It’s Thanksgiving week, and I think I’ve been pretty good about keeping my shameless promotional urges in check.
But, hey, I would be remiss if I didn’t recommend a lovely gift for all of your friends and extended family.
You’re not just bringing corn casserole, are you?
Not only is the book a fine gift, it also keeps an aging writer off the streets.
It also has gotten some great reviews. (In fact, I will probably blather on about that Kirkus star until my dying day. Allow me to apologize in advance for this.)
Sarah Josepha Hale and I have quite a few things in common.
Sarah wrote to support her family. So do I!
Sarah was a magazine editor. So am I!
Sarah never owned a Kindle. Neither do I!
That means that neither Sarah nor I have any idea how Sarah Gives Thanks looks on that itty bitty e-book screen. But I’m sure it looks awesome.
That’s my Big News! After a year-and-a-half of saying, “No, Sarah Gives Thanks is NOT available as an e-book,” that is no longer the case! So, hey, if you’re into that sort of thing, there you go!
As for me, I like all my books printed on paper. Why, you ask? Because I am a cantankerous, change-averse, old goat.
Self portrait.
But, despite my inherent goatiness, I am happy that there is a much cheaper version of my book out there. Whatever encourages more people to learn about Sarah Josepha Hale is always OK by me.
I am certain that Sarah — with whom I share so much in common — would feel the same way.
Over the past few weeks I have been pretty terrible about reading and replying to other people’s blogs. I’ve even been slow to respond to comments on my blog. I am sorry about that.
November was nutty — and most of this nuttiness was self-imposed. All month long I was shamelessly promoting Sarah Gives Thanks at book stores and schools. When I wasn’t doing that, I was trying to conjure up 30 new picture book ideas for PiBoIdMo. (Must you really do this in November, Tara?) Meanwhile, at my day job, I was running up against hard and fast deadlines for the winter issue of The Lawrentian, the magazine I edit.
But my exhaustion was mixed with healthy servings of exhilaration, too. Thanks to the salesmanship of David Gardner, Sarah’s wonderful illustrator, he and I were interviewed on Santa Fe Public Radio. We turned out to be a good team; David was the calm and steady Yin to my blathering, rambling Yang.
I also had the chance to be a guest author at my boy’s school, which was wonderful. I did my dog and pony show all day long for the first, second, third and fourth graders. The PTA pre-sold a big stack of books (including one copy in Braille!), and I proved to hundreds of children that grownups can (and should) be goobers.
Thanks PTA!
Also, a number of lovely people out there interviewed me or reviewed my book. The folks listed below are not just great people, but great bloggers as well. You should follow them if you don’t already.
