Hometown Block Prints

         This year I’ve turned to local points of interest and done two block prints depicting scenes from the town where I’ve now lived for the past 27 years.  The first is the cupolas from three of our important public buildings: the library, Town Hall, and the high school.  All three buildings began life with a Colonial Revival style, although all three have also acquired modern additions.  These cupolas, however,  are part of the original, beloved landmarks, and all three of these institutions have used their cupolas in their own logos.

        I just finished a second local landmark piece, and this one depicts Echo Bridge over the Charles River.  This majestic bridge was built to carry an aqueduct over the river, and it also carries a pedestrian trail along the top.  When it was built in 1876 its main arch was the second longest masonry arch in the USA and was apparently quite famous.  It was something of a tourist attraction because there’s a small platform at the base of the arch where one can stand to listen to the impressive echo that gives it its name.

        My depiction of Echo Bridge uses some artistic license.  For one thing, the bridge actually has seven arches and I wanted to give some suggestion of those arches even though they are not actually very visible in the summer.  On the other hand, I don’t go walking by the bridge very often in the winter when the leaves are down and the structure of the bridge shows better, so I’ve fudged my view a bit to place my scene in summer but still show multiple arches.  I’ve also used artistic license to clear away some shrubbery in the foreground in order to give a better view.  In fact it would be hard to get exactly this view these days, with lots of small trees and bushes sprouting up on the outcroppings where you’d have to be standing.  In any case, though, even if Echo Bridge is no longer a famous tourist attraction, it’s still a wonderful local spot and I wanted to capture its beauty for anyone who holds affection for it.

        On the down side, I didn’t capture quite the sense of lofty scale that’s part of what makes Echo Bridge so special, but on the other hand, I’m especially pleased with how all the trees turned out.  I experimented with quite a few different patterns and textures, and I studied the trees in blocks by a number of other artists I’ve shared here before (especially Charles William Taylor) to try to pick up some tips.  On the whole I think it was pretty successful.  I especially like the branches above the bridge at the top left!

        I recently heard of a call for art depicting the Charles River, and I was excited to submit this piece because it sounds like a very cool show that’s being put together and I’d love to be part of it.  But then I read the fine print and discovered that there’s a submission fee, so I will not be submitting after all.  I’ll take a little tangent right now to explain why I refuse on principle to submit to anything - art or writing - that requires a submission fee.

        1. Yes, I’m stingy and I dislike throwing money away.  I know that lots of people would consider this part of their publicity budget, but I don’t want to spend money that probably gets me nothing in return.  Short story and poetry submission fees are usually fairly low, in the $5 range, and one could certainly submit to a few of those things without breaking the bank, but art shows are much more expensive, regularly charging $20-50 per piece just to submit.  That adds up fast.

        2. It’s basically gambling, and I could just as well spend that money on a lottery ticket (another thing I don’t do, because I don’t want to spend money that probably gets me nothing in return.)  The call for artists or authors may be framed as if it’s not random like a lottery ticket, but in fact having my work selected is really pretty much a matter of chance.  Sure, there’s an element of basic intrinsic quality which, if you don’t have it you’ll definitely not be accepted, but it largely comes down to a matter of the judges’ taste.  I could be the most towering genius the world has yet known, but if the juror happens to have a taste only for pop art, or color photography, or edgy political art, or abstract mark-making, then my work is not going to be selected.  Moreover, most of these contests receive a lot more excellent work than they can accept, so even if the judge does really like my piece, they’ll be balancing it against everything else they want to accept.  Was there another black and white block print?  Was there another view of Echo Bridge?  All factors over which I have absolutely no control, so yes, I could just as well be buying a lottery ticket.

        3. To me, charging for submission is the mark of a scam.  Yes, I know that it’s pretty standard in the art world, and in the literary world there are a number of very prestigious, highly regarded, supposedly legitimate journals that charge submission fees.  (And contests pretty much always charge.)  But I don’t care how prestigious you are; if you fleece desperate artists and authors with no intention or expectation of giving anything in return, that’s a scam.

