When I was in third grade, we had to write a composition entitled, “Turkey Lurkey had his own reasons to be grateful.” Clearly, his gratitude was not owing to the person who named him. What reasonable turkey names its offspring Lurkey? It’s downright cruel. But I digress. Like the ill-named Turkey Lurkey, I have my own reasons to be grateful. My new book, The Deception of the Emerald Ring comes out tomorrow.
Having a new book come out is always like a birthday and Christmas morning rolled into one, but this time, the timing couldn’t be more appropriate. Do you have books that make you think of a particular season? For me, Little Women, Judith McNaught’s Paradise, and Elizabeth Peters’ Trojan Gold will always be Christmas books. Robin McKinley’s The Hero and the Crown is high summer, and Mary Stewart’s Nine Coaches Waiting belongs to rainy autumn afternoons.
The Deception of the Emerald Ring is my Thanksgiving book, not just because I’m grateful that it’s here (and Turkey Lurkey makes a nice lead in to this blog), but because the modern plot of Emerald Ring takes place in a damp London November, right around Thanksgiving. Writing the modern portions of Emerald Ring brought vividly back my own ex-pat Thanksgiving in London– the days getting darker and colder with that peculiar early dusk that belongs so particularly to London, the Christmas displays in the window of Marks and Spencer’s, and a very odd ex-pat Thanksgiving with a scattered bunch of other Americans all determined to celebrate the New World while sojourning in the old one.
Do you have books that evoke a certain time of the year for you? Books that have to be read at a particular time or season?
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I really do enjoy reading Christmas Romance books during the Christmas season; they just give me a warm and fuzzy feeling and really brings the holiday to life.
by Pat L
on November 15th, 2006 at 12:34 am
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Since I started reading romances a couple years ago, I do save the Christmas books for December. . . and I dug out all of what I have and put them to the side for next month. 
Lois
by Lois
on November 15th, 2006 at 6:27 am
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Oddly, I think I associate books most strongly with the experience of reading them for the first time. I have vivid memories of where and when I read certain books- ‘The Blue Sword’ is one spring day on Easter break when I was 13, lying on my great aunt’s patchwork quilt; ‘Foucault’s Pendulum’ is long, laborious one-chapter-a-nights that stretched for months during my senior year of college. When I walk past the Nancy Drew section, I can see my nine year-old self devouring one after the other while stuck in bed with the chicken pox. I can probably tell you whether copies I read were old or new, or if the typsetting was particularly spiffy.
One of my favorite Thanksgiving memories is from the year I was studying in London. My sister had come to visit over the holiday and we chose to celebrate by going out for a big dinner- at the Indian restaurant around the corner, of course.
by Emily
on November 15th, 2006 at 11:45 am
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i do like x mas books
by KIM H
on November 15th, 2006 at 1:09 pm
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My “Christmas” books include anything Alcott; including Little Women, Rose in Bloom and Eight Cousins. I also read Great Expectations every Christmas because Pip’s earliest adventures start around Christmas with his initial encounter with Magwitch and the carols he lies about singing to his cruel sister, Mrs. Joe.
In other Dickensian veins, I tend to like Bleak House on these dim November nights, as it too begins in late Autumn and sets that terrific foreboding atmosphere!
Thanksgiving in Canada is in October; and it is the month of LM Montgomery, let me tell you. Emily of New Moon and its two followers are my favourite Thanksgiving reads.
Happily enough, I first read “Pink Carnation” around Christmas time so I am VERY excited that “Emerald Ring” will show up on my doorstep within days; helping pave the way to my pre Holiday euphoria !
by rachel
on November 15th, 2006 at 8:07 pm
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Congrats on the new book! I got my copy yesterday am, and I do believe my three boys are conspiring to keep me from having a free moment to do much reading. But so far, just as enjoyable as your first 2!
I have always been partial to A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote–what with being a Southerner and all. It really does remind me of Christmases as a child in a small town. My oldest is reading well enough this year for me to pass down the tradition. I tried reading them Eliot’s poem “Journey of the Magi” last year, but it really was WAY over their little heads!
by claire
on November 17th, 2006 at 9:22 am
