Dear Carol and Judy,
After the two of you commented on my one-year-anniversary post, I decided that I wanted to make you something for Christmas.
If you lived near me, I would have baked you Christmas cookies. I make really good cookies. I’ve got a long list of holiday favorites — thumbprint cookies, molasses cookies, nut roll, cupcake cookies — but my specialty is sugar cookies, the kind where you roll out the dough and sprinkle the top with colored sugar. I’ve made them almost every year since I was twelve or so. Even in the days before I knew how to cook, when my sauces separated and my rice stuck together like flannel pjs in midwinter, my sugar cookies were lovely. But I don’t think they’d make it to New Zealand intact and I don’t have the faintest idea where you live, Judy, but I’m pretty sure it’s not down the street.
So no cookies. Instead, I wrote you a story. (Or finished it anyway.) I thought I’d just post it here and that would be fun, but it got sort of long for that. Then I thought I’d make it a downloadable file, but that turns out to be complicated. You can’t actually post a file to be downloaded at a blogger site, so I would have needed to get a real website. I was debating what to do–new website? email? dropbox?–when I remembered this summer, at my geekgirl presentation, describing Amazon as the biggest bake sale in the world.
Amazon. Bake sale. Sugar cookies. Christmas stories.
Voilá.
A Christmas present for the two of you. Free on Amazon for the next three days (December 26th through 28th), two days in reserve so in case you miss it, we can schedule a free day for when you can get it.
I hope it makes you smile.
That is one of the best presents I've ever gotten. Can't wait. Will get it on the 26th for sure!Thank you, so much.
I just finished reading the Kindle version and the ending feels a little rushed, but Toby…oh, my, Toby. At his two-year-old well baby check up, R was chatting away with the doctor, and the doctor said, in the way that people sort of often did, "Wow, he's quite verbal for his age." To which R replied, with a complacency that would have befit Winston Churchill, "Ya, I am va-hey ah-tic-oo-at." (= "Yes, I am very articulate." He heard it a lot.) I was definitely channeling him when writing Toby. Anyway, like I said, ending feels rushed, but I hope that you enjoy it anyway (and if you find Toby half as charming as I do, it'll be worth the time spent reading!)
It's on my kindle. I'll let you know after I read it. May be a couple of days. Can't wait but I have to unfortunately. Work. Snow. Yuck.
Hi Sarah, just got it now. Thank you so much. I will read it this afternoon. Sorry I am late reading this. Drop box would have worked also for me anyway. Go Geek Girl!Merry Christmas and a happy new year!
It's good that you're not spending Christmas reading the internet! And Amazon actually does turn out to be a quite handy distribution method: I was thinking yesterday of how I wanted to send it to my iPad so I could look for a missing word and mark up some formatting problems (didn't have time to fix all the ellipses and em dashes) and puzzling over my various options when I suddenly realized, "Oh, yeah, free on Amazon, I can just download it. Ha." I felt quite silly. But I hope you enjoy it — it's a sugar cookie of a story, I think.
I really enjoyed it! I didn't notice any problems with the story at all. If you are going to leave it there I will put a review up. Let me know and thanks again.
I guess I should decide that, shouldn't I? I suppose it doesn't hurt to leave it up there. Although maybe I'll rewrite the blurb to make even clearer that it is only meant for people who have already read Ghosts…ah, but now I'm back to thinking maybe I should take it down…decisions, decisions. Okay, decision made — yes, I'm going to leave it up, so you may feel free (but not obligated!) to leave a review. I will probably try to post it through Smashwords someday soon, so that I can set it to be free forever, but that will come after I finish writing Time, while I am in the editing/revising stage. Ah, I love a good plan. And I'm glad you liked it! I just love Toby.
Oh wow I didn't realize you were thinking to take it down. Glad you didn't. I actually told people about it in several places. Hope that was okay.I loved it, btw. I didn't feel like the end was rushed. I also want to say this without spoilering so I'm kinda cloaking it – I totally didn't see the resolution for the Toby – Nora thing coming. You did that really well!I'll put up a review, too. In fact, I'm not sure I reviewed the Ghosts. Will have to work on that.Thanks again!
Oh, the reason I'd take it down is just because I want it to be a gift, not a for-profit thing. I was inspired to write it by wanting to give you and Carol a plate of Christmas cookies, but it's sort of like an endless plate of Christmas cookies — I'm perfectly happy to give it to as many people as want to read it!You can only set books to be free via Amazon permanently through price-matching, though and a) that's a violation of their terms of service which makes me nervous and b) it would mean needing to post it elsewhere which means doing that little bit of work and I intend to make all my work hours super-productive Gift of Time hours for a while. And I'm so glad you liked it!
I put it up in rehab in the Snow Storm post and Jenny responded with an offer to put things on argh for you in the future if she knows in time.
Aw, that was nice of her. Of both of you! I spent a solid hour this morning trying to say something mean nicely over there. It probably still came across as mean, or at least curmudgeonly.
I read. I understand and I agree with you but I don't know how to say it, either. Some things just aren't meant to be white-washed positive.I don't think you came off as mean, though.
I thought about it a lot today — much more than I should have. Ironically, Jenny's comment sent me into far more of a grief spiral than Krissie's post did. I sort of came to the conclusion that grief might be a lot like having a child; until you've really experienced it, you only think you get it. I thought that I understood it because from the time I turned 21 or so, I lost someone important to me every couple of years. (At 21, I had all four grandparents and a great-grandparent living, plus a few too many reckless friends.) But losing someone that you rely upon, someone who is central to your existence, is a whole different experience. It is really easy to deliver sanctimonious platitudes about finding joy when your experience of grief is that it's like having the flu, but you don't actually know what grief can be until you've had the kind that's more like rheumatoid arthritis. I'm guessing one of your siblings is having that now?
My brother is, yes. More worried about his wife, though and consequently, their 20+ year marriage. Just little things are worrying.
Hi – just found the spirit of christmas – thank you for the gap filler – will be reading it shortly (your book is sitting in my books to read pile between kim harrison and stacia kane and patricia briggs on the kindle.) Kepp going !!x