Hello, hooligans!

It’s been a while since I updated! The main reason for this was that, after burning the candle at both ends for several years in a row, 2024 ended up being a much needed year of focusing on family, health, and learning how to pace myself before I hit the ground running again.

There was MUCH gathering with friends and loved ones, spent a lot of time outdoors, and giving my brain a chance to replenish itself with a lot of hands-on projects that I enjoyed and got to feel really proud of! (Honestly, I kinda went ham and dabbled in gardening, giant floral arragement, painting, pyrography, bone cleaning, pottery, carving, sewing, mushroom collecting, and so many little fix-it projects.)

There’s been so much to integrate, savor, and celebrate, I’m honestly blissed out on deep gratitude.

a large polaroid collage with photos of activities and celebrations, most of them without people’s faces in them

I also got to do a few author events, including helping welcome a couple of amazing Middle Grade queer books into the world at Charlie’s Queer Books in Seattle!

And even though this year was a bit of a sabbatical for me as an author, several incredibly cool things happened in book-land. The Beautiful Something Else was a Lambda Award finalist, a Washington State Book Award Finalist, and was awarded the National Council for the Social Studies’ Notable Social Studies Award! I’m overwhelmed at the enthusiastic welcome Sparrow has received, and eternally grateful to librarians, educators, and especially my beloved readers. Y’all rock my entire face off—I am currently faceless and gross and deeply happy about it.

Other cool things I got to do included writing a VERY COOL original easy-reader illustrated story for hire (not yet published), working on my next horror projects, and writing a grisly adult horror microfiction for an RPG expansion pack for one of my favorite podcasts of all time, Old Gods of Appalachia!

Currently, I’m working on a middle-grade horror novel that I’m very excited about, plus taking a stab (and I do mean a bloody one) at a YA queer body horror novel.

Which reminds me that my “hey, GO WRITE” timer is about to go ding. So that’s all for now—I love you all deeply, I’m thinking about you in this next year, and if you wanna send me a note or fan art…

I now have a dedicated P.O. box for that!

Alder Van Otterloo P.O. Box 45, Port Orchard, WA 98366

Love, love, and please be incredible gentle with yourselves. <3 Alder