“January is the month for dreaming.” – Jean Hersey

Happy New Year! I hope your new year of 2026 will be a healthy, happy, and prosperous one, full of good times and rich memories to cherish.

As a winter treat, J.L. and I were both asked to return to the 43^rd Annual WILDERNESS WILDLIFE WEEK at the first of January. We’ll be heading that way this weekend to set up and then will be at the Le Conte Center on Teaster Road where WILDERNESS WILDLIFE WEEK will be held from Monday, January 5^th through Thursday, January 8^th. This is a wonderful event rich with hikes and tours you can take, crafts classes, entertainment, and ongoing speakers every day sharing interesting talks about Tennessee, the mountains, its people, beauty, and history.

J.L. and I will be exhibitors all week and also presenters, giving PowerPoint presentations rich with our own memories and photos. J.L. is presenting a wonderful talk “Discovering Tennessee State Parks” about our visits to all Tennessee’s state parks on Monday, January 5th at 1:00 pm and I will be presenting a fun talk about “Hiking Trails in My Smoky Mountain Novels” telling a little about my books and the trails sprinkled in them on Wednesday January 7th at 1:00 pm.

I hope you’ll come one day to enjoy all the exhibitors, speakers, tours and more. This wonderful event is free to the public, too. … For more information about Wilderness Wildlife Week and to see its program guide, scheduled hikes, classes, and bus trips see: https://www.mypigeonforge.com/event/wilderness-wildlife-week/

I always find the cold days of winter a good time to write. So after Wilderness Wildlife Week is over I’ll be settling in to start a new book and hope to write another after … so there will be two new books for my readers to enjoy by next spring. J.L. and I recently finished final proof edits for two new books publishing this spring we hope you will enjoy. One is a new Mountain Home novel called WILDFLOWER HAVEN, set in the Cosby-Newport area of the Smokies. The other is J.L.’s and my new 365-day devotional guide called SUNDAY THOUGHTS: Inspirational Thoughts for Sunday or Any Day. In February I will tell you more about both these new books, which will publish in April.

By February we should have updates about our new books and upcoming spring events on my author’s website at: www.linstepp.com … To entertain you while you wait and to brighten these winter days, I hope you will enjoy the “free” short story I wrote and posted on my blog called THE PARK BENCH. If story ideas continue to come to me, I plan to write a short story for my blog every month this year—that’s a lot of free stories! If you missed the first one, THE LITTLE CHRISTMAS TREE, you will find it posted for December, right after my latest story for January posted today. To read them, go to: www.linstepp.com/blog

If you are a person of faith, pray for your country every day. My New Year’s resolution this year, which you are welcome to make yours, too, is to: BE what God wants me to be; GO where God wants me to go; and DO what God wants me to do.

Best and blessings to you all for 2026 …

See you in February … Lin