        4. Yes, I do understand that most arts and literary organizations aren’t rolling in cash, either.  If they’re going to pay editors or guest jurors, the money needs to come from somewhere, and maybe it sounds perfectly logical to charge the artists who want to be chosen.  But everything in me rebels at the injustice of taking money from the poorer, less successful, most desperate artists who will never benefit, in order to subsidize the successful, famous ones who are the darlings of the art world.  See point 3 above.  This is why we need public arts funding, private patrons, grants, and fund-raisers, and indeed an entire overhaul of the arts economy.  (Add the tsunami of AI “art” to the mix, however, and it’s pretty clear that things are going to get a lot worse for artists and authors before they get better.)

        Well, as I said, that rant was just a tangent, and the real focus of this post was meant to be sharing my two new prints!  Do you have any favorite local landmarks you’ve commemorated in art (whether that’s photography, watercolor, poetry, or whatever your medium may be)?

[Pictures: Points of Needham (Library, Town Hall, High School), rubber block print by AEGNydam, 2026 (Image from NydamPrints.com);

Echo Bridge, rubber block print by AEGNydam, 2026 (Image from NydamPrints.com).]

Statement on the Use of “AI,” and Other News

         As the dust settles on the A to Z Blog Challenge, the rest of my work continues as busy as ever.  This post, therefore, is dedicated to news and notices, and among these I think it’s high time I joined every other author and artist in the universe by making a statement on the use of AI.  Let’s start with some points about definitions and parameters.  1.  Even to call these programs “Artificial Intelligence” implies… intelligence.  Since humans have yet to figure out a clear definition for intelligence even among our own kind, I won’t get into the debate about IQ and Turing tests and all the other rigamarole about how to determine whether a machine (or any other entity) is intelligent.  I will say two things.  So far these systems seem to be purely plagiarism machines, and using them for plagiarism - which is theft - no matter how sophisticated, is morally unacceptable.  On the other hand, if they are intelligent and sentient, then keeping them as slaves to their corporate masters is certainly also morally unacceptable.  2.  Sure, there are absolutely amazing, world-bettering things that can or could be done with AI.  But when the entire system has been built on theft, and the entire system is being applied without oversight and purely for the profit of a few, then even the world-bettering uses become tainted by corruption.  3. Even within the category of “AI,” there’s a broad range of uses and applications, and the type that I’m talking about here is the “generative AI,” Large Language Models/LLMs.

        You can tell by the way I’m framing all of this that I’m not a fan of the use of generative AI for “creative” work.  First, there’s the issue that LLMs were built to steal the work of others without permission and use it to train themselves on plagiarizing that data to regurgitate it as “original” work.  But furthermore, if you prompt a computer to write a paper or a story or novel, and then you claim to be the author, you are lying.  If you prompt a computer to make a work of art and then you claim to be the artist, you are lying.  You’re also entirely missing the point of human creativity and human thought, which is simply sad.

        Unfortunately, AI systems are being crammed into everything, without permission, without choice, without the slightest consideration for what people actually need or want, and without apparent concern for ethics or even legality.  Therefore, I cannot say that I never use any AI of any kind, because it’s become so entangled into everything that I’m using it whether I want to or not, whether I know it or not.  That said, I can absolutely and unequivocally state that I have not, do not, and will not use generative AI in the creation of my own original work.  I do not use AI to draw designs for my block prints, for example, and nor do I use AI to draft, write, “make suggestions,” or edit any stage of my writing.  To the extent that I’m able I have turned off every AI option in the software that I use, or refrain from using those functions that utilize generative AI.  I want to exercise my own human spirit - my hands, my eyes, my brain, my heart - to create human works for the enjoyment of other humans.  I very much hope that I’m allowed to continue to do that, despite the best efforts of the big tech corporations.  Fun fact: did you know that if you end your internet searches with “-ai” it will (usually) not give you that AI summary that you didn’t ask for?

        And with that stated, let’s go on to other news…

        April being National Poetry Month, I once again wrote a Poem a Day, based on prompts provided primarily by NaPoWriMo and Writers Digest.  I’m sorry to report that this year I found myself struggling much more than last year, which was frustrating.  I’m not sure whether any of this year’s attempts will end up worth polishing and publishing, although perhaps a few will light me with some little spark when I go back and read them again.  You never know.  And of course when it comes right down to it, it’s the exercise that’s the point.

        I also had the opportunity to read my official Poet Laureate poem to my town at the kickoff of our Annual Town Meeting this month.  You can read that poem here.  There was a real theme in the meeting of keeping democracy alive, and I do believe that poetry, along with other arts, have a valuable role in that noble endeavor.

