Newsletter

Odin's February 2026 Newsletter

From projects to publications, everything recent in Odin's life.

Odin Halvorson

15 Feb 2026 — 5 min read

Hello everyone! I wanted to take a moment to say thank you for reading the articles we've been posting, for following us, and for accepting us into your inboxes and your homes. I’m really excited for the next phase of the projects I have in store and for the next level of community building that Katie and I want to take on.

It’s obviously been a little while since I’ve sent out a newsletter like this, but my intention is to start sending them out regularly again—once a month, or more often if something comes up and it makes sense. I’m also planning on sending out regular articles as frequently as I can; in the last week or so, I’ve been sending out one most days. Hopefully, some of those have been interesting to you and have inspired some thought.

I would obviously love to hear your feedback. You can reach out on social media or just respond directly by replying to the emails you get, and I’ll see those comments and reply.

So, what’s been new in our lives? Lots of work stuff, and lots of focusing on our incredible child, who is growing like a weed. We are focusing heavily on building the Unenlightened Generalists as an action platform that can really help us build and engage a real community of people who want to connect, invigorate one another, and make the world a better place—to create art, learn new things, and find connections between people and ideas.

Obviously, we’re working full-time as well, and we are both really happy and grateful for the fact that we get to work from home.

I’ve been working on a novel. I’m currently on the 19th chapter out of 25 plotted chapters.

These last few chapters are going a little slow because I’ve been exceedingly busy, but I’m really excited for this one. As soon as I finish this very rough 25-chapter first draft, I’m going to do what’s called a reverse outline. I’ll start at the very last scene and work my way back to the first, outlining every single thing that happens. This helps me handle all the retcons, plot hole fixing, and characterization work that needs to be built into the story.

I really like what’s happening. I have a couple of characters that I’m pretty excited about, and there is a strong romance arc set against the background of a post-apocalyptic world. I’ve always been a "pantser"—writing by the seat of my pants—and plotting this out in this way has given me a lot of inspiration for other novel projects.

I’ve also restarted my age-old Dungeons & Dragons game with friends online. That’s been a blast.

Scheduling has been hard because we are in completely different time zones, from the West Coast through the middle of the country to the East Coast and all the way out into Spain. It’s a truly international D&D game. I’ve been putting a fair amount of work into world-building for that, as well as some app building on the side—mostly for work, but for a few personal projects as well.

I’ve also been interested in doing more video work, so I’ve got to figure out what exactly that would look like. Katie has been creating some amazing videos for her ABC Video Challenge (the "Alphabet Superset" journey), and I think you're all going to love the next one that comes out.

I’ve been listening to a lot of books. One I'm most excited to share is Rutger Bregman’s Humankind: A Hopeful History.

Given how dark and scary everything can seem, and how badly so many of us want to take action in the world, A Hopeful History is really quite potent. It argues that most people, deep down, are pretty decent. You can find the audiobook at Libro.fm (Remember, when you buy an audiobook using our affiliate links you support us directly, and you support a local bookstore of your choosing!).

I also finished re-listening to the Dungeon Crawler Carl series earlier in the year. That’s become one of my all-time favorites. Not only is Matt Dinniman an amazing writer, but the narrator, Jeff Hays, is phenomenal.

Right now, I’m listening to The World of the Five Gods series by Lois McMaster Bujold. She’s a grandmaster of science fiction and fantasy and really knocked it out of the park here; it’s deeply grounded in characters that feel very alive.

Otherwise, most of the books I’ve been reading are children’s books (for obvious reasons). Those are honestly a treat. There’s something magical about having a tiny human being run over to you, hand you a book, and crawl into your lap. I feel very blessed.

"We managed to weather the Virginian ice storms and the snow fairly well, and we are looking forward to the spring."

The buds of beautiful little flowers are already starting to show. I think we’re going to have an interesting few years ahead of us, but I’m glad to be entering them with all of you as part of my extended community. I’m so grateful to all of you for sticking in there with us and following what we do as the Unenlightened Generalists.

Reach out anytime. I’m interested in your thoughts, your feelings, and your day-to-day life. Let’s see what we can do to build a community that can change the world.

But also: sit back, relax, watch a movie, and have some fun.

Remember, if you can’t go easy, go as easy as you can.

A Special Note

I just got published in a new anthology, which I am extremely excited to share: The Mask and Maelstrom, Volume 2: The Overzealous Re-Internment of Edgar Allan Poe.

It contains an absolutely incredible group of authors who I am honored to be sharing the byline with. You can find it through The Mask and Maelstrom's official site or ask if your local indie bookstore can order it for you! Your support not only helps the editors but helps more authors get paid for their work in the future. Go ahead and read that, and tell me what you think!

I’m Odin Halvorson, a librarian, life coach, and fiction author. If you like my work and want to support what we do here at Unenlightened Generalists, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to our newsletter for as little as $2.50 a month!

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