AJ Alanson Author

Each year I try to make gifts for everyone. That’s the puzzle. Even as they are opening their packages on Christmas morning, I’m thinking, “What should I do next year?” Now I still end up buying stuff because frankly that purchased gift is simply more suitable and it’s all about the other person, right? But the process of thinking of my people throughout the entire year, settling on a design and sitting down to make it, for me, is the ultimate care and consideration of them and what they mean to me.

It’s not all roses – our relationships – just like creating gifts results in slivers, burns, superglue stuck to my lips, exploding tubes of oil paint (orange if you must know), an aching back and numb hands, all the while witnessing something new and beautiful coming into the world. And that’s relationships.

And that’s the holidays.

Here, I’m ending 2025 with the last glimpse of the year’s creations – the wooden ornaments. Birch spheres wood-burned and watercolored in a vintage holiday style with a nod to Kinkade and Termes (the artist needs to have fun, too). At 4-inch diameter, one of these little cannon balls dropped from about an inch about my light table and shattered the glass.

So begins 2026 with a bang, and speaking of which, the 11th book in The Admiral Inn series is feverishly rolling off the keyboard. I don’t know what gets into me at 3:30 a.m. but it comes out in a lot of words. The 10th book, A Wolf in the Cove, was just released before Christmas so pick it up on Amazon, and if you haven’t caught up, all the others are there as well.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G83JJ4VG

A heartfelt thanks to all who bought The Wolf and all of my others books. For all who engage with me and subscribe to my essays, also thank you. This support is why my eyes fly open at 3:30 a.m. It’s the relationship that keeps me creating.

P.S. I had a great idea come to me for next years gifts…