Christmas Magic Time
Christmas Magic Time
A look at what's new plus interview with Author Angelique Berrell, gift ideas, and more!
Hello all you lovely people out there!
I hope that November was kind to you and that you were able to spend lots of time with family and friends. Family (by blood or by choice) is where the magic happens.
What’s in today’s newsletter:
A quick update on what’s new in my creative world
Interview with the absolutely fabulous Angelique Burrell
Holiday Gift Ideas (hint… it’s books and bookish things… surprised?)
Some small things that are new and I think you should know:
First, I have a new merchandise store on Redbubble! Now you can purchase items related to my books, my podcast, and my (small but mighty) cartoon, Smoky the Great! It’s still going through the validation phase with Redbubble, but keep an eye out on my Instagram and Facebook for word on when it goes live. (If you miss it at those locations, you can catch up in my next newsletter).
So far, this is what I’ve created for the many items that will feature my art:
Angelique Burrell - author of A Mark in the Road, a YA Thriller that debuted on October 3, 2023
I am so pleased to introduce you, if you don’t already know her, to Angelique Burrell. Angelique is a high school English and Creative Writing teacher and has written an incredible new YA thriller that I know you will all love (click on the pic above for where you can buy it). She was gracious enough to agree to a small little interview with me.
A quick summary of how I conduct my interviews (I might change them later, but probably not - I like it this way): I send an email of 5 questions (sometimes with follow-ups, if needed) and the author simply answers them. While my questions do want to bring notice to the author’s latest book, I want you, the reader, to get to know the person behind the pages better. Also, I like to throw in something lighthearted, too. Often very non-sequitur-ish.
Below is the word-for-word email questions and answers that exchanged between me and Angelique:
Your father was an English teacher and your mother was a librarian - how did this nurture your love of books? Did they actively instill this passion in you, or was it a natural biproduct in a house that loved books?
Probably both! I was always surrounded by books. My dad has collected Mark Twain books for as long as I can remember, and my parents’ habit of looking at old books at antique shops must’ve rubbed off on me. I have a hard time passing old books without scanning their titles. My mom has always been an avid reader, well before she got a degree in library sciences. Throughout my childhood, when I came downstairs in the morning, I could find her sitting in the living room, book and coffee in hand. If I stayed home sick from school, we watched old movie versions of novels like Jane Eyre. I was even surrounded by bookish pets. When I was very young, we lived on a farm in rural Illinois with several outdoor cats we named after the Winnie-the-Pooh characters, and there were a lot of them. Later we had a parakeet that couldn’t fly named Frodo after the Lord of the Rings and an indoor cat named Twain.
What inspired your book A Mark in the Road? What sparked the idea of Mason with his gift?
For the longest time, I’ve wondered about skid marks on the road — about what incidents caused them — but it wasn’t until my husband and I brought the family on a long road trip that I got the idea for the story. For ten or so years, we have driven the route that Mason and Addie take in the novel, and for a similar reason: our dog. We have been going to Tahoe in the summer for decades, and when we got a dog, we had to bring her with us. She was a black lab mix and too big to fly, so we had to drive for three days, one way, to get her there. It was on these drives that Mason’s bizarre gift and the storyline of A Mark in the Road took shape. My earlier wondering about what created the skid marks turned into imagining a person who had the power to know. On our drives to and from Tahoe, I crafted scenes of the book in my mind, and when I wasn’t driving, I wrote notes on my phone. I did it for fun and to pass the time, but eventually the entire storyline took shape.
What do you hope readers connect with most from your book?
Mason struggles to accept himself, which makes it difficult for him to believe that others can or will accept him. He has a lot of fear, and that fear prevents him from living as fully as he can. Sure, he masks it well, but that fear has a lot of control over him. He avoids dealing with his gift, often by avoiding challenges. On the plus side, I think his fear has made him more empathetic. He can better understand Addie’s feelings of insecurity and uncertainty when moving to a new place. I hope readers will be able to connect with Mason’s struggle to understand why he is the way he is and live beyond fear. Despite the oddity of Mason’s gift, his conflict is more universal, and that is something I didn’t understand when I was younger.
Why Lake Tahoe (you say that yours and your husband's hearts will forever be hiking there)? What is it that you love most about it?
Tahoe and the beauty of the area is deeply entwined with my family. My husband and I got married in Tahoe City 25 years ago with the lake as a backdrop. I had visited the area once when I was young with my family, and my husband’s family had been going there for years. Once we were married, visiting Tahoe became a tradition. We spent so much time there each summer that when our children saw Lake Michigan for the first time, my daughter said, “Look, there’s a lake here just like Tahoe.” Since we live 40 minutes from Chicago, we realized we needed to bring the kids into the city more.
But what I love the most about Lake Tahoe is that its beauty inspires us to be outside as a family. We have hiked with our kids ever since they were born, carrying them when they didn’t yet walk. They learned to ski, and out-ski us, on the mountains there. And we never tire of marveling at the sunset after dinner, taking the same photos year after year. Our time together as a family in Tahoe has brought us closer to one another. Even as our children get older and move out, Tahoe is still a link and a place we all still visit. It’s an escape from our hectic lives where we can be together, laughing and playing in God’s beautiful creation.
The absolute most important question of all: Cat, Dog, or Other? Why?
Ha! Well, we’ve had cats, birds, and a dog, but I’m definitely a dog person — a big-dog person. I love their physicality. Hiking with Harley in Tahoe and playing fetch with her in the lake brought us joy. And I was a sucker for how excited she was to see me when I got home from work. Sadly Harley passed away last summer in Tahoe. I think she wanted one last swim in the lake before she left us. The house is too quiet with her gone and our kids grown, so we are getting a puppy. We will pick her up in a couple of days, and I’d love to tell you her name, but we can’t decide. I think we need to meet her first. But I know she’ll be making the trip to Tahoe with us this summer.
Thank you Angelique for taking the time to participate with me. I can’t wait for readers to get to know you, and your thrilling new book, better!
If you’d like to know more about Angelique, visit her website:
Readers - Get ready for the next interview (coming December 15, 2023) with author James Riley! It’ll be so much fun!
I might have shared this with you before (OK, I know I have… but really, it’s a good idea), but here’s a quick video (created by author Stephanie Cotta). Books are ALWAYS a great idea for holiday gifts.
Seriously, you can’t go wrong. Click on the pic above to see the video. SO MANY GOOD BOOKS!