I bought my family stones for Christmas

Blazing Reader,

Yesterday, I posted excerpts from Father Hannon's response to my article "The Worst Christmas Sermon Ever." He also made this point about the decline in the Christmas spirit:

"I was out shopping on December 23rd and earlier in the week as well, and from my anecdotal observation, I would say that the stores were not very busy at all compared to when I was younger. Yep, the problem these days is not the consumerism of Christmas, nor do I think it is some sort of self-centred hedonism."

Hopefully, they weren't staying home and emailing their relatives Amazon gift cards for Christmas. Nothing says I can't be bothered like a $20 Amazon gift card (a $2,000 gift card, however, is a different story).

Of course, I shouldn't complain, as Amazon sells more copies of my novel than any other retailer. So if you ended up with a collection of Amazon coupon codes this year, why not use some of that digital dough to order copies of Much Ado About Corona: A Dystopian Love Story? It makes the perfect controversial birthday gift for all your friends and family in 2024.

Of course, if you really want to avoid corporate monopolies entirely there are plenty of alternative gift-giving options out there.

This Christmas, for example, I mainly purchased hand-painted stones from a local artisan. Yes, I bought my family stones for Christmas. Each one is unique. You can check them out over on her Etsy page.

—John C.A. Manley

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona: A Dystopian Love Story, the forthcoming All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of speculative fiction. Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber at: https://blazingpinecone.com/subscribe/