Quarto
Happy New Year from Li’l Nosferatu!
Happy New Year, everyone! Welcome to 2026! And welcome to my “year-end wrap-up” blog post for 2025. Look, before you say anything: yes, I’m writing a “year-end” post the day after the year ended. Which is probably against the rules, but as I’ve learned over the years, I don’t like rules. Rules are stupid. Also, I was busy yesterday.
So. Here are some of the best things that happened to me in 2025:
I wrote many, many books. Most of them were for kids. Some of them were for adults. Here are the titles of some (but not all) of those books:
The Encyclopedia of Curious Rituals and Superstitions.
The Fantastic Four Little Golden Book.
Stitch: Out-of-This-World Numbers.
Also, in January of 2025, I began working as a writer and narrative designer for an upcoming video game called Shadows of Dawn, which is being developed by Next Player Games. Currently, I’m still working on the game with the good folks at NPG.
And as you may recall, back in 2023, I wrote two episodes of the animated preschool series Hey! Fuzzy Yellow. In 2024, one of the episodes began airing and streaming. But starting in 2025, both episodes (“Boomerang Jelly Car” and “Sculpture Jam Abstract”) began airing and streaming. I wrote the scripts and the song lyrics for both episodes. As of this writing, Hey! Fuzzy Yellow still hasn’t begun airing or streaming in the US, but it’s available in various countries in Europe, Central America, and South America.
I also wrote the script for a Passover-themed children’s audio drama, titled “Mort the Misinformed Morsel of Matzah,” which was released in the spring of 2025 as part of Yoto’s 5-Minute Spring Holiday Stories collection. The title character, Mort, was even voiced by a friend of mine, Eli Schiff!
And there are several other projects I worked on throughout 2025, some of which will come out this year. I announced one of them, 96 Facts About Chappell Roan, in my previous blog post. (That book comes out on January 13th.) But I’ll announce some of my other upcoming projects ASAP. Please keep checking this site for more info!
BTW, I wouldn’t have worked on any of the aforementioned projects without the book editors, video game producers, and TV showrunners who gave me these writing gigs in the first place. I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who hired me in 2025 (or really, anyone who hired me at any time, ever). And I mean that.
You may also be wondering about the “Baby New Year” photo which adorns this blog post. See, to usher in the new year, I’ve put a “2026” sash around a puppet I built. I call him “Li’l Nosferatu.” If you’re obsessed with me (and why wouldn’t you be?), you’ll notice that I’ve occasionally posted pics of Li’l Nosferatu on social media during the past couple of years. For today’s purposes, Li’l Nosferatu is playing the part of Baby New Year.
Someday, I’ll explain the backstory behind this puppet, because there is indeed quite a bit of backstory there. Basically, I built the puppet for a project which never came to fruition. But more on that some other time.
And to anyone who’s reading this, I just wanted to wish you the best for a wonderful new year!
“Something You Should Know” Podcast Interview!
A few weeks ago, I was a guest on an episode of the Something You Should Know podcast, where host Mike Carruthers interviewed me. During the interview, we chatted about my new book The Encyclopedia of Curious Rituals and Superstitions. Or, as the SYSK folks put it in their official description of the episode:
Even if you don’t believe in them, you probably participate in some superstitions. Maybe you knock on wood or avoid walking under a ladder or steer clear of black cats. Where do these superstitions come from? Why do they still exist since we know they don’t really do anything? Here to explain this is Arie Kaplan, who has written numerous books and graphic novels and is also a television writer. Arie is author of a book called The Encyclopedia of Curious Rituals and Superstitions: Ancient and Remarkable Traditions That Will Captivate Your Mind (https://amzn.to/44xpZ8m).
Anyway, I’m writing this blog post because the episode is out NOW! It’s Episode #1231, titled “Where Superstitions Come From & What You Never Knew About Paul Revere.” My interview begins at the 00:05:29 mark.
Listen to it on the Something You Should Know site, which you can find HERE.
Or you can listen to it via Apple Podcasts, which you can find HERE.
To find out more about The Encyclopedia of Curious Rituals and Superstitions, go HERE.
Perhaps you even want to buy a copy of the book, after listening to that podcast interview. Well, you’re in luck! You can buy it HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE! 
My “Superstitions” Book Is Out NOW!
What do weddings, Christmas celebrations, Thanksgiving dinners, and Halloween mischief have in common? They all involve rituals and customs that used to be (and in some cases still are) superstitious. Superstitions are woven into the fabric of our everyday lives, often in ways we don’t even realize. Why am I mentioning this? Because I wrote a nonfiction book that deals with that very subject. It’s called The Encyclopedia of Curious Rituals and Superstitions, and it came out TODAY from Quarto Publishing Group’s Wellfleet Press imprint.
This book is available at bookstores everywhere, as well as HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE!
Hey, want to read two glowing reviews of The Encyclopedia of Curious Rituals and Superstitions? Sure you do!
And here’s the official publisher description of the book:
The Encyclopedia of Curious Rituals and Superstitions sheds light on the impact that superstitions have on our global society at large, world history, the pop culture we consume, the art we create, and even the way we think about marriage, death, prosperity, self-protection, and luck, to name a few. No matter where on Earth you live, superstitions have always been the infrastructure of societies since ancient times. They can be found in social rules of etiquette, in the vocabulary we communicate with, in rituals performed during holidays, in birthing rooms across time, at funerals, or just in our everyday habits. These mysterious practices provide an essential source of comfort, safety, and control. Even more fascinating is that they have been used since time immemorial to explain the unexplained. Unpack the lore and origins of cultural superstitions and how they have persisted throughout many generations.
Discover how:
- Celtic fairies are behind our compulsion to knock on wood
• Norse mythology is responsible for our fear of the number 13
• Taylor Swift finds the number 13 to be lucky
• A quick death in Japan is thought to be ensured if you cut your toenails at night
• The evil eye is an important talisman in Jewish and Muslim cultures
• The meaning behind your birthstone can predict your personality
• Rabbits hold significance in some Asian and Indigenous cultures
• Finding a husband in Nebraska is as simple as 99 horses, a white mule, and a handshake
• Eating twelve grapes on New Year’s Eve in Spain and Central and South America can bring forth prosperity
Beautiful illustrations further challenge the images your mind may have already held about the beliefs you instinctively carry throughout your life. You will be continually surprised and delighted by how superstitions not only define the bedrock of a culture but also demonstrate the nuanced ways in which we are all connected.
Unlock a world of wonders in The Encyclopedia of Curious Rituals and Superstitions.
The Wonderpedia series offers comprehensive, display-worthy illustrated references on a range of intriguing topics, including archeological discoveries, world mythology, pop culture, global superstitions, and the fascinating stories behind signs and symbols. A cross-cultural exploration of what makes humans tick, this series magnifies the connective threads between us across time and geography and demystifies the surprising, confounding sides of life.