The Northern Lights are stunning from Reykjavik. Iceland is a great place to get a close-up look at them. But what if it’s the wrong time of year? (Yep. It is.)

You could book now for a December getaway in Reykjavik and sit tight.

Or you could find a good story today, and make a health-promoting instant escape out of that. Because stories make great getaways — inexpensive, convenient, and often noisy + exciting but that’s mostly in your own imagination. Open your book or e-reader, and you are on vacation.

In Case of Emergency, Break Glass.
Fortunately, this is Free Story Month so I’ve left a short story on my website for you: a little tale called “The Lonely Bull Elephant,” about an intergalactic traveling circus, a missing chimp, and one of those surprising turns that life can take.

Survey.
Will those of you who have read the story “Chameleon” in The Emperor’s Golden Carp and Other Stories answer this one-question survey? The question: did you easily understand the story?

 No one’s life is without climbs, cliff-hangers and challenges. Let’s all give the world another few weeks of our usual heroism, whatever it is we need to conquer, with some great escapes as mini-vacations between battles.