        Also, just in time for Mothers’ Day, I had my rubber block print “The Whole World” published in a very cool hand-bound Motherhood Anthology by little somethings press.  Because they’re based in Arizona I wasn’t able to participate in any of the workshops or events associated with the anthology, but I’m still very pleased that my artwork was able to be part of it.

        I do have exciting news about a couple of short stories that I hope to be able to share soon.  Plus I’ve got the Balticon sci fi/fantasy convention coming up in two weeks (May 22-25).  I’ll be participating virtually so I won’t get to be in the art show, but I’ve just seen my schedule and I’m very excited about the amazing panels I get to be on!  And then a week after that (May 30-31) I’ll be at Newton Open Studios, one of the three big “open studios” shows I do each year.  All good things, and I feel very lucky to be able to do this work!

[Pictures: Kraken, rubber block print by P. Nydam, 2025;

Photo of Needham Annual Town Meeting (I don’t know who took this photo), 2026;

Photos of Motherhood Anthology, including The Whole World, rubber block print by AEGNydam, 2008;

Including In the Margin, rubber block print by AEGNydam, 2024.]

Birds of a Feather?

         A fellow author I’m acquainted with posted a quiz like this on her Instagram a while ago and I thought it was a fun idea.  I’ve been waiting quite some time to do it, and since I’ve just started posting things for March Meet the Maker, it finally seemed to be the right moment.  Here’s how it works…

        I’ve chosen all kinds of little trivia facts about myself, and for each thing that you share with me, give yourself a point.  At the end, tell me how many points we have in common!  According to my calculation there are a total of 48 points possible, including bonuses, but admittedly there’s probably some ambiguity in how one could choose to count things.  That’s fine - the exact score doesn’t matter; it’s just about seeing how we connect.

        The funny thing about putting this together is that of course it’s very difficult and fairly arbitrary to try to pick a handful of things to share.  How can I choose just 9 favorite books, for example?  I first sketched these cards out quite a while ago and if I were starting from scratch today I’d probably make some different choices.  For example, it’s been a while since I even thought about “Ted Lasso,” but I left it on my list because I did enjoy it very much while it was on (and I don’t watch a ton of TV).  So while any list of this sort is woefully incomplete and hardly a perfect reflection, everything on here is certainly true and I stand by it!

I should also note that the items are in no particular order on each card.  So, are you ready?

        Here we go:

1. BOOKS

     Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

     Frances Hodgson Burnett, A Little Princess

     Becky Chambers, A Psalm for the Wild-Built

     Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth

     Dorothy L. Sayers, Lord Peter Wimsey Series

     Josephine Tey, Brat Farrar

     J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

     Terry Pratchett, Night Watch Series

     Ursula K. LeGuin, The Tombs of Atuan

2. ON-SCREEN

     “Casablanca”

     “Raiders of the Lost Ark”

     “Much Ado About Nothing”

     Wallace & Gromit

     “Ted Lasso”

     Brokenwood Mysteries

     Archaeology Documentaries

3. MUSIC

     Dvorak (especially Symphonies 7 & 9)

     Simon & Garfunkel (especially “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” and “The Sound of Silence”)

     Vivaldi (especially The Four Seasons)

     “I Will Survive” Gloria Gaynor

     Mendelssohn (especially Symphonies 4 & 5)

     Cheesy 80s Music

     Beethoven (especially Symphonies 5 & 9)

     Big Band/Swing

     Assorted…

     +1 Bonus if you play the cello

4. RANDOM LIFE FACTOIDS

     Artist (+1 Bonus for relief printmaking)

     Author (+1 Bonus for writing poetry, speculative fiction, or happy endings)

     Parent (+1 Bonus for twins)

     Quaker

     Teacher (+1 Bonus for teaching middle school or art)

     Amateur Linguist (+1 Bonus for having a degree in linguistics)

5. ASSORTED LOVES & INTERESTS

     Libraries

     Backyard Wildlife

     Mythical Creatures

     Octopuses

     Quiltmaking

     History

     Daffodils

     Purrs

     Houseplants

        (And of course since these are things I love, many of them have shown up in this blog before, so I’ve linked a few things that seemed related.  And if you want to do it on Instagram, you can find that here.)

