unicorns! (Did I ever mention I was a big unicorn girl in grade school?) Anyway, the parade was the perfect harbinger of my holiday cheer. And now, I want to do a book about a Santa Claus parade. It was such fun to see children's book characters like Alice, come to life,
Isn't it great? If I did not have such a dismal track record with Christmas books, I'd allow the hundred of ideas the window inspires turn into a book. Maybe I can look at it as a second career--what would be the job title? Window Displayer? Christmas Window Decorator?
For the toddler whom the parents want to grow up bilingual:
For the foodie friends with a new baby: Dim Sum for Everyone! and Fortune Cookie Fortunes for the baby, and The Fortune Cookie Chronicles and Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China Because it's never too early to start a love of Chinese food!
The slightly older brother who is a picky eater: The Ugly Vegetables and Luck of the Loch Ness Monster: A Tale of Picky Eating by Alice Flaherty (a hilarious story about how the Loch Ness Monster grew from a small worm eating oatmeal that a picky eater kept throwing out the window). I will probably add Meghan's Astronaut Handbook in as well.
Buy your sister a book instead of a sweater for her birthday; buy your friend who can't even make toast or boil water a beginner's cookbook; buy your company's receptionist a novel you liked because most people probably ignore him/her (it's always a her, though, isn't it?) and you'll make his/her day.
Buy your holiday gifts now. Instead of a CD for your brother, buy him a book on his favorite recording artist.
Instead of going to the library this one week buy the book you were going to read--it might only be a difference of a couple of bucks in the end. One day this week, make a peanut butter sandwich, skip going out for lunch, and buy a paperback.
Got an anniversary? Skip chocolates; fiction is sexy.
Got a non-reading friend with a birthday? Buy them a book and tell them it's high time they got over it. Or, more kindly, that you're doing it to sponsor your own future writing career. Or blame me if you must; I can take it.
It doesn't matter what. It doesn't have to be a literary fiction hardcover. If could be a $5.99 mass market nutrition guide, a $4.99 young reader chapter book, a Harlequin romance. Your money will still prevent returns of other books--literary fiction is usually the first to go--and will trickle down to the publishing companies, who will then be more likely to be able to afford to publish unprofitable literary fiction. Even if it's not by your favorite author or your favorite publishing house, your favorites will be indirectly affected.
The Solstice Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing Program of Pine Manor College (www.pmc.edu/mfa) is now accepting applications for the winter residency/spring 2009 semester, with a deadline of November 15, 2008. We offer concentrations in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and writing for young people.
Designed for writers wishing to pursue their writing goals while balancing the demands of work and family, the Solstice MFA in Creative Writing Program offers affordable tuition, small classes, third-semester internships, the most diverse faculty in the country, and one-to-one mentoring in a friendly and non-hierarchical environment.
For more information, visit www.pmc.edu/mfa, email mfa@pmc.edu or call the MFA Office at (617) 731-7697.
I didn't beat the rush. Like how the line ends in the sunrise? Symbolic, perhaps?
and I have the sticker to prove it!