Children

In 2013 I began a series of stories for the grandchildren. These became ‘Christmas Critters’—The Animals that saved Christmas. It began with Jack & Miles, fraternal twins that I made into two ferret brothers. On Christmas eve 2025, with a house full of children and the excitement of noise like a tornado running through our home, I thought of a real thing called a snownado.

A snownado is a rare weather phenomenon, also known as a snow devil or snowspout, characterized by a swirling column of snow lifted into the air by wind. It is the snowy equivalent of a dust devil or waterspout and typically forms under specific conditions such as lake-effect snow events, snow squalls, or when strong mountain winds create vortices over snow-covered ground. Sounds like the kids running though our home.

But I finished the entire series and made new adventures to include all our granchildren, my son, my brother’s two daughters and their daughters and our grand nieces and grand nephew. Even my Susan and my brother’s wife Susan are included in these ‘Winter Tales.’ I’m in it with my brother and our sister or implied as some of the children call me Boppa.

Originally, my intention was to first put all these together into one hardbound book and send a copy to each person whose name is also a character in the series. Then I was planning on releasing to the public, around September of 2026 with plenty of time for Christmas, one in the series and one each year and then release the entire collection, maybe in around ten years. Pretty good continuity.

I am not an illustrator, but I figured out how I could just do me. In about a month, the first two weeks of July 2026, My Susan and I will be going to the Outer Banks in NC with other family (including children). Felix (in two of the stories) that I have tagged as my kid-specialist, for what children would like to see will be there. I plan to complete this work while there and with Felix as my artistic consultant.

By the way, when my brother andI have gotten together with our wives, we have to refer to our Susan’s as My Susan or Your Susan. It’s pretty funny when they speak or text – Susan this is Susan and Susan this is Susan.

I am not able to sustain this project, though I will have everything needed to have it printed by professional printers if the means become available. Not likely through my reach or resources as I have neither. What I will likely do is post some of the stories here for all to enjoy and hopefully read them to their children. For print, the final format must be in a PDF file as will the artwork. The best I will be able to do for our family is to send them the PDF as an email attachment or possibly on a portable thumb drive. Then it will be up to them to print it, if desired. But for here, for now, let me introduce you to the map of Snowblow, the fiction-world where these characters all live. Or is it and are they all real?

Somewhere the snow remembered…