@barbaramcveigh.bsky.social @ttbrader.bsky.social @mrmuleman.bsky.social 2 of these are Engerland bound..🤩

@barbaramcveigh.bsky.social @ttbrader.bsky.social @mrmuleman.bsky.social Better bequeath your collection to someone very very special. There’s gold in them pages!! I mean really, $580….😮

@barbaramcveigh.bsky.social @ttbrader.bsky.social @mrmuleman.bsky.social That was one of the hardest weeks I’ve had working 20 years in education… God bless the dogs…

@barbaramcveigh.bsky.social @ttbrader.bsky.social @mrmuleman.bsky.social I am going over to Engerland end of July. Already taking the 2023 set for a dear friend. I’ve just bought another 2023 set for another dear friend in UK. So another 2 aboard for our December re - read! Cheers me dears! 🙏

@barbaramcveigh.bsky.social @ttbrader.bsky.social @mrmuleman.bsky.social Hello friends afar! I received my fire sale collections from our fav H & O today. I won’t open the box yet as it’s to bitter sweet. It’s a harbinger of how our collective December’s is going to change. Sigh…😔 1/2

@barbaramcveigh.bsky.social @ttbrader.bsky.social @mrmuleman.bsky.social Oh man…this was the special edition I always wanted and missed. I did get the 2019 limited edition..

@barbaramcveigh.bsky.social @ttbrader.bsky.social @mrmuleman.bsky.social Did we do a re read of the 2023 edition? Bought another copy for friend and hoping we can re do together in December.

@barbaramcveigh.bsky.social @ttbrader.bsky.social @mrmuleman.bsky.social Thought of you reading an article on the revival of Letter writing that lead me to Kiki Klassen. For $40 she will sent you a letter with unique art every month for 6 months. I’m hooked! @theluckyduckmailclub

Day 25 2022/25 #ssac2025 A Present for Big Santa Nick Kurt Vonnegut ‘Our Santa Nick is a…prying, foul mouthed, ill smelling fake’ Big Nick has a party as Santa giving presents but asking kids what their parents think of him. As he is the ‘heir to the power of Al Capone’ But kids just can’t lie.

Are we having a random story tomorrow? @barbaramcveigh.bsky.social 🧐

#ssac2025 @barbaramcveigh.bsky.social @ttbrader.bsky.social @mrmuleman.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social So ends this great series of stories. Kevin Wilson hits it out of the park. Thanx once again to each of you for the collective read along. I hope we get to do it all again soon! 👏❤️🤩

Day 24 #ssac2025 A Very Mario Lopez Christmas Megan Giddings ‘It’s my Christmas to fall in love. I will spend the holidays terrorizing and romancing Mario Lopez’ A women abducts a man for love. Chaos ensures. For the reader as well. Comedy is an acquired taste. This isn’t.

Day 23 #ssac2025 When You Were Here Claire Lombardo ‘He’s always been a bit of an asshole’ Josh clashes with dad Pete and disappears as he didn’t want to go to college. His mom Carolyn resends Pete that he is more closer to their daughters. Love isn’t equal when your kids are so different.

Day 22 #ssac2025 A Nativity Scene Rion Amilcar Scott ‘I knew she would, and she did’ He was stressed. He had deadlines. But, he had a plan. Until his wife went into contractions and the dispatcher screamed: ‘That baby cannot hit the water!’…. When needs must. We simply do. Because we can.

Day 21 #ssac2025 The Rent Controlled Ghost Lee Cornell ‘I’ll tell you a secret…I talk to 4c sometimes. I mean the old 4c’ After his widow Dad and son Cooper move into 4c, Miguel tells him of Halina, who haunts their new apartment. Missing his mom he tries to contact her. Grief takes many forms.

Day 20 The Old Ways Silas House ‘What are you doing with that snooty women?’ Mel returns to her visit her mom Alpha in rural Kentucky with Priscilla and son Blue. Despite a clash over expectations they come to a place of mutual understanding. For most people, Christmas is the great equalizer.

Day 19 Beneath the Softness of Snow Chanel Sutherland ‘You are not my child’…even as you reach across the barrier of the crib and brush his golden hair’ A West Indian women struggles as she leaves her daughters behind to Nanny in Montreal. A better life comes with stark human cost.

Day 18 How to Milk a Sheep Stephanie Dennee A heartbroken college grad agrees to housesit a power couple farm. With no experience she finds herself lambing a ewe. ‘Lie and say you can’t, when what you mean is that you won’t’ When sucking up to get ahead she actually discovers her true worth.

Day 17 Protection Paola Peroni ‘The living have an uncanny proclivity to ignore death when faced with it’ She returned to Rome from New York to be with her dying grandmother. Their precious time together brings salvation, perspective and peace by being unflinchingly real to their shared plight.

Day 16 Storm Windows Charles Haverty ‘The women’s had to put up with a lot of nonsense over the years’ Isolated memories and traditions intertwine to show how Lionel and Margot’s relationship with their parents have waxed and wane over time, as painful transgressions fade with old age.

@barbaramcveigh.bsky.social @ttbrader.bsky.social @mrmuleman.bsky.social Maybe we could have picked up Blair when I was with a group delivering a car from New York to Sacramento CA in 1986? We passed through the Badlands and Mount Rushmore.

Day 15 The Idler Tyler Barton ‘What idles is a fat-ass, cobalt F-250’ A knock on the window and Blair finds herself in a bar gushing to Kareen. It’s the night of awakening from how she came to small town USA and why she wants to leave. Love’s young dream wilts in the cold of South Dakota.

Day 14 Remedies Kali Fajardo-Anstine ‘That man and his choices are behind you now’ Single mom Millie brings 10 year old Harrison over so that Clarisa can meet her half brother. Things get serious when they call Grandma Estrella to rid their lice. Sometimes happy families work better separated

@barbaramcveigh.bsky.social @ttbrader.bsky.social @mrmuleman.bsky.social Vancouver Winter Olympics Such an amazing time… I was actually paid by Aquabus to do a blog of my experiences. And it’s still live: inthecenterofitall.blogspot.com?m=0 Lots of stuff and nonsense…. 🤩

Day 13 Two-Man Luge: A Love Story Claire Battershill ‘The only way I can really explain how I got into competitive luge is by talking about inertia’ He doesn’t know why, but his journey to the Olympics always had Patresh in mind. Leaving more is always a sign of a good story. Marvellous.

Day 12 2018/8 Festive George Saunders ‘And just like that, is Xmas’ A father with kids navigate the reality of impending holiday after taking lower paid job post layoff. The essence of Christmas is what you make of it and why.

Day 11 2023/9 Cosmic Cul De Sac Jade Song ‘Wo Yao hui his’ you beg, I want to come home’ An Asian wife is abandoned by her astronaut husband in US suburban hell which drives her to extreme measures with very unexpected consequences. Harmony with nature leads to eternal cosmic bliss.

Day 10 2020/13 Our Humans Meng Jin ‘I knew that he had actually left Kim for the impossible dream’ In a depleted LA working at the Preservation Dept. she meets Duowan. He wants to take her back to China, to start anew on an ‘immortal server’ to eternal life… Abduction for love is still a crime.

Day 9 2022/19 Reindeer Cyan Jones ‘That guy. Last year. There’s a lot of us think it was right, what happened to him’ Ston treks into the hills to stalk a wayward bear. Yet, the discovery of a dead reindeer and sleigh hints at the unthinkable. Festive mystery that lingers long afterwards…

Day 8 2020/22 The Ones We Carry with Us Sara O’Leary ‘I don’t want to die.. I know..But we have to’ She volunteered at a senior home witnessing Agatha death after dementia. A life lived with the an open heart shows our loved ones won’t be forgotten. 2020: ‘A perfect short story’ Which it is.