It’s that time of year again. Today is Black Friday, the official start of the holiday shopping season. Have you been staring
at your gift list, wracking your brains, trying to figure out what to give your
nieces and nephews? Your sisters-in-law? Your son-in-law’s mother? The coworker
whose name you drew in the Secret Santa gift exchange?
Think books! Here are a few suggestions that I can
pretty much guarantee won’t be duplicated by someone else, and even better, you don't have to buck the Black Friday crowds. Pour yourself another cup of coffee and shop right from the comfort of your computer:
If you’ve got 6-10 year olds on your list, consider The Magic Paintbrush:
When nine-year-old Jack and his seven-year-old sister Zoe are snowed in
for days with nothing to do, their complaints land them in every guy’s worst
nightmare—the kingdom of Vermilion, a land where everything is totally pink! At
first Jack is mistaken for a spy from the neighboring kingdom of Cobalt, but
Zoe convinces Queen Fuchsia that they’re from New Jersey and arrived by magic.
Queen Fuchsia needs a king, but all the available princes in Vermilion
are either too short, too fat, too old, or too stupid. Jack and Zoe suggest she
looks for a king in Cobalt, but Vermilion and Cobalt have been at war since
long before anyone can remember. Jack and Zoe decide Vermilion and Cobalt need
a Kitchen Table Mediation to settle their differences. So they set out on an
adventure to bring peace to the warring kingdoms—and maybe along the way they
just might find a king for the queen.
Without being preachy, TheMagic Paintbrush addresses the issue of differences, in this case, a
kingdom that is all pink at war with a kingdom that is all blue for longer than
anyone can remember—so long that no one even knows what started the feud. It
takes two children from another land to point out to the rulers of both
kingdoms the benefits to getting along and how we're really all the same
inside.
Who doesn’t love desserts?
In Bake, Love, Write, an Amazon bestselling cookbook, 105 bestselling
and award-winning authors present dessert recipes along with advice on love and
writing:
What do most authors have in common, no matter what genre they write?
They love desserts. Sweets sustain them through pending deadlines and take the
sting out of crushing rejection letters and nasty reviews. They also often
celebrate their successes—selling a book, winning a writing award, making a
bestseller list, or receiving a fabulous review—with decadent indulgences. And
when authors chat with each other, they often talk about their writing and
their lives. Recipes. Writing. Relationships. In this cookbook 105 authors not
only share their favorite recipes for fabulous cakes, pies, cookies, candy, and
more, they also share the best advice they’ve ever received on love and
writing.
Need a gift for someone
always pressed for time? We’d Rather BeWriting is chockfull of quick and easy dinner recipes and tips for saving
time:
Have you ever wished you could find more time to do the things you want
to do, rather than just doing the things you have to do? Most authors juggle
day jobs and family responsibilities along with their writing. Because they
need to find time to write, they look for ways to save time in other aspects of
their lives.
Cooking often takes up a huge chunk of time. In this book you'll find
easy, nutritious recipes for meat, poultry, pasta, soup, stew, chili, and
vegetarian meals. All of the recipes require a minimum of prep time, freeing
you up to read, exercise, garden, craft, write, spend more time with family, or
whatever. The authors who contributed to this book are a rather creative and
resourceful bunch when it comes to carving out time from their busy lives. So
in addition to timesaving recipes, within the pages of this book you'll find
timesaving and organizational tips for other aspects of your life. And if you
happen to be a writer, you'll also find a plethora of great ideas to help you
organize your writing life.
NOTE: A percentage of the profits from
both cookbooks will be donated to NoKidHungry.org.
If you’re an author, you
might be in need of a gift for your critique buddies or the gift exchange at
your local writers group. Top TenReasons Your Novel is Rejected offers advice from a publishing insider:
Over the years Lois Winston has given workshops and talks to several
thousand aspiring writers. As a literary agent, she’s listened to hundreds of
pitches and read through tens of thousands of query letters and manuscript
submissions. Being both a published author and a literary agent gives her a
unique perspective on publishing. She knows what it’s like to be the writer
whose only desire is to sell a novel, and she knows what it’s like to have to
crush someone’s hopes with a rejection letter. It wasn’t until she started
sending out those rejection letters that she began to have a better
understanding of why so many writers receive them.
What she’s come to realize is that most manuscripts are rejected by
agents and editors for one or more of ten basic reasons. Writers have control
over some of these reasons but not all of them. This book will discuss these
ten reasons and how writers can control more of their destiny by not falling
prey to them.
Whether your goal is to be published by a legacy publishing house or you
plan to self-publish, this book contains invaluable information about
self-editing, grammar, punctuation, point of view, telling vs. showing, passive
vs. active writing, dialogue, narrative, voice, style, hooks, query letters,
and synopsis writing.
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