The winter solstice, which falls on Thursday, is one of my favorite holidays. As a pagan, and one who’s quite fire-oriented, it’s a special day. It’s the day we start winning the fight against the darkness, the day the light starts to come back. Throughout my late childhood, teenage years, and early adulthood, I always spent the Longest Night with close friends, those with whom I shared beliefs. Many of…
So we’re writing this week about great gifts for writers and readers here on the Debutante Ball. I could spend a lot of money on some of the things suggested. I love them all! If there’s anything bookish people love more than books, it’s stuff related to books. And there’s lots of it out there, but I have some other suggestions. And none of them cost money! Time to read…
Congrats to Michelle, who won the copy of Kathryn Mattingly’s BENJAMIN last week! From the 2014 Debs… Lisa Alber Susan Gloss Lori Rader-Day Natalia Sylvester Heather Webb …
Given the plummeting nighttime temperatures in Sacramento, winter has (finally) decided to join us. And since my calendar reads November, I have access to two of my favorite evening inspirations: Fires and Gingerbread Lattes. I love curling up by a crackling fire with a book, my computer, or even just a blanket and a dream. Fire lights my imagination every time. As a child, I loved to read by the…
Deb Kelly here. I am so tickled that my post day fell on one of my favoritest holidays. Halloween is such a fantastic celebration, so very American in its expression, so all-inclusive and nondenominational and indiscriminate in its merriment that I truly believe it should be a federal holiday. (Although, that being said, who would want to stay home from school or work on the one day a year you…
Congrats to Melissa, winner of Erika Marks’ THE MERMAID COLLECTOR! From the 2013 Debs… Deb Kerry: Finished a revision of Wakeworld (Book Two in The Books of the Between) and it is off to readers. She’s now pushing the deadline for page proofs on Between. Deb Dana typed up the goings on of the previous week for Untitled Books’ My Week, which should appear online in the next month or two!…
This week’s theme is Getting Away. Wow, how timely. My book releases in Canada tomorrow and next Tuesday in the U.S., so you can bet I really want to get away. This past year has been full of getting ready for this and I’m sure feeling that. I need a holiday. And for me (and thankfully my husband) the best holiday is one spent at sea. That’s right: I’m a…
Chocolate. Toffee. Jelly beans. Gummy Bears. Okay, I admit it. I’m a candy fiend. I have a hard time walking past candy without taking at least one (or two). But at least I feel guilty about it. I gave Lydia in Posed for Murder a little secret sweet tooth, too. She likes butter rum lifesavers, and always keeps a stash in her purse. And she likes canoli–enough for her boss’…
(Don’t forget to enter our fabulous holiday contest!) When it comes to gift-giving cluelessness, I rank right up there with the dazed husbands in 1950s comic strips. I am incapable of selecting an appropriate gift and even buying it (much less getting it in the hands of the receiver) before the applicable holiday/birthday/ life event. This isn’t anything new. My innately ungracious temperament made itself known in second grade, when,…
It started with Hanukkah. When she was three, my first daughter came home from pre-school toting a dreidel and singing a Christmas carol. My Irish Catholic/English husband shrugged and gave the top a whirl. A month and a half later, she came home, plopped a red lantern on the table, and chortled, “Gung Hay Fat Choy!” My husband raised his eyebrows. “What?” I cleared my throat. “She’s wishing us happy…
