are either atheists or agnostic. I think my family is too. We’ll make something work, though.