22: Sugarplum is a Lying Bastard

Ah, US Thanksgiving. The start of the You Will Love Christmas Forced Death March. If you own the proper sunglasses you can see that all the billboards are actually white, with messages in big black letters like BE JOLLY and CELEBRATE. Don’t wear the glasses too long, you’ll get a headache.

Today’s snippet is from “Heart of Coal,” a Christmas tale that will be on my short fiction bookstore next month.

They sent me to Wrapping, where I proved that I had failed art honestly. Bakery? Airborne flour ...