The New Leaf Journal
The New Leaf Journal
Nicholas A. Ferrell
The New Leaf Journal is a self-hosted WordPress-powered online writing magazine. I launched the site on April 27, 2020. I created the project to host my own writing and that of my friends, which (as of this date) includes Victor V. Gurbo.
Latest Posts
Buzzworthy Introduction On October 9, 2008, Residential Aliens, an online speculative fiction blog, published a story titled A Taste of Honey by Fred Warren. Mr. Warren, who Residential Aliens described in his author bio as having...
There is a certain home at the junction of the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, and Columbia Street Waterfront District that likes to place seasonal and holiday-themed inflatable decorations outside for the...
I have documented free things seen around Brooklyn, New York City, in these humble pages. For example, I have reported on five free desks across three articles – one on Hamilton Avenue, three in Carroll Gardens and Columbia Street...
Calvin Coolidge served as the 30th President of the United States from August 2, 1923 through March 4, 1929. He was notably the only president to share a birthday with America, having been born in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, on July 4,...
Introduction Two days ago, I announced my plan to review a significant number of short visual novels submitted to the minimalist O2A2 2026 – Only One of Any Asset Visual Novel Jam (“O2A2”) (see my article about my own submission) and...
Introduction I recently published an article about creating and publishing a new visual novel in ONScripter-EN titled Under the Alien Sky from beginning-to-end from July 17-19. I created that piece within the restraints of two Itch.io...
Limerence is a freeware original English-language visual novel by Zalor, a solo independent visual novel writer/developer and commentator. It is written in Ren’Py and was first published on March 5, 2026. Zalor describes it in a brief,...
Back in January, I released my first original visual novel, Little White Lies, in conjunction with Victor V. Gurbo. In this post, I announce my second visual novel, Under the Alien Sky, which you can download for free from Itch.io...
On May 3, 2026, I spent the afternoon walking around the Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook with a friend. That walk led to my May 25, 2026 report on seeing a large warehouse fire in Belleville, New Jersey, from across the river. I took...
On July 4, 2026, the United States celebrated its 250th anniversary, also known as the semiquincentennial (see Dictionary.com for an explanation of the nomenclature). In so doing, the United States continued its tradition of holding...
Last Christmas, I published a short article titled My Gingerbread Man Soap Dispenser, which was, as the name suggests, about my gingerbread man soap dispenser. I had purchased him at a local discount store called Lot Less on December 20,...
America at 250, America at 50 On July 4, 2026, the United States will celebrate a special Independence Day marking the 250th anniversary of America’s independence on July 4, 1776. While much attention will be on America’s 250th, this...
Beginning with fall 2025, I started establishing seasonal themes at The New Leaf Journal. My fall 2025 and winter and spring 2026 themes were a bit catch-all and arguably under-utilized. But that changes with summer 2026, because I have...
I recently read an article by Adriane Quinlan for Grub Street titled Dark, Dense, and Disappearing How pumpernickel bagels became an endangered species. The headline concerned me. I am a fan of the pumpernickel bagel. While I like most...
[P]introduction Despite having “heard” about Pinterest in the past, it was not until 2020 that I came to (sort of) understand what it was. I created a Pinterest account for The New Leaf Journal in 2020 because our SEO plugin at the time,...