Of course I read the usual weekly stories by Kaje Harper and the monthly flash fiction by E. H. Timms. (Thanks for posting to the Flash Fiction Draw Challenge, E. H!)

Read the Kuttner/Moore story “Rain Check,” which I’m pretty sure I read years ago. It’s in their fine collection “A Gnome There Was.” I’ve seen the ending gimmick in at least a couple of other stories but this may have been the first written, from 1946.

Started reading Abraham Merritt’s 1932 novel “Burn, Witch, Burn.” So far, so good!

Read the Kolchak comic books “Devil In the Details” and “Kyrie.” Pretty good. From Moonstone Comics.

Read/skimmed through Rachel Reid’s Gay Hockey Romance “Heated Rivalry,” source for the TV show. Wrote the February Queer SciFi column about it, check there for more. Also read a little of her books “Game Changer” and “The Long Game.”

Got Frederik Pohl’s autobiographical “The Way the Future Was,” mainly for what he says about his habit of writing four pages a day like I’m trying to do now. Did me good to know that he didn’t always make that goal and he sometimes skipped it for a month or two. I may have this in paperback but I ordered a signed copy.

And I stumbled across a reference on a bog post to a Young Adult series of mysteries by “Bruce Campbell” (pen name of Sam and Beryl Epstein) about “Ken Holt,” a reporter’s son who’s off at boarding school and who gets involved in mystery and adventure with his extended family. I ordered the first “The Secret Of Skeleton Island” and started in on it. Great fun! A nice boy’s adventure/mystery from 1949. Not sure when my copy was printed; the series ran for about thirteen years.

Looking at this, I’m surprised I read this much; the new writing schedule means I have cut back on the reading time but still I read a lot!

And I’m sure I read another story or two and didn’t write it down.

God knows, I have enough books…

——-jeff baker February 21, 2026