This episode is also a film, with the words on the screen as they are spoken. Watch it with the sound on: averylanemaxwell.com/podcast

A lamp in a kitchen window. A porch light over a step. The glow at a front desk after everyone has gone up. Little lights, everywhere, and behind almost every one of them, somebody keeping it.

This week, a keeper who holds the light. Avery holds the first proof of Come In. It's Already Warm. for the first time, on the floor by the fire: the title, the map of the country around the house, his signature on the last page, and the line under it, there will always be a second cup. The Kindle edition opens for pre-order. A stranger in Denver orders a signed copy, and a little shop in Oregon becomes the first to carry the books on its shelves.

Still Here. continues on Monday, one reading a day. A reading at the Dillon Wellness Collective, and the fund called Someone is Coming, which keeps counseling and recovery within reach in Summit County. And a winter going north to Gardiner, Montana, at the north gate of Yellowstone, nine miles out of town, where the houses keep their lights on for each other.

Then the story at the center, Day Nineteen: From One Keeper to Another. Before dawn, Elias lights the lamp on the marble and writes to strangers who keep houses, a lighthouse on a far coast among them, where the people who look after it are still called keepers. Twenty-seven letters to thank them. Sixteen asking for a desk for the winter. And the paragraph where you are supposed to say what you are good at, which comes out, after most of an hour, as one line: I keep the porch light on before the knock.

The question for the week: who has been holding a light for you? Have you thanked them yet? One line will do.

The keeper's book. Come In. It's Already Warm. arrives on Thanksgiving, 26 November 2026. A large hardcover, 186 pages: hand-drawn topographic maps, seventeen plates, the views as they stood, and the recipes from the kitchen. Signed by hand and sent to you the week it arrives, $79, shipping in the US from the house. Or carry it on any screen: the Kindle edition is open for pre-order. The signed hardcover and the Kindle edition: averylanemaxwell.com/come-in

Chapters

00:00 Little lights, everywhere

00:57 The first proof, by the fire

02:21 Still Here., a reading, and Someone is Coming

03:10 Going north to Gardiner

03:53 The way in

04:33 Day Nineteen: From One Keeper to Another

05:00 The lighthouse

07:13 August at a quarter to six

09:02 The second kind of letter

11:05 I keep the porch light on before the knock

14:09 Twenty-seven thanking, sixteen asking

18:29 The keeper's book, made to travel

21:21 August goes home

24:34 The porch light

26:16 A keeper who holds the light

27:19 The question for the week

28:10 Come In. It's Already Warm.

The music under this episode is its own, a Galena House song written for it.

Keep the lamp on: the house is kept by the people who listen to it. The Patron Circle is at averylanemaxwell.com.

⌂ Every episode, and the films: averylanemaxwell.com/podcast · the letters: averylanemaxwell.com/letters · the kitchen: averylanemaxwell.com/kitchen

♫ The Galena House playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/55wkYr82P02Tsr4zgKZubw

Credits: written and read by Avery Lane Maxwell. The score, a house song of its own. Photographs and footage by Avery Lane Maxwell, in Frisco, Colorado, the first proof turned page by page by the fire. With thanks to everyone who keeps a light on for someone they have not met yet.

A note from the house: this is a personal podcast. Avery tells these stories as he remembers and understands them, from his own life and perspective. When other people wander into them, he protects what belongs to them.

STILL HERE

No. 1 of 5
A USED SUNDAY

Sunday night, and the house has given everything it had. Elias at the desk with the coffee made five times, a glass on the landing where no glass belongs, and a question from a guest about whose version gets to be true. The first of five readings for the end of a long day. If today used you up a little too, this one is for you.

Still Here. is five readings from the house: Elias, read aloud by Avery Lane Maxwell. Every episode, and the films: averylanemaxwell.com/podcast · the letters: averylanemaxwell.com/letters

♫ The Lamp On, the music under these readings, is out on its own on Sunday 18 October: averylanemaxwell.com/the-lamp-on

The book: Still Here., the first in Come In., on Kindle now for pre-order and as an audiobook on 1 November: averylanemaxwell.com/still-here

A note from the house: this is a personal podcast. Avery tells these stories as he remembers and understands them, from his own life and perspective. When other people wander into them, he protects what belongs to them.

This episode is also a film. Watch it with the sound on: averylanemaxwell.com/podcast

Get comfortable first. Avery is in green sweatpants and an old red tee with a gold eagle that has nearly washed away, the kind of thing that knows your shape without asking you to become a different one.

A hello to you, whoever is out there with a mug and a long day behind you. Two people keeping another old house, a long way from here, and a light in their eyes he recognized. Then, on Monday, scones out of thin air: light brown sugar, corners gone almost to toffee, and a maple cream glaze that sets in thin glassy lines.

Then a reading for Elias. The house before anyone is awake, a page with one word on it, river, the Yellowstone going past Gardiner at its own speed, and a guest by the fire who asked the question Elias has carried all year: who does that for you? About keeping a quiet ledger of who called and who came, and learning instead to hold people to the care in the work. The cup set down, already made the way you take it.

The question: who does that for you? And who are you doing it for, quietly, without putting your name on it? One line is enough. Write to avery@averylanemaxwell.com and say how you would like it held. Nothing becomes part of Galena House without permission.

From the kitchen: maple and brown sugar scones with a maple cream glaze. Two cups of flour, half a teaspoon of salt, two and a quarter teaspoons of baking powder at altitude (a tablespoon nearer the sea), a third of a cup of light brown sugar, packed, half a cup of cold butter, about a cup of heavy cream. 425 degrees, 13 to 15 minutes. The glaze: a cup of powdered sugar, three spoonfuls of maple, half and half until it falls in a ribbon, a pinch of salt.

From the house:
· Sunday 18 October: The Lamp On, the music under these episodes, out everywhere you listen.
· Monday 26 to Friday 30 October: Still Here., five readings for Elias, one each evening, each with its own song. The book, the audiobook and the album on Sunday 1 November. averylanemaxwell.com/still-here

The music under this episode is its own: Who Does That for You?, a new Galena House song written for this episode.

Keep the lamp on: the house is kept by the people who listen to it. The Patron Circle is at averylanemaxwell.com.

⌂ Every episode, and the films: averylanemaxwell.com/podcast · the letters: averylanemaxwell.com/letters · the kitchen: averylanemaxwell.com/kitchen

♫ The Galena House playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/55wkYr82P02Tsr4zgKZubw

Credits: written and read by Avery Lane Maxwell. The score, Who Does That for You?, a house song of its own. Photographs and footage by Avery Lane Maxwell, in Frisco and Idaho Springs, Colorado. With thanks to two innkeepers, a long way from here, and to whoever puts the kettle on for you.

A note from the house: this is a personal podcast. Avery tells these stories as he remembers and understands them, from his own life and perspective. When other people wander into them, he protects what belongs to them.