January 2026 Dispatch
New Year, same fox (but with new stuff!)
Welcome all! If you’re new to the Dispatch, here’s the deal: the first Monday of every month, I write about what I’m working on and update y’all with project status for everything on my plate. The second Monday, I will either post something from a WIP or I’ll talk about a book that’s coming out or a book I read that I like. The third Monday, I’ll answer a writing question. If you want to ask one, leave it in the comments on any of the posts. Sometimes I just make one up if there’s something that’s been on my mind. That’s it! That’s all you’ll hear from me on this site. If you want more, the Forester Universe account on Bluesky will have more timely updates as books and fun stuff happen. I’m also on Bluesky, but I don’t post a lot there. I post marginally more on Mastodon, but really I’ve stepped back quite a bit from social media.
Anyway, here’s what’s going on! After a long year, Writer Ways is out at FurPlanet and Bad Dog Books and also most other places you buy books (but buy from the publisher at those links when you can). We sold out at MFF but will have more at FC if you want to get one signed. I hope this is useful to anyone planning to write a novel—like it says on the back, I wish I’d had this book when I started my first one. I had a blast working on it and I’m really proud of how it came out.
Also, the Science Friction audiobook is out now! This little grad school sex farce was fun to revisit and I hope you all enjoy the amazing performance!
MFF was great! The new dealer room location is huge and I didn’t get to see all of it (partly because I was at panels most of Saturday and half of Sunday) but it was impressive. Thanks to everyone who came by the table and chatted; I had a great time seeing each of you! The panels were well attended and I had fun at all of them, and we got some really good questions, so thank you if you came to any of the panels, too!
When I wasn’t at MFF or planning holiday activities, I was working on the Azure City revisions. It’s been through a few beta reads and I think is close to done, but something one friend (hi fooz) said has resonated with me and so I’m going back through it. Almost immediately I was pleased, because the first change I made (this isn’t a major plot change, but kind of a…minor enhancement) opened up new things and strengthened a theme. I’m excited to keep going with it.
January is starting off busy for me. I’m typing this from my annual writing retreat, then I come back from that to a family visit, and right after they leave, we start getting people in for FC. So it’s a good thing I’m getting a lot of writing done this week (mostly Azure City stuff but also some Wolftown work). I’ll be at the FurPlanet table at FC, so come say hi, and I’m doing a couple panels there too. I don’t have them handy but I’ll be on the schedule under “writing track,” per usual.
We’ve got great stuff going on at the Patreon, too! my New Tibet novel, Common and Precious, is getting a cover revision and as a bonus for Patrons at the $20+ levels, you’ll be getting a free copy of the new e-book! And in February, we’ll have a new merch drop.
Books
Upcoming releases:
Azure City: 2026 (Winter). A book full of blank pages might be the key to another world, but the more Athos reads, the more he disappears from this one.
Weasel Under The Sun: 2026 (Spring). The third Ellie Stone mystery (second to be published on its own)! Ellie works for a month in another family’s kitchen while hers is on vacation, but murder will follow her anywhere…
Unlawful Possesssion (Wolftown book 3): 2026 (Summer): Chasing a ghost-napper, Jae uncovers a larger, more sinister plot.
Audiobooks:
Love Match 2 is out! Find it on Audible or iTunes.
Science Friction is out! Audible and iTunes.
Squeak Thief will be out this month!
And Dude, Where’s My Pack? is also nearly done.
Work on the Price of Thorns audiobook is largely done with just pickups and post left; we hope to have this out next year (there have been delays because of scheduling with the people proofing it).
Out now:
Writer Ways: A Helpful Guide to Novel Writing: I wrote down about 100,000 words worth of what I’ve learned about writing novels, and I show my process while writing The Price of Thorns to give you an example to follow along with.
Dead Right: The sequel to Unfinished Business! Jae gets tangled in the life of a ghost activist who endangers his relationships and his future. Out now in print and e-book form at Argyll Productions and wherever you get books!
Squeak Thief: A rich mouse hires a fox thief to steal from his own family, but the job quickly spirals out of control. You can get it as a print book on FurPlanet or Amazon, or as an e-book on BadDogBooks or any other major retailer.
The Price of Thorns: buy at Argyll and review at Amazon or GoodReads. In a fantasy world where stories are woven into the fabric of magic and life, Nivvy the thief is hired by a mysterious woman, and this job will change his life in ways he could never have anticipated.
In progress:
Monster Huggers (Patreon) - serializing
Robin Hood fan fic (two books) — draft complete, awaiting revision
Ty the Knot — draft complete, awaiting revision
Fast Break (a gay basketball player story on Patreon) — first draft ongoing
untitled fantasy world project — outlining
Streaming:
Heated Rivalry (HBO): [Please note that every place the word “hottest” appears in this writeup, it has two meanings.] Several people told me I should watch the hottest show on HBO right now, and I wasn’t disappointed. It is basically Out of Position but hockey—not exactly, but it’s what happens when the hottest young stars in hockey discover they are gay and into each other. There are only six episodes and there is way more sex than hockey in them. It’s a fun, engaging soap opera with some truly touching moments. Hollywood, call me!
Brokenwood (PBS+): A friend recommended this mystery show set in a small town in New Zealand, and so far it has been great. A delightful cast and some lovely scenery, plus some truly twisty mysteries—that’s all I need.
Plur1bus (Apple+): If there was any doubt that the most interesting, thoughtful shows are on Apple+ now, this should end that debate. We’ve now finished the first season and are desperate for more in a way we haven’t been since, well, Severance. Rhea Seehorn carries the show with a fantastic performance that should get her some award nominations, and the writing is fantastic.
Stranger Things season 5 (Netflix): There is a point at which Stranger Things became a kind of eating-its-own-tail show, where it had to get Bigger and Weirder and MORE with every season, and this point seems to have been season 3. We (me and my boys specifically, not a larger “we”) were invested enough in the kids and the weird world to stick around and see what they were going to do with it, not quite in the train-wreck last season of Game of Thrones way, but more in a “how long can they keep stacking things on top of this tower, and will it fall down before the show ends” way. The good news is that it doesn’t really fall down; it gets very strange, but the people remain people at the core of it. The bad news is that if you dropped out of the series because you were frustrated with it in season 3 or 4, well, I can’t say you should come back. Season 5 is more of the same, an ever-growing cast of 80s misfits annoying each other and loving each other as the world gets more insane around them. The ending of season 4, billed as “the big villain finally getting the thing he needs to destroy the world,” turns out to be actually just the thing he needed to get the thing he actually needs to destroy the world, so we have another season of buildup, of kids saying “what if this is like a Slinky” and tense scenes interrupted so characters can have a heart to heart talk. The heart to heart talks are nice, mind you, it’s just that every time I kept thinking, “okay but you only have like a few seconds to get to that door, is this really the time to explain why you’ve been withdrawn?” The cast does well, the effects are cool, and there are some genuinely creepy and genuinely touching moments in it. If you were in for season 4, you’ll enjoy season 5. If you weren’t, then you have escaped the Upside Down and should go outside and enjoy the sunshine.