Blazing Reader,

Tomorrow, with great sadness, frustration and bewilderment, my son and I board a plane back to Canada. As I shared in past posts, my son's residency permit in the Netherlands was rejected. The one-year appeal process has failed. I'm forced to leave my wife (with her children) here in the Netherlands.

Most of my possessions have been in a warehouse in Toronto for the last 18 months (waiting for my son's permit before shipping overseas). So we are heading back with just four suitcases.

Here's a photo of the books I've accumulated here:

Thoreau: A Life by Laura Dassow Walls is one of my current reads (along with the Spanish translation). With Henry David Thoreau being a character in my forthcoming novel, COVID Disobedience, I'm reading the biography partly for research.

My son and I are also reading the second book in Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan. (I've already reviewed the first book, The Crown Conspiracy, which was such escapist fun.)

You may also recognize in the suitcase other books I reviewed during my time here in Europe: Where the Axe is Buried by Ray Nayler, A Kiss for Damocles by J. Kenton Pierce, With War by Other Means by Karl K. Gallagher, Powerless by Harry Turtledove, Storm Dragon by Dave Freer, The Conscious Resistance Trilogy by Derrick Broze and John Vibes, and Rabbit in the Moon by my old friend Fiona Moore.

After the photo shoot, I divided those books up among four suitcases. Packing them all into one would have exceeded the weight limit.

Oh, and here's a stack of books I purchased but either didn't like enough or no longer need to take back to Canada...

These donations to the local book box include Breathing With Trees by Donna Costa, No Man's Land by Sarah Hoyt, Thread Traveller by Anabel Youens, and Remain by Nicholas Sparks and M. Night Shyamalan.

I appreciate all the mail people have been sending with their sympathy and support. This is a very sad chapter in my life. But, as with all good novels, there are ups and downs. I'm hoping the next chapters will be more positive.

John C.A. Manley

P.S. If you would like to help with the financial costs of this overseas move, plus take care of some holiday shopping, please purchase copies of Much Ado About Corona and All the Humans Are Sleeping for friends and family for Christmas. Extra book sales right now would be greatly appreciated.

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona, All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of philosophical fiction that are "so completely engaging that you find yourself alternately laughing, gasping, hanging on for dear life." Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber.