No sleep till...Well, not Brooklyn. But we did stay up late getting into Manhattan last night. I think that's close enough that I had to quote the Beastie Boys song. So, now, I'm happily in Manhattan, my former home. (I did live in Brooklyn for a little bit in a tiny apartment with an oddly huge, completely pink bathroom. Only in NYC people.) This is the first place I tried a knish. The first place I went to a professional basketball game. (My husband had season tickets to the Knicks once upon a time.) The place my daughter was born. If I'm being honest, when I left the area, I left a little bit of my heart behind. NYC will always feel like home to me. In honor of my trip here, are some of my favorite movies and books set in NYC.
Christmas traditions have changed over the years. In the Middle Ages, Christmas celebrations were rowdy and raucous, apparently lot like today’s Mardi Gras. From 1659 to 1681, Christmas was even outlawed in Boston. (Puritans were not fans of the celebration.) Christmas traditions themselves also changed over time, many finding their roots in ancient Pagan rituals.
Buying gifts can be stressful. If you're like me you fret about giving people the perfect gift. I like my gifts to be meaningful. Honestly, if someone makes a wishlist that's the best. But, not everyone does and if it's a wishlist available to multiple people, then you risk giving duplicate gifts. So how do you pick the best gift for someone?
First things first, if your very kind friend offers to throw you an amazing book signing party for your debut YA fantasy novel, The Travelers, and invites a bunch of local friends, their young adult kids (eg, your audience), and several local librarians, here are things you should NOT do. (Yes, I moronically did all these things!)
Once upon a time, before I’d even decided to try to publish my own book (The Travelers, Saguaro Books), I was unaware of the world of independent publishers. I didn’t read books by small presses and I definitely did not read anything self-published. I determined my reading list based friends' recommendations or reviews in large media outlets. (Don’t judge. I just didn’t know better at the time!) Until one day, a friend recommended that I read this new book “Lost Girl”...
So, I am new to the world of twitter, facebook and Instagram. I’d used social media in the past, but in very limited circles with very limited posting of my own. Now that I’ve published a book (The Travelers, Saguaro Books), my world has changed. It’s opened up to the wonders of social media and this thing called #Bookstagram. I’m obsessed. So, now, for my top 5 off the week!
It's Monday morning. And I'm tired for one of the best reasons! Last night was the monthly meeting of my book club, the Nightlighters. And we definitely lived up to our name, talking pretty late into the evening for a school night. As it is the holiday season, we decided to do a book exchange and we were supposed to bring a book to give as part of this. Sounds easy right? Well, not for me. I was worried...
I recently wrote a blog post on my characters favorite books and the books they secretly love (eg, book guilty pleasure). It was fun so I want to do a variation on the theme. This time it's my characters favorite songs and the songs they secretly love but don't want to admit to anyone. (You know, like you secretly love Dancing Queen but won't admit it.)
If you love books, you love to get books. Since tomorrow is Cyber Monday, it’s a great time to find and buy books to give to others this season. In honor of that, I plan to donate part of the proceeds from the sales on amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com from my YA fantasy novel, The Travelers, to charity. But, what charity, you ask? Excellent question. Deciding on that was difficult...
K.L. Kranes 