Feather and Quill: A Winter Tale from the Misty Hills

When the first snow falls, one small hedgehog stays awake to find his friend.

I've been waiting a long time to write that sentence somewhere other than my own notes. Feather and Quill: A Winter Tale of Friendship and Love is now on Kindle pre-order, and it comes out on November 9, 2026. It's book two of Tales from the Misty Hills, a companion to The Button Map.

Winter in the Misty Hills

The Button Map was an autumn story, full of falling leaves and an early frost. This time I wanted to go deeper into the cold. Far beyond the misty hills lives a village of hedgehogs. Every autumn they light a great bonfire so the sun will remember to come back, and then they curl up in their leaf nests to sleep until spring.

This year, one of them is still awake.

His road is full of the things I find magical about the Nordic winter: lake ice that sings, frost flowers, northern lights, a snowy bog, a bear asleep in a warm cave, and a dark lighthouse by the sea, waiting to be lit again.

A Friendship Worth Walking For

All summer, a young redstart with a fire-orange tail that never stays still lived in the old aspen above the hedgehog's door. Every morning the bird sang him awake, and every evening he told jokes until the bird laughed itself to sleep. Then the first snow falls in the night, and in the morning the hollow is silent. There are no tracks in the snow. His friend has flown away to Lintukoto, the faraway land of the birds. It's the bird's first time making the journey, and it has gone alone, far too late in the year, without saying goodbye.

Out loud, the hedgehog says that someone has to make sure the little bird gets there safely. Quietly, he hopes to bring the bird back home. And one question follows him every step of the way: Why are you looking for your friend?

The Forest Folk Along the Way

With a few lingonberries in his pack, his warmest scarf, and a single orange feather tucked beside his heart, he follows the Milky Way, the road of the birds, toward an old lighthouse by the sea. On the way through the wildwood he meets the forest folk: an otter who pulls him out of freezing water; Vellamo, the spirit who sleeps beneath the singing ice of the lake; and a sleepy old toad witch who gives him a lantern with one rule. Its flame never fades when you share its light, but it shrinks when you keep the light to yourself.

There's also a shrew lost on the bog, a lonely black cat guarding a rusty key, a fox who knows a shortcut, and an old seal who ferries latecomers across the dark strait.

Big Feelings, Handled Gently

Feather and Quill is a story about friendship, love and saying goodbye. It holds some big, tangled feelings: worry, jealousy, missing someone, the words we are afraid to say, and how to let someone go while hoping they come back. I wanted the book to sit with those feelings rather than lecture about them. It's sad in places, but never hopeless. The hedgehog nearly gives up more than once, and the story lets him. Then spring comes, and so does the epilogue.

I also want to be honest with grown-ups choosing it: this is a reflective, gently philosophical chapter book with full pages of text, not an easy reader or a picture book. It moves at a thoughtful pace, and there's a quiet scene where the hedgehog buries a tiny bird he finds in the snow. I hope it opens up conversations about friendship, love, jealousy and goodbyes.

Who It's For

It has sixteen chapters and an epilogue, so it works well as one chapter a night at bedtime, or as a solo read for a confident young reader. It's best for ages 8 to 12 reading on their own, or as a read-aloud from about age 7. Most of all, I wrote it for any child who has had to say goodbye to someone they love and wait for them to come home.

Book Two, but Also a Beginning

If you and your little ones loved The Button Map, I hope this feels like coming back to a familiar place in a new season. But you don't need to have read it first. Feather and Quill is a standalone story, so you can start right here. It's also free to read with Kindle Unlimited.

When winter comes, far beyond the misty hills, small golden lights glimmer beneath the snow. Each one burns for someone who is far away, so that they can always find their way home.

Thank you for walking these hills with me. I can't wait for you to meet the hedgehog on November 9.