Audiobook Giveaway!

 

Something new and different for you - Spotify is no longer just a place where you can listen to music or podcasts. They've expanded into audiobooks!

And because my audiobooks are wide - sold on more retail platforms than just Audible - they were automatically loaded onto Spotify for your listening pleasure.

Now here's the fun part. I've got 20 free codes for each book to give away. If you're interested in either (or both), please comment here with your email, or, if you're not comfortable with leaving your email address in public (understandable), then email me at karen @ karenheenan (dot) com and let me know which book you want. 

Whether or not you can have both will depend on the number of responses I receive. Just know that both books are well voiced - two extremely talented actors with whom I've worked for years - and even though independently done, the books passed Audible's stringent controls before being uploaded. (I may not want to sell exclusively through them, but their quality control is the bomb, and I use them as a filter before I upload anywhere else).

Downhill to the holidays

It's coming. The holidays. 

I'm still stupid tired from the last few weeks and trying to remember what I did when I had the house to myself every day. I'm sure I'll figure it out just as my husband's long break starts (December 23 - January 3), and then I'll have to remember all over again.

It's not looking good, but I still have hopes of finishing the first draft of Coming Closer by Christmas. 

The original end date was Thanksgiving, but obviously that got derailed by family stuff, which is why I build wiggle room into all my deadlines. Something always happens, and even when that something isn't as large and sad as the loss of a family member, it's easy to lose time and get off-track.

Since the extent of my holiday decorating is usually looking at the decorations of others - too many years of adventurous cats to ever want to set up a tree again - I thought I'd share my favorite houses on Baltimore Avenue in West Philly. 

Urban legend says it's two sisters in side-by-side houses. They're decorated when there's no holiday going on, but give them a reason and they pull out all the stops. I'm not even sure this is all the Christmas decorations yet. Since they'll swap it all out again for Valentine's Day, Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Juneteenth, July 4th, Labor Day, Halloween, and Thanksgiving, my main question is where do they store it all in the off-season? 

Brief update

Just a short post this week because I haven't been around much and I'm just starting to catch up.

My husband's mom has been in hospice, and we lost her last week. Yesterday was the funeral and today is generalized exhaustion and starting to get to all the things that were set aside while we were with her.

Here's a list I wrote for shepherd.com that tires in with my release of Coming Apart - the five best books about complicated sister relationships. If you haven't heard of Shepherd, it's a fantastic place to go for book recommendations. While it does feature specific author's books, in exchange we have to come up with a list of books that work with the theme of our featured book. Complicated sisters was a fun list to put together.

Do you have any books you'd suggest adding to this list?

It's a sale!

 

One of the best things about the holiday season is the sales. One for them, one for me - sometimes that's just how you have to roll to get through it all.

Just in case you haven't treated yourself, and also haven't yet read Songbird, it's on sale (Amazon Kindle only) from December 5 through December 11, for just 99 cents. This offer is US and UK only, because that's how Amazon set it up, but hopefully that covers the bulk of you.

Have a book, on me, and find some time to sit down this season, put your feet up, and escape for a while.

November Roundup

November has been a month, let me tell you.

Figuring out how the launch went. Moving all my books from wide ebook distribution onto Kindle Unlimited (apparently that's where my readership is, because I've gotten more page reads than I ever expected - for which I am very, very grateful), keeping up with all those other November obligations and pleasures (family, holiday, craft shows), and getting ready for the big push at the end of the year.

Plus continuing on with book 2 in my Ava and Claire series, which is titled Coming Closer. The completion of the book is also coming closer, but my original December 1 deadline was derailed somewhat by life, which I will detail, at some point, in a regular post.

One thing I've learned from these roundup posts all through the year. It's absolutely exhausting to sit down ta the beginning of the next month and figure out what the heck you did for the past 30 days. It's either a blur or a cliff looming over your head, ready to topple.

December. It's practically here.

How was your thanksgiving? I hope your turkey was juicy your family was well behaved, and you got some decent down time.

We went to my best friend's for Thanksgiving dinner, and you know it's a good meal when you're still not hungry by lunch time the next day. Which was a pity, because she sent us home with leftovers.

Also on Friday was the loading in, setting up, and first day of a two-day event in my town. I've been doing it for 5 or 6 years now, and it's always fun, and since I'm in the lobby of the building, I get to see everyone as they come in and catch up with a ton of people.

