Solstice Reads

I'm not familiar with many winter solstice reads, but one of them is the marvelous fantasy by Ginn Hale, Lord of the White Hell. The two-volume novel is the first part of The Cadeleonians, a high fantasy series that satisfies my cravings for imaginative worldbuilding, complex plot, characters that I fall in love with, and romance. Lord of the White Hell also wins my award for favorite use of the solstice. The scene of Kiram sneaking around the dorm late at night to leave gifts for his fellow hellions is one of those storytelling magical moments that I reflect back on each year with the return of the winter solstice.

Sympathy for the Hellhound

You could call Crossed Lines a fix-it series. It places the Supernatural characters from roughly the start of their second canon season into the world of Caffrey Conversation. Thanks to Penna's series, Neal and Mozzie are on their way to much brighter futures. In Crossed Lines, Dean, Sam, Bobby, and yes, Crowley too, all have a chance as well.

Favorite Holiday Reads

10 Things That Never Happened by Alexis Hall.
Sam—please don't call him Samwise—is the perfect cinnamon roll for a cold December night.

Holiday Stories 2024

Penna and I are adding two more stories to the Caffrey Conversation collection this year.

Caffrey Conversation: All for One

Neal's canon expertise as a fencer inspired me to introduce a Thee Musketeers theme in Caffrey Conversation. Ten years ago, I set the stage in The Woman in Blue by having Neal join a university fencing club. The club's leader, Aidan Phillips, was so impressed with Neal's ability that he gave him the nickname of d'Artagnan. When Fowler framed Neal for a theft in the following story, The Queen's Jewels, Neal's university friends leaped to his defense. Peter was one frustrated boss during that con. Even though Neal assured him he was one of the team, none of the details could be shared since they were illegal.

Caffrey Conversation: A Better Way

In Winston's Diamonds, I added the Mosconi Codex to my Red Diamonds collection of dangling threads where it joins Adrian Tulane, the Dentist of Detroit, Raquel LaRoque, and Alice Langton. In A Better Way, I add threads connected to Vermeer and Mozzie.

Caffrey Conversation: Winston's Diamonds

I have mixed feelings about White Collar's fifth season. The lack of trust between Peter and Neal is painful to watch. What redeems the season for me is the Mosconi Codex. Seeing Neal, Mozzie, and Peter tackle an arcane and baffling puzzle is an indulgence I can't get enough of, and on that front, the codex delivers in spades. In Winston's Diamonds, I introduce my version of the codex. This time around, the trust issues are integral to a con.

Caffrey Conversation: Destination Africa

Like the first two Red Diamonds stories, Destination Africa picks up a few dangling threads. This time they include Raquel LaRoque and Sara's sister Emily.

Caffrey Conversation: A Piece of the Action

In my first Red Diamonds story, Dances with Dinosaurs, I revisited Adrian Tulane. His introduction to Caffrey Conversation was in Penna's story Caffrey Aloha where Neal used a variant of the Anastasia con to keep Tulane from carrying out a theft. The master thief was left believing that Neal was only pretending to be a Caffrey. Since that story, Tulane has been languishing on a shelf, hoping for a callback. Will he make more than a cameo appearance or is the jewel thief merely a red herring? The crystal ball remains murky. Meanwhile, in the Red Diamonds' second story, A Piece of the Action, I pick up another dangling thread—the Dentist of Detroit.

Caffrey Conversation: The Red Diamonds

Not long after Diana went to work at Winston-Winslow, she suggested a sting to Sara where they would pretend to be jewel thieves. In Scotch on the Rocks, they wanted to track down a ring of thieves who were targeting high-end jewelry stores. Diana picked the name Red Diamonds for their hypothetical crew because of the jewel's reputation for being the most expensive gemstone. Diana hoped to take advantage of Mozzie's skill with the Jewel Box darkweb to spread rumors of their exploits.

Crossed Lines: Unholy Alliance

Zachariah is an angel on a mission. He's convinced that the Apocalypse needs to take place and is growing ever more frustrated that his efforts are being thwarted. Zachariah isn't a friend of Lucifer, but he has the misguided notion that the Apocalypse was meant to be and Lucifer is just the unsavory character to bring it about. He's not alone in his beliefs. Angels who support the Apocalypse believe that Earth can only be made into a paradise after it is cleansed.

Crossed Lines: Pirates of Manhattan

Neal has visited New Orleans once before. In Voodoo Remoulade, a doubloon cursed by the pirate Jean Lafitte, along with a vampire nest, almost wrecked his plans to celebrate Mardi Gras. Sara's never been to New Orleans, and when Neal suggested taking her there to celebrate her birthday, he didn't expect lightning to strike twice. Peter probably wouldn't be so optimistic if only he knew about Neal's previous misadventure.

Arkham Files: Slimed

In my next Arkham Files story, Neal Carter, Sara, and Henry will pay a return visit to their friends in New York City. Six months have elapsed since their previous meeting. That experience was chronicled in Chaos Conundrum. Back then, only Mozzie and Diana met with Arkham Neal and Sara. The encounter was particularly life-changing for Mozzie. He accompanied Neal and Sara back to Arkham where he was recruited to be an auxiliary member of a new intergalactic league formed by Senior Librarian Coppelia. During the visit, Mozzie was injected with the rare element algolnium. He can travel through both Celaenian wormholes and the graviton tunnels created by an interdimensional library. His mission is to monitor for signs of chaos on Earth.

Arkham Files: Strange Signals

Neal Carter has now known for a year that he's an alien hybrid. After the initial shock of discovering that his mother had Celaenian DNA and his father was a shapeshifting Meropian, life hasn't been too bad. Neal looks completely human. True, he has an aura but only a few alien species can see it. His sensitivity to algolnium isn't likely to cause any issues since only a few colleagues know of the element's existence.