        How did you score?  I can’t wait to hear how much we have in common!

#MarchMeetTheMaker2026 #MarchMeetTheMaker

News Round-Up

         It’s time for updates on a whole slew of recent projects…

        1. Back in December I participated in “Speed-Date a Book” with Strong Women-Strange Worlds, in which I made a fun two-minute pitch for Bittersweetness & Light in the form of a fantastical weather report.  Alas, the recording isn’t perfect: at the end it doesn’t show the whole panel of “contestants,” and even worse, during my pitch it shows only my slides and not me, which is in keeping with technology’s increasingly emphatic attempts to gaslight me.  I assure you I was there in front of the screen during the live event!  (Have I somehow become a ghost or a vampire?)  But at any rate, you can still enjoy my pitch, which you can watch here.

        2. Also back in December I had several art shows and was working on several blocks.  Here’s the progress I’ve reached: one had a test print and is ready for final tweaking and proper printing, one is probably about two thirds of the way finished, and the third is just barely begun.  I’ll need to start two more to use as sample blocks at upcoming workshops in the next month, but I’m certainly hoping to get back to more of my own sweet carving, as well.

        3. More recently I just spent the weekend at the Arisia sci fi/fantasy convention in Cambridge, MA and it was fantastic!  I was on the half-dozen panels listed in my last post,

plus two group readings.  I sold lots of books and a ton of art, and my piece “Symbiote City (Venusian Medusae)” won the Con Chair’s Choice Award!  You can read more about the piece at this prior post (which is also relevant for the panel I was on, about “Designing Things that Don’t Exist”).  And on top of all that, I had a lot of really nice conversations with people about art and writing and sharing the things that give us hope.  Really Good Stuff!

        4. Looking somewhat ahead, I am plunging into work on my next book, Beyond Pomegranate & Thorns, because it’s high time to get cracking on decisions about what to include, what order to put things in, what additional pieces of artwork I need to fill in gaps, and so on.  I just received marketing postcards in time to give them out at the conventions; I just received the enamel pins that are one of the Kickstarter backer rewards; and I just got a bunch of beta reader feedback that I need to digest and process and use for decision-making.  It’s all very daunting and very exciting!

        5. Meanwhile, there will need to be lots of matting and framing for Boskone in three weeks… not to mention all the other stuff I was complaining about in my Jan. 5 post!  (Also meanwhile, I’ve had to migrate to a new newsletter program and at the moment I cannot even express how intensely I’m hating it.  Ugh!  But there are plenty of other things to worry about, both more positive and more negative, so that’s a problem for another day.)

        6. Another fun tidbit is that I currently have artwork on display in public outdoor art galleries in two towns.  I absolutely love this format, in which the artwork of multiple artists beautifies otherwise boring or ugly fences around town, and the selection rotates to new locations at intervals so that it stays fresh and interesting to everyone going about their daily rounds.  It’s an honor to have my work accepted in these two projects, and between this and my successes at Arisia I’ve been feeling very affirmed in my art recently.

        All of which means that, as always, I do hope you know that if you’ve bought my work, read my books, left reviews, told your friends, or supported me in any one of  many ways either tangible or intangible, it really does make a difference to me and I do appreciate it very much.

[Pictures: Screen shots from my Speed-Date pitch for Bittersweetness & Light, all graphics by AEGNydam, 2025;

Rubber blocks plus test print of Needham cupolas by AEGNydam, 2026;

Photos from Arisia, (photo of me at Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading by Randee Dawn), 2026;

Photos of assorted other projects and art by AEGNydam, 2026.]

What's New, OR How Is It December Already?

         I’ve got a couple more new pieces I'm excited about... except that they’re going to be illustrations in my upcoming book Beyond Pomegranate & Thorns, so I’m saving the whole posts about them until spring when I’ll be promoting the new book…  (By the way, I’ll be turning off the Late Pledges feature on my Kickstarter campaign by the end of the month, so if you missed the campaign back in September you still have one last chance to check it out and get the various nifty pledge rewards.)