Sales were good - my new critters in clothes got some decent love from the crowd - but by the time we loaded out on Saturday dinner time, I felt like a rag that had been wrung out. Came home and fell asleep on the couch.

Normally, we would have gone to New Jersey on Sunday, to visit Mario's mom, but she's having a procedure this week so we saved our drive time to be with her then.

I've got one more craft show this coming saturday, back in West Philly, and I also just got in a wholesale order, so there's a bit of frantic sewing in addition to a bit of frantic writing on the second book of my Ava and Claire series. I know what's happening, but the voices in my head were getting a little loud, so I guess I need to write it down.

What did you do with your long weekend? Are there craft shows in your area? What's your favorite thing to shop for?

Happy Thanksgiving!

For Thanksgiving, I'd like to offer my take on Thanksgiving, 1932 in the combined households of Ava Kimber and her friend and neighbor, Trudy. Times are hard, but they can still find reason to be grateful, and it's the one day of the year where no one worries about leftovers.

**************

Trudy and I combine forces for Thanksgiving. Karl has not returned, and for a few days, my smiling friend is replaced by a sad-eyed woman who looks ten years older. She pulls herself together because Fritz and Hetty, her remaining grandchildren, need her.

In addition to the moral support, a joint dinner means more food for all. One of Daniel’s friends managed to shoot a couple of turkeys in the woods north of town, and he brought one home in exchange for helping to fix a roof. The house is perfumed with its rich scent.

Carrying the platter across the back porch to Trudy’s kitchen, I think about how this was always Mama’s favorite holiday. She was big on gratitude, giving loud thanks for blessings other people might not have recognized as such. I want to be more like her, but I can’t help but see that we have a turkey only because Daniel gave up his day off, and a meal meant for family must be shared with others for there to be enough.

I hear Mama’s voice, as I often do these days. Family is whoever you choose to bring under your roof. Trudy is family, in that sense, as was Dora, her daughter-in-law.

There are thirteen of us around the table, which is two tables put together and dragged into the front room: Trudy and Hermann, Fritz and Hetty, Daniel and me and our five, and two of Trudy’s boarders who were invited at the last minute, soft-spoken men whose contributions are a pie and a packet of tea.

“Bless us, O Lord, and these, Thy gifts which we are about to receive from Thy bounty. Through Christ, Our Lord, amen.” 

The room falls silent but for “please pass the potatoes” and “may I have more beans?” For once no one worries about holding back for the next day.

One of the men says something to Hermann, and he repeats it to Trudy. She turns to me. “Hans says at such a meal, his family would go around the table and each person says what they are grateful for. Do you think this is good?”

“It sounds like something Mama would have liked.”

Her eyes crinkle. “Then we shall do it for Lillie.” She explains the idea to everyone and points to the man who suggested it. “Hans, is your idea, so you go first.”

Hans blushes and stammers, but manages—with Trudy’s translation—to say, “I am thankful to be surrounded by kind people when I am missing my family.”

His friend, whose name I didn’t catch, echoes him, word for word.

“I’m thankful for turkey!” Toby waves his fork.

“And pie!” George, not to be outdone, points toward the kitchen.

“I’m grateful for my family,” Dandy says, ducking his head.

Trudy looks around. “I am thankful for my family that is here, and my family that is not here.”

Fritz, his chin quivering, gulps and says, “I am thankful Mama didn’t live to see us separated.” His grandmother says something sharp in German and the boy shakes his head.

“I’m grateful for Granny,” Pearl says, smoothing things over. “I’m grateful we had her as long as we did.”

“So am I, honey.” I put my hand over hers. “And I’m grateful for everyone at this table today.”

“Thelma?” Daniel asks. “What about you?”

She looks up through tousled curls. “I’ll be grateful not to be the baby anymore.”

There is no night shift on Thanksgiving. Daniel and I huddle together under the quilts, listening to the murmur of the kids’ conversation on the other side of the wall. It quiets down soon enough; their bellies are too full for them to stay awake for long.

“You never said what you were thankful for.” I roll on my left side, the only position in which I am comfortable.

He curls around me and nuzzles my neck. “Like you have to ask,” he says. “I’m thankful for you, and our family. I’m the luckiest man in the goddamn world.”