Gnarly Nature

The Frog Pond #31: Air-Cleaning Bacteria Live in the Fog (+ new kitten!)

A helpful bacteria has been found living in calm fog, quietly eating formaldehyde and growing ocean-density colonies within air-suspended droplets.

The MacKay Bridge in Halifax, Nova Scotia on the very foggy morning of my wedding day.

Before getting into the research topic of the day (fog!!), some cool book updates from the past couple months:

A FATE WORSE THAN DROWNING was selected as a Most Anticipated Horror book by Indigo! (and you can read the first chapter for free on the book's page)
AFWTD was included in the Goodreads "New Voices Alert! 51 New & Upcoming Debut Novels" list!
AFWTD was also included in the Goodreads "Stock Your Summer Shelves with Highly Anticipated Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Horror" list!
AFWTD reached 15,000 adds on Goodreads! What!

I also have three events in July for my launch week! If you're in the area, I'd love to see you! The afterparty at the Wooden Monkey is currently waitlisted but everything else is open season:

Tuesday, July 21, 2026: Release Day Store Signing @ Egghead Books (4 - 6 pm). We've got a limited supply of goodie bags for those in store that day, with cool swag including a special Devils Island postcard made by yours truly!
Wednesday, July 22, 2026: Book Launch Reading, Q&A, and Signing @ Trident Booksellers & Cafe (7 - 8:30 pm). I loved going to Trident for the Haunted Holidays short story reading I did with some lovely writing friends, really looking forward to this!
Saturday, July 25, 2026: Book Launch in Conversation With Mere Joyce @ Halifax Central Library (1 - 2:30 pm). So excited to get to chat with Mere, a fellow Poisoned Pen Press author, about writing, publishing, and reading Canadian fiction!

Now for the fun stuff: Fog!

What lives in the fog?

New research into the microbiology of fog has revealed that the spooky atmospheric setting is also an ecosystem for bacteria¹. Specifically, this new research by Susquehanna University and Arizona State University explores the activity of the bacteria while suspended in fog². In fact, the concentration of bacteria in fog water droplets are the same as what's found in eutrophic lakes and ocean waters³! Previously, it was unknown if bacteria in air was active and growing, or only in transit between habitats³.

Researchers focused on "radiation fog", a kind that forms in calm air above cooled ground, to get 32 consistent samples over 2 years in Pennsylvania³. This is a common type of fog in the United States, forming overnight usually in fall and winter ⁴. The researchers sampled before, during, and after fog events, finding a 45% increase in bacteria in post-fog air compared to its pre-fog state³. While only 1% of fog droplets collected contained bacteria, a milliliter of fog-water contains about 10 Million bacteria^2,3.

Delicious formaldehyde

One bacteria in particular, Methylobacteria, grew and multiplied in fog. It represented 29% of all samples, consistently dominating other types of bacteria³. This could be good news, given it eats simple carbon compounds that can include pollutants from the air². This can include formaldehyde, which it eats at unprecedently high rates³. Formaldehyde is a common pollutant that can harm human health and add ozone smog to the atmosphere⁴.

Growth, to the microbiologists, suggests the fog as a habitat in itself². In fact, the researchers suggest that each droplet itself should be considered as an aquatic microhabitat³.

This is a complication for the harvesting of drinking water from fog, which could inadvertently be taking out a helpful, tiny air scrubber^2,3.

What's special about fog?

The researchers wanted to study the fog because of its particular state. Fogs and clouds are the only stable form of liquid in the atmosphere, and fog is much easier to study since it's so much closer to the ground⁴. As a widespread atmospheric phenomenon, fog impacts much of the world and any research done could have very wide implications⁴.

A local interest in fog

Atlantic Canada is one of the foggiest places on Earth due to a unique mix of geographical and climatic conditions. It causes warm and cool air to meet above the ocean, which creates vaporous low-lying clouds⁵.

How fog happened in Atlantic Canada was not well understood by British settlers (shocker). 1700s sources commonly believed fog came from the lakes, swamps, and bogs around Newfoundland, while others believed the difference compared to New England fog should be pinned on the "breath, warmth, and motion of fish and sea-animals around the coasts"⁵. Some British colonizers thought the North Atlantic fog less dangerous than old world fog, not producing as many diseases or asthmatic symptoms⁵. Fog was long associated with the spread of diseases due to the belief in decomposing matter from lakes, swamps, and bogs entering the lungs⁵. This classification between dangerous fresh water fog and healthy ocean fog is particularly interesting to me!