        This weekend I’ll be doing my once-a-year Holiday Sale schedule of two shows in two days: complete set-up, sale, and take-down two days in a row, with restocking all evening between.  It’s brutal, but the Holiday Sales are when they are, so if I’m going to participate I don’t have a choice.  On Saturday I’ll be at the Arts Wayland Holiday Marketplace, and on Sunday I’ll be at the Celebrate Newton Holiday Craft Fair.  Needless to say, I’d love to see you if you’re in the area!

        And of course I’ll be carving new blocks while sitting in my booth each day.  I’ve got one block half-carved from the last sale, plus another prepped, plus a small third which I was hoping to use as the demo at my Printmaking Workshop on Dec. 13…  But I fear that I’ll need to start it this weekend unless I get inspiration for another block TODAY.  Inspiration on demand is the hardest job in preparing for shows.  Yes, I make myself lists of ideas throughout the year in the hope of being able to grab an idea off the shelf when I need one… but sometimes nothing seems to entice me, and while I can brainstorm, I can’t force excitement.  So yeah, I hope I don’t run out of carving!  Any ideas for another block I should prepare to carve this weekend?

        December 13 will also be back-to-back events: first the aforementioned Block Printmaking Workshop at the library, after which I’ll rush home and jump right onto the Strong Women-Strange Worlds zoom for their annual Holiday Extravaganza.  It’s six whole hours of bookish fun with authors of speculative fiction.  There are MadLibs, Improv Storytelling, and more.  I’ll be participating once again in Speed-Date a Book, in which Bitterweetness & Light will try to win a date with readers.  It’s free, it’s available to anyone in the world with a zoom connection, and you can attend for as much or as little as you want.  Plus, the Digital Swag Bag includes a brand new Round Robin anthology, a new Small Bites collection of flash fiction, poetry, art, and recipes, and downloads including coupon codes, ebooks, postcards, and coloring pages…  And I’ve contributed to all of them!

        Meanwhile you should check out my most recent poem… which isn’t really my poem, because it’s crowd-sourced from contributions by 90 people in my town.  I took all the bits and pieces people contributed, came up with the organizing principle and some connective tissue, and wove everyone’s words together into another poem for the town: “The Sidewalks of Needham.”  You can read it here.

        And as soon as my December art activities are over, it will be time to clean the house for holiday guests!  But for now, one step at a time.  So I ask again: any ideas for another block I should prepare to carve this weekend?

Giving Legends and Folklore a Kick

         Here’s my fourth and final post digging into the contents of my Work In Progress, a collection of short stories, poems, and art currently being launched by a Kickstarter campaign (already fully funded, but running for one more week).  Today’s subject is the other category of stories I’ll be including: Other.  This is the category where I’ve collected work inspired by everything from a nursery rhyme to a Shakespeare play, and Egyptian funerary lore to the Mona Lisa.

        The idea of legends and fairy tales from other parts of the world is straightforward, and there are also the traditional, well-known legends that didn’t quite fit into my other categories, such as Aesop’s fables and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.  But “folklore” is really an extremely broad category.  According to Wikipedia, “Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people.  This includes tales, myths, legends, proverbs, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions.”  Another definition says “folklore is informally learned, unofficial knowledge about the world, ourselves, and our communities, our beliefs, our cultures, and our traditions that is expressed creatively through words, music, customs, actions, behaviors, and materials. It is also the interactive, dynamic process of creating, communicating, and performing as we share that knowledge with other people.”  For my purposes in Beyond Pomegranate & Thorns I’m not taking it quite that broadly, and I’m sticking with work that was inspired by or reimagining the sorts of folklore that are either widely known elements of my cultural background, such as the Mona Lisa, or stories that may not be widely known but are legends that have been collected and retold, such as the Green Children of Woolpit.  Here’s what I’ve got so far in this section of my book:

Scheherazade (poem)

The fable of the Sun and the North Wind (art)

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon (short story, art)

Ancient Egyptian Shabti (poem, art)

The Golem of Prague (art)

The Green Children (poem, art)

Mona Lisa (poem, art)

Oberon and Titania (short story)

The nursery rhyme Hey, Diddle Diddle (short story, art)

        I’ve also got a few other short stories that riff on traditional folklore motifs rather than specific stories: wicked witches, tricksters, and vegetable lambs and barnacle geese.

