Happy Christmas, Chanukah, Yule, Kwanzaa, Festivus, or whatever other reason you have to celebrate the season!

I am sorry that I have been remiss in posting updates; my author persona has been in hibernation while my high school teacher and music personas have controlled my calendar. Sometimes I claim that I have two lives, my “A life” (the one I actually lead), which is where I put the things I actually manage to find time for, and my fictitious “B life”, which is where I put the things I would enjoy doing just as much as the things in my “A life,” except that my “A life” is already full. With a two-week break for the solstice holidays, I have a chance to move my author persona back to my “A life” for a bit.

Short Story: Saint Elizabeth and the Dragon

This year, I was honored to be invited to write a short story for Cristy Huelsz’s Christmas Celebrations 2025 anthology, which was just published on Jane Austen’s birthday (December 16) and is available in print or on Kindle. In my story, titled Saint Elizabeth and the Dragon, the Bennet sisters write a mummer’s play, and perform it at Netherfield.

Mummer’s plays are a tradition dating to medieval times in England and parts of the European continent. These are short comedic plays—usually about ten minutes long. They were frequently performed around Christmas (more recently on Plough Monday) and Easter, and occasionally All Soul’s Day. There are several different plots, but a common one is a battle between Saint George and his nemesis, a Turkish Knight, or a Dragon). In a majority of these plays, Saint George is killed by the Dragon but is then resurrected in some way (often by a quack doctor) so he can do battle again, emerging victorious the second time. The dialogue is usually in rhyming couplets, and (intentionally) badly written for comedic effect. The players would travel door-to-door, visiting and performing at big houses and asking for donations of food, drink, and/or coin.

As you might guess from the title, the plot of the Bennet sisters’ play involves a battle between Elizabeth (as Saint George) and the dragon “Fitz” (a representation of Darcy, played by Lydia).

Courting By the Book: A Collaborative JAFF Novel

My other JAFF-related project that started this summer is a collaboration among eleven authors, with a working title of Courting By the Book.

Courting By the Book (if that is indeed what we decide to call it when we publish) is a JAFF novel that combines aspects of Pride and Prejudice, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Groundhog Day.  Like Alice’s mirror, fictitious JAFF novels by each of the eleven contributing authors thrust Darcy and Elizabeth into different story lines involving different settings and tropes, including romance and occasional angst (of course), adventure, magic, and the supernatural.

Each chapter was written by one of the contributing authors, in their own style, and with their own creative ideas for guiding Our Dear Couple to their Happily Ever After. As with Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, each chapter is its own story in its own Austenesque world, including its own backstory, and sometimes its own rules for magic or the supernatural.  As with Groundhog Day, Darcy and Elizabeth repeat the process (resetting after each time loop), growing and improving themselves each time.

The collaboration is a delightful romp, not just through the lens of one author, but through the kaleidoscope of several.  Because I came up with the idea, I am the de facto project leader (or as I prefer to call myself, chief cat-herder). I am thoroughly enjoying working with ten co-authors, including some well-known names and some first-time authors. All of them are wonderful people as well as wonderful writers, and the book promises to be a wild ride through a Pride and Prejudice variation that will be different from anything else you have read!

The expected publication date is in the spring of 2026.

Social Media

While I am not good about posting with any regularity, my posts/updates can be found in the following places:

• My website: jeffbigler.com
• Facebook: Jeff Bigler, author
• Substack: Jeff Bigler
• Goodreads: Jeff Bigler