Holidays
Holidays
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My Secret Snowflake: the Comic Premise
A question I sometimes get asked is how did I come up with the comic premise for my romantic comedy, in this case, My Secret Snowflake.
How did I come up with the premise for My Secret Snowflake?
The premise for My Secret Snowflake was inspired by a conversation with a close friend when we were discussing dating. The original premise was that the protagonist likes a guy (we’ll call him A). She pretends that she is the Secret Santa for A’s best friend (B for Best friend) and asks A what she should gift B. She uses this excuse to hang out with A.
Anyway, I pitched this idea for a Romantic Comedy in a Steve Kaplan comedy workshop in 2021. If you want to write a comedy, I highly recommend his workshop and books, including The Comic Hero’s Journey and The Hidden Tools of Comedy.
We had to pitch three different stories. Steve said he liked this one, but I should switch it so that she likes B, but as she hangs out with A trying to find out more about B, she falls for A. Then you have a triangle. I was very resistant at first (in my head). Didn’t he see the brilliance of the original idea that she had an excuse to hang out with the guy she liked?
But when it came time to actually write My Secret Snowflake, I realized that Steve was right. This is a much better approach because it creates more tension.
So inĀ My Secret Snowflake, Iris, having caught her ex cheating, decides she wants to date a nice guy next time (no heart-melting gorgeous guys for her, thank you very much). She decides that her workplace colleague, Ernest, might fit the bill. In theĀ company Secret Snowflake exchange, she gets her best friend’s crush, so she gives that one to her best friend. Her best friend received Ernest, so Iris gets Ernest. Ernest and Sebastian eat lunch together every day so Iris thinks that they’re close friends and asks Sebastian for gift suggestions forĀ Ernest. Sebastian says, “Socks.” He continues:
āIām not really friends with him. We just had a tight deadline on a joint project,ā I say. āI have no idea what to get Ernest as a gift. Socks?ā Ernest is veryā¦earnest. When her face drops, I add, āBut Iāll think about it.ā
āNot if socks is your idea of a good gift,ā Iris says.
Comic Premise
Steve Kaplan defines the comic premise as “a lie that allows the writer to tell a greater truth.” Steve Kaplan, The Comic Hero’s Journey at p. 38. What I particularly find helpful is his description of the comic premise as “the tool to excite your imagination.” Id. As he noted, once you have a great premise, the story basically writes itself. “The better the premise, the more the story writes itself in your head.” Id. at 39.
As for the lie, Steve Kaplan writes that “in the comic premise, we devise a lie, an impossible or implausible event.” Id. My books tend to be more realistic, but the lie in my comic premise is that Iris is lying to herself. Because of her bad breakup, she convinces herself that staid workaholic Ernest is now the type of guy she wants.
My premise above, unfortunately, didn’t have enough that the story wrote itself, but it did suggest a framework. There would have to be Secret Snowflake-related events and meetings with Sebastian to discuss gifts for Ernest. Similarly, it’s a holiday romantic comedy set in New York City. I had fun including some New York City holiday activities. As a result, Iris and Sebastian get stuck in a crowd near Rockefeller Center and can only inch along. š
UK Romantic Novelists Association Conference
I just came back from the RNA Conference in London and it was so much fun. My critique partner, Giulia Skye, and I talked nonstop over dinner. I met another friend for lunch (where we discussed K-dramas). Then I was off for the three-day RNA conference at Royal Holloway.
It was way too short. I love discussing writing and publishing and meeting up with friends. It’s a very friendly conference, and at every conference, I make even more friends. Here’s a picture after a night of dancing, so I’ll leave you with this photo of RNA authors Victoria Walker, Sharon Ibbotson, Ruby Moone and me.
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Easter Egg Book Hunt
And in honor of the Easter eggs I will be hiding on Sunday, I’ve created a little egg hunt for you.
The winner who answers all of the questions correctly will receive a code to redeem the audiobook of My Book Boyfriend and listen to it via Bookfunnel!
Let the Easter Egg Book Hunt Begin!
1. Which characters from the New York Friendship series show up in the New York Spark series?
2. Which book is this passage from:
“Rumor has it that you’re competing against your cousin,” I say.
He tilts his head. “Rumors are not always correct. Page Six will have us married by tomorrow.”
“There are still 12 hours left in this night,” I say.
What book?3. In which museum does A Scavenger Hunt for Hearts take place?
