May you Live in Interesting Times!
Dated: 04 Jan, 2026
It being the New Year, according to the vague list of time increments some people fudged together some time ago, it seems all my fellow publishers are making resolutions, plans and promises for the next 365.25 days. I suppose I should too?
Well, no.
I have never been a fan of New Years Resolutions. I am very much of the school that if you want to change something, anything, just do it. Why wait for the depths of winter when you just want to survive until you can drive to work in sunlight again?
So instead, I want to add my (modest) weight to the rebirth of the Yule Boasting tradition.
This fabulous idea was brought to my attention by Dreadpunk on Facebook, or rather someone sharing their post on a D&D page. Here’s the Google AI summary (and the first time I have ever used AI content – sorry):
“Yule boasting, or heitstrenging, was an old Germanic/Norse tradition during winter feasts (Yule) where people would make grand, often exaggerated, promises or oaths about great deeds they'd accomplish in the coming year, often while drinking from a ceremonial cup (bragarfull) or touching a sacred boar. It was a way to bond the community, honor leaders (like a king swearing to protect his people), and set intentions for the new year, similar to the Sumbel ritual in Old English traditions.” Google, 4th January 2026.
So, there you have it! Brilliant.
As for my plans for the year; I aim to promote and publicise Dunromin University Press and the works of Patrick Knight-Bridges (on Amazon and Lulu) as much as I can. Complete my Dark Energy book series, write more for the Chronicles and Gavin and get the Nobel Prize for Literature…
At the moment, however, I am working on SM21 – A Journey Through the Darkworld. This is a collection of dungeons based around a caravan route through the Darkworld of Barnaynia (the Underdark, if you prefer). It was inspired by the excellent, classic Slavelords series from TSR (see also here) and is a “filler” between A2 and A3, but also owes a bit of its inspiration to the even more classic TSR adventure D1-2 Descent intothe Depths of the Earth.
If that doesn’t mean anything to you, then don’t worry, SM21 - A Journey Through the Darkworld is a set of a dozen or so adventures of various levels of challenge, connected together by an ancient subterranean trade route, used by many different underground species for thousands of years. There’s some GORGEOUS maps and some really, really interesting encounters and ideas in there. We’re hoping to get it out by the end of January, which means you might see it by Easter….
I’d also like to draw your attention to SM22 – Musings and Navel Gazing; which is a collection of interesting stuff from these Blog Posts and some stand-alone stuff from previous publications. You can have it for FREE here. We’ve put it on “Pay What You Want” because it’s stuff we’ve already published and the idea is to give you an idea of what we’re capable of and maybe entice you to sample our other publications – all available in PDF Download or softback and hardback editions – look at the Shelfie at the top! Gorgeous!
All the best for 2026, may it bring you what you want and that we won’t all die in some nuclear war before the environment becomes too hostile for Human life. Such happy times…
Simon Miles