I highly recommend Dr. Sara Spike's article on fog in Atlantic Canada and its cultural connections, especially around the political and settler colonial framing of fog as strange compared to many Indigenous views on fog.

Growing up in Halifax, I've seen my fair share of fog. Just this morning I woke to a white window, thick enough not to see the trees less than 20 metres away. While fog is often made into a spooky setting, I've always found it comforting. On the much rarer foggy days when I lived in Ontario, I'd be all the more homesick. I was charmed on the drive into downtown Halifax on my wedding day, heading to the hair salon with a thick fog over the harbour. While my bridesmaids promised me the fog would clear before the ceremony (it did), it felt like a friendly presence. In fact, the featured photo for this Frog Pond is one I took on that drive!

Fog obscures, but that goes both ways. You can feel protected in the fog just as much as it can be dangerous for cars and ships. One inspiration for AFWTD's setting was that concept of being concealed in plain sight by fog.

The next time you're walking in the fog, take a moment to remember that not only you, but millions of helpful bacteria are there enjoying the airborne micro-oceans.

A word from a passing frog

Sorry for the delay in this Frog Pond! Some of it has been due to busyness, most of it has been depression and medication changes.

Writing

I have officially started drafting my Book 2 with Poisoned Pen Press! This is a new standalone Adult Historical Speculative novel. The title has been chosen and work has started already on the cover (!!!). I'm drafting the book now with a July deadline. Cannot wait to share more when everyone's ready to share it!

It's a little rough going from reading the final pass pages of a book revised countless times and I know by heart to writing the first words of a new project. But it's also exciting! I can feel how AFWTD's editing process is helping me think about this new book. I'm trying very hard not to look at early reviews and get stuck on critiques. A first draft isn't meant for that kind of energy!

Also, shout out to Noah Kahan's new album THE GREAT DIVIDE because it has become the soundtrack for writing Book 2!

Publishing

I just want to take a moment of gratitude for my wonderful editorial and marketing teams. They have worked tirelessly to make sure AFWTD is getting in as many hands and rooms as possible. Their enthusiasm means the world to me. I'm excited to share more from their hard work when I'm able to!!

I'm also going to be a guest on a podcast?? Recording in June with some lovely locals, more details to come!

Reading

I've honestly had a terrible couple of months in terms of reading - I've started way more books than I've finished! Sometimes it's not the book's fault, it's just the brain error coding. But! I made a book club with a couple friends to help give a friendly deadline to myself and prioritize some more reading time.

I enjoyed THE VANISHING CHERRY BLOSSOM BOOKSHOP, a "healing fiction" Japanese translation that features the titular location in an anthology style of people finding healing truths in their past. Apparently fans of this book also enjoy BEFORE THE COFFEE GETS COLD, so I'll check that out soon as well.

My next read is THE BUFFALO HUNTER HUNTER by Stephen Graham Jones, a historical horror set around Montana. I loved THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS so I'm looking forward to this one!

Life

New cat!!!!!!! Please welcome Pepper, our nearly 6 month old kitten!

A collection of photos of Pepper, a tuxedo kitten with green/yellow eyes.

We adopted Pepper from a local shelter at just under 4 months in April. We were careful on introducing her slowly to our 4-year-old cat, Hazel (you can find her intro post here, wow it's nostalgic to see updates about putting AFWTD on submission to publishers back then!). Happy to report they got along splendidly and are absolutely sisters for life, playing and eating and sleeping together like they've always known each other. Hazel has been showing her the ropes and we couldn't be prouder of what a great big sister she's become. Pepper is showing us more of her personality every day. She's a chirper, a tissue thief, and as playful as they come. She also goes by Chili Pepper, Peprika, Pepperoni, and stopeatingthecardboard.

My (now regular) mental health update: I've switched out my medication! I went up to a full dose of the meds I was on and it was, in a word, awful! Fatigue, panic attacks, spiraling thoughts, the whole nine yards. So I've swapped meds. Time will tell if this will be The One For Me, but wow do I already feel some relief just not taking the old meds. This is a totally normal process! It's unfortunately set me back on drafting (and kind of everything), but I know it's worth it in the long run. It's also strange to begin to shift my perspective on how I was over the last few months, since October or so. I knew I was doing bad, don't get me wrong, I felt that. But it isn't until you get a bit of relief that you can really understand just how deep in the hole you were. Here's to being on the other side, even if there's still much to climb!