        As with the other categories, this line-up is still tentative.  I may create more short stories and poems, and I’ll certainly create more art.  I’ll also be looking at the balance of the book as a whole: how long it’s getting, whether each piece fits with the flow of the others, and so on.  This is the section that’s got the blurriest edges as far as what really fits the theme, but as with all the others, I’ve had a wonderful time using tidbits of story as my starting point, and then seeing where they take me.

        All of these stories - the myths, the fairy tales, the legends, the snippets of lore - are imagined by people grappling with the questions of life, making sense of the world, and then transmitting the ways they’ve made meaning.  When I reexamine and reimagine these same stories, I’m taking the places where past people’s answers don’t work for me, and creating stories that reflect my own sense of the world.  I’m also having fun simply spinning tales of wonder and magic.

        In fact, you could say that I’m having a ball, and the Kickstarter campaign, like Cinderella’s own enchantments, runs until the stroke of midnight (EDT) on Sept. 29.  I hope you’ll accept my invitation to the ball and check out Beyond Pomegranate & Thorns to see whether it looks like something you’d like to be part of.  I hope my stories will bring wonder to you, too.

[Pictures: details from The Dish Ran Away with the Spoon, by AEGNydam, 2025;

Shabti, rubber block reduction print by AEGNydam, 2025 (originals at NydamPrints.com).]

Once Upon a Time There Was a Kickstarter...

         Here we go again!  I’ve launched another Kickstarter campaign for another book!  Beyond Pomegranate & Thorns will be the same format as my last book (Bittersweetness & Light), which means it’s a collection of my short stories, poems, and relief block print artwork.  All the stories in this book (and I consider poems and artwork as telling stories, too) are inspired by and riffing on traditional European fairy tales, classical mythology, and a smattering of other myths and folklore.  Sometimes I stay close to the traditional roots, and sometimes I use them as a jumping off point to head in a completely different direction.  But why start with these well-known stories?  Myths and fairy tales are popular, powerful, sticky stories that catch in our imaginations and stay with us for generation after generation.  Although they may not always be taken very seriously as literature these days, the fact is that folklore has always been one of the most important ways people have wrestled with what it means to be alive in the world.  They help us grapple with big issues and explain to ourselves why things are the way they are, and how things should be.  Folklore includes the way culture is embodied in stories, and the way stories express what it means to be human.

        I’ve always been fascinated by fairy tales (you can read some prior posts about Some Favorite Fairy Tales and Grimms’ Fairy Tale Collections) but there’s no denying that some of them are strange and dark and problematic.  There are stories I fell in love with that fill me with delight and fuel my imagination of wondrous things, but there are also stories that disturb and depress me with their oppressive, cynical, outdated messages.  In either case, though, they can get me thinking about the things I believe are true.  And they can get me questioning how a story that doesn’t seem right to me might be reimagined into something that does ring more true.  What else might be going on before, after, and around the edges?  How else might events be interpreted?  What if one little thing were changed - or a larger thing?  What if it were all set in a different time or place?  Why might these strange or disturbing things have happened?  Who else might be living in this world and watching events unfold?  How can I glean out the unexpected sparks of magic while overturning those elements that I reject?  After all, another reason these stories have stayed popular for so long is that they’re multi-layered and multi-faceted.  Every time you look at them from a different angle, you see something new.

        Want some examples of what will be appearing in Beyond Pomegranate & Thorns?  Here are a few teasers…

Pandora’s Box - What’s so bad about curiosity, anyway?

Baba Yaga - Maybe it takes a flock to raise a witch.

The Green Girl Thinks of Home

Scheherazade - Prayer for the first night.

        I’ve been responding to these magical stories for a long time, and now I’m pulling it all together and offering it as a collection of wonder and delight.  It’ll be printed in full color inside and out, a little larger than an ordinary paperback to give the artwork more room.  It won’t be as explicitly focused on hope and joy as my last book, but it’s still me here, so yes, I still try to hold up the power of kindness and look for ways to foster hope and joy.  Fairy tales can be dark and myths can be cruel, but these stories are ultimately how we remind ourselves that straw can be spun into gold, riddles can be answered, curses can be broken, and glass mountains can be climbed.

        If this sounds like something that might be of interest to you, nip on over to my Kickstarter campaign and find out all the details.  I’d love to have you join me in bringing these old stories to new life!

[Picture: Beyond Pomegranate & Thorns, working cover design by AEGNydam, 2025.]