Oddments, Vol. IV
Left the stove on
Hello! I just realized the last Oddments came out almost 10 months ago (oops), so here is a new one. In this edition of Oddments, you will find discussions (or pictures) of a ghostly poisoning, an Estonian wedding, soccer drama, Cats on pianos, and book news!
You can read Volume I here!
You can read Volume II here!
You can read Volume III here!
Oddment, n. According to the Oxford Dictionary, a “small piece of cloth, wood, etc. left after a larger piece has been used to make something”, which is exactly what most of these entries and art will be: odds and ends, left on the cutting floor on the way to more substantial work, but not wasted.
News
Wanting
The most exciting news is that I have a new children’s book out next year! I will post about it separately, very soon, along with the cover reveal, which I am so thrilled to have been able to illustrate myself. (You can see a teaser illustration for it at the end of this post.) This will be my eighth book and will be out on August 31st, 2027, from Greenwillow/HarperCollins.
Another publishing project, this one in illustration, waits in the wings. I’m so honored and grateful to have been asked to do it, and will announce more when I can. The next few months will involve a lot of drawing.
Die Letzten Hexen von Blackbird Castle is one of Tagesspiegel’s “Alternatives to Harry Potter: Great books about magic that break stereotypes”
The Dagon Collection, a Lovecraftian anthology I contributed a story to, was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology. If you’re intrigued, go pick up a copy. It’s a really beautifully made book.
AUTILLUS, the Swiss association of children’s book authors and illustrators, turns 30 this year. We’ll be going to the Bologna book fair in 2027, where we’ll have meetings, events, and a stand, and are hard at work with fundraising and organizing. I haven’t been to the Bologna book fair in quite a while, so it will be nice to go back.
After five years in the co-presidency of AUTILLUS, I do plan to give up my position next year to focus on other projects. There simply isn’t time for everything. That said, we’ve accomplished a lot over the past few years, and I’m very proud of this association and what it does. We’ve expanded into lobbying, literacy advocacy, and youth programs, professionalized many of our structures, and are growing steadily. I’m thrilled with where we’re headed and what’s to come for Swiss children’s and youth literature.
Curious Things
I don’t know what the story behind this is, a spooky doodle.
2026 as a whole: In the last Oddments of 2025 I wrote: “It has been a very busy year, and a nice one, but also a strange one in that it passed very quickly and a lot happened . . . I think I will remember 2025 as quite a corporate sort of year. I’m hoping to make 2026 less so.”
Reader, 2026 has been neither less busy nor less corporate, quite the opposite. But true to what I wrote in that last Oddments, I’m continuing to make this journal about whimsical things, illustration, books, travel, and pretending I’ve never heard the words “synergy”, “team alignment”, and “capacity building” in my life.
So here, in mostly chronological order, a photo dump of 2026 thus far, leaving it all the meetings, board rooms, zoom calls, toil, and endless plane rides that actually filled the year. A highlight reel of pretty things, if you will, and also food.
Soccer drama: Monterrey — where I live at the moment — hosted the World Cup this summer, which was an experience: Mexico loves soccer, and Monterrey loves soccer maybe even more than the rest of Mexico. They repainted vast swaths of highway with blue and red murals (which I’m guessing were the “Monterrey-in-soccer-mode” brand identity), renovated just about everything, and invited the princess of Japan to inaugurate a park. Alas, after all that, Mexico lost against England in the quarter finals. The sadness was palpable and maybe a little violent. That evening, a very drunk man at a gas station asked if I was English. If I was, he told me, he would set me on fire. I wasn’t, I told him, and that was the end of that. Immolation avoided.
Poisoned by a ghost (not fully substantiated): I’m a bit obsessed with Wikipedia rabbit holes and recently stumbled across this gem, about Freddy Heineken, owner of the brewing company, who was kidnapped by Dutch mafia. The highlight is this random line at the end:
“Although not fully substantiated, there have, however, been various conspiracy theories that Heineken was poisoned by the ghost of Heinrich Tessenow, which caused his death.”
It’s the “not fully substantiated” bit that’s doing the heavy lifting, and just the utter seriousness of it all. “Not fully substantiated” implies a ghost murderer is at least partially substantiated, and I just find it delightful that Wikipedia — the great history-keeper of all humanity — is such a trove of weirdness.
And that’s it! Thank you, everyone, who reads along here and is subscribed to my newsletter, despite its terrible infrequency. I know some of you have been here since my very first book almost 15 years ago, and I so appreciate that.
I have a hunch this will be my only Oddments of 2026, but that’s ok, because very, very soon, I will share my new book, its title, synopsis, cover, illustrations, all of it. Hurray!
As promised, here is a wee small tease.
