Midnight and Margaret are back to talk about the very real evils going on right now in Minnesota and, more broadly, against immigrants and the constitution by the Trump administration. We discuss the difference between how villainy in real life can be 1-dimensional, but in fiction, it needs nuance and for the villains to be understandable and not flat. We also address the different ways to approach villains, such as being foils, metaphors, or deeply personal to the hero...etc. Finally, we'll talk a little about how you can get involved currently with local organizations to become active against the villains of our time. Please note that we will talk about WWII and Nazis, both the confederacy in the US and its history of enslaving Black people, genocide against native people, like at Wounded Knee, and other historical horrors and also some mass shootings. If you need to sit this one out, we understand. Finally, for the show notes, if you want to get involved with the organizations we mention, here are the links to get started:

SURJ or Showing Up for Racial Justice Link – https://surj.org/

Indivisible Link – https://indivisible.org/

MoCo IRC or Montgomery County Immigrants Rights Collective Link - https://www.instagram.com/moco_irc/?hl=en

Margaret and Midnight evaluate what they were able to accomplish in 2025, where they missed the mark, and discuss the importance of recognizing progress steps before setting their 2026 goals for writing, reading, and the podcast.

In this minisode, Margaret and Midnight talk about writing holiday tie in stories, how to research them, optimize them as both gifts for fans and ways to encourage new readers to try you out as an author, and recommend 4 christmas-themed books (MM, MF, and FF) for your enjoyment this year.