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!)
I've lived in 4 places in my life - Northern Virginia, central Virginia, NYC and NJ suburbs. So, essentially, I'm a North East kind of girl. That said, I've seen a lot of places in and outside the US. I've visited Australia, Spain, France, Ireland, Australia, Canada and Mexico. I also get to travel extensively in the US for work. In the last year, for some reason, Dallas is a hot spot for travel. I've gone there 5+ times in the last 12-ish months...
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 t-shirt Tuesday. The day where I choose one of my husband's many amusing t-shirts as inspiration for my blog. Given my continued struggle with the book-mas tree this week (see blog from this weekend) and the fact that it's still not complete, my choice of t-shirts this week will seem pretty fitting. And since it's Tuesday, let's combine TWO things and make it a Twos-day: T-shirt Tuesday and Tuesday Top Ten.
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...
K.L. Kranes 