The Patron Saints of Christmas

Season’s Greetings, my festive friends!

Above is my annual festive illustration for this year – a magically manipulated image of a photo from the local area’s significant snowfall back in 2018. Number five in a series. It probably says a lot about me that these days I couldn’t imagine going out in that sort of weather to take photographs. I’d much rather be on the sofa under a blanket with a hot water bottle and the lovely Geen Geenie by my side, watching an old black and white horror movie. Like we do every other day, pretty much. Having said that, I’m fast running out of picturesque snowy landscapes to share, so I’m going to have to think of another theme, or get very cold again next time it snows.

Another year goes by, like the ever increasing speed of a washing machine on spin cycle. But unlike the washing machine, I haven’t been making a lot of noise this year – at least not until this merry month of December. I made a couple of important announcements just a couple of weeks ago, so in case you missed it:

More Strangehaven!

I’ve been working on an epilogue to the four completed volumes of Strangehaven, called, unsurprisingly, Strangehaven: Epilogue. This will be a fifty-page victory lap and whether you’re a new reader, or whether you’ve been following my book for the past thirty years, you will not want to miss it.
You can read a more about it on my website here.

Launching my Patreon

In order to help buy me the time to sit down and draw this whole epilogue thing, I’ve set up a Patreon page, where generous donors can support me in this endeavour via a monthly donation. Rewards will include progress updates, sneak peeks, works-in-progress and lots more. Although the page was only launched a week and a half ago, the response has exceeded my humble expectations – and I’ve genuinely been touched by the generosity of my lovely patrons. You can read more about it all here, or sign up directly on my Patreon.

If you can afford to support me in these tough times, I would be eternally grateful.

No News is No News

I’m sorry to report that I have no reprint or Volume IV announcements to make just yet. Throwing the epilogue into the mix on top has made the permutations of a solution that much more complicated. Hang in there chums, news will be coming soon.

In a Heartbeat

A doctor somewhere performing cardiac ablation.

This year was dominated by the recurrence of a Covid-induced irregular heartbeat (which was – temporarily as it turned out – fixed back in 2020). After the recurrence this year I had a repeat of the stop-gap treatment in the form of an electro cardioversion – an electric shock to jolt the heart back into regular rhythm. But as the arrhythmia could have come back again at any time, I was offered a slightly more invasive procedure called cardiac ablation  – reputedly with a permanent cure rate of 90%-95%. So I underwent that in September, and…so far so good. I am due to have a follow-up appointment in the new year but for now, I’m feeling a lot better, thanks for asking.
You can read all about my latest medical adventures in exhaustive detail here.

Bill Slattery

The Strangehaven troupe lost another member this year. Bill Slattery died in April 2024 at the fine old age of 95. Bill modelled for the character of Alfred who made a couple of appearances in Strangehaven: Destiny chapters 4 and 5. He was a willing and joyful participant in the  photo sessions we did, and absolutely perfect for the part. His dynamic personality belied his age and I always enjoyed chatting to him, especially as he was a fellow lifelong Chelsea supporter. I know that he’ll be greatly missed by his friends and family. Rest in peace, Bill.

The Bit at the End

You might remember the demonstrably forlorn hope from my Christmas message last year that the world wouldn’t slide even further into the right-wing popular quagmire, and unfortunately I have to report that the results were a bit of a mixed bag. Certainly, the world seems to be lurching from one increasingly  horrible scenario to the next…but was it always that way? Maybe I’m just paying more attention to these things.

Either way, there are still good things and good people in this world, and I truly hope that you can carve off a slice of peace and happiness this holiday season.

Have a fab Christmas, all you fine folks.

Much merry love,

–Gary Spencer Millidge.