4. What museums do they visit in Is This for Real?
5. What is the chocolate cookie bakery that my characters frequent?
6. What book is this scene from:
āCould you unbutton my dress?ā I ask. āIād really like to change into jeans and a T-shirt.ā
He moves closer. I present my back to him, as my hands hold up the straps on my shoulders.
I tilt my head, exposing my neck to him. His fingers graze my neck softly as he uses both hands to unbutton that top button. I close my eyes. His touch is light and sure. I swallow as he works his way down the buttons, slight touches feathering my skin. My heart flutters. Can he hear it?
āItās done.ā His voice is almost a whisper. His warm breath caresses my neck. Sends tingles down my spine. Without thinking, I find myself arching toward it.
More Clips from My Book Boyfriend Audiobook
Here’s a clip of Rupert š
I think Eric Altheide is perfect as Rupert! And My Book Boyfriend is now available on Amazon, Apple, and Google Play, in addition to StoryFair, Kobo, Kobo Plus, and my website. It should also be available on other retailers soon!
Happy Easter!
I hope you enjoyed this Easter Egg Book Hunt! Here is a link to a hint š
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Happy Holidays 2021!
I am writing to wish you Happy Holidays for 2021!
Piper and Rob from IS THIS FOR REAL? would also like to wish you a very happy holiday!
In Is This for Real?, Penelope, my protagonist, is a writer, but she also makes dollhouse miniatures to sell. She also has a blog where she posts scenes from the life of Piper and Rob.
A miniature scene with Piper and Rob waving to you! We’ve been busy baking cookies and checking out Christmas decorations.
Gingerbread cookies 
A NYC townhouse decorated for Christmas My holiday gift to myself was seeing my two novels in paperback both available on Amazon! The Partner Pursuit paperback is also available online at indie bookstores and at Barnes & Noble. A dream come true! Here is the link to their blurbs.
And I’m excited to revise Caper Crush and get that ready for publication in 2022.
Happy Holidays 2021!
Wishing you good times with family and friends — and with a good book.
And wishing you a happy and healthy 2022!
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Partner Pursuit’s Book Tour Continues
Partner Pursuit‘s virtual book tour continues.
On October 25, we will visit with All the Ups and Downs. She asked me what qualities I think make for the perfect significant other, so check out her blog for my answer.
For October 26, we will be talking with Sandra’s Book Club and Lisa’s Reading. We will also be hosted by The Faerie Review and Books a Plenty Book Reviews. Sandra’s Book Club will have a review of my book, and Lisa’s Reading will have an excerpt and an interview. She asked me if I ever write books with sad endings.
On October 27, we will hang out with Novel’s Alive with an author interview and a review. She gave me a choice of what question to answer and I chose: “What tips do you have for world-building and writing description?“
On October 28, I will be interviewed by Rogue’s Angels and The Avid Reader. They also have great interview questions, so check out their blogs for my author interviews and more excerpts.
On October 29, we will hang out with Harlie’s Books and Inside the Insanity. Both Harlies Books and Inside the Insanity also have author interviews.
For October 30, we will stop by Book Crazy for another author interview.
The tours will include excerpts and author interviews.
Here is the schedule for Goddess Fish Promotions, and here is the schedule for Silver Dagger Tours.
Halloween in NYC
A brownstone decorated for Halloween in NYC We have off on Halloween to go trick-or-treating! Hope you all have a fun Halloween! I just love when people decorate their brownstones in New York City for Halloween! These skeletons crack me up. I want to try to make our skeleton like the guy in the top row.
I spent part of Sunday helping out with my son’s school’s Halloween festival, volunteering at the obstacle course, so I spent about an hour yelling, “step on the o’s and x’s! Don’t let the hot green lava get you!”
Have a wonderful week! And I hope you enjoy Partner Pursuit‘s Book Tour as it continues virtually.
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Zoom Party Ideas
Our Christmas Tree My son just had his birthday party via zoom, so here are some zoom party ideas as we continue in quarantine. I’ve also had some adult zoom cocktail parties.
- play Mafia over zoom
- scavenger hunt
- Netflix watch party (no further explanation needed)
Mafia
Have you ever heard of the game Mafia? We used to play it late at night when we were staying over with a group of friends at a country house. Back when we did that.
Here are the instructions. I put the names of the guests on paper slips in one bowl and the various roles (mafia or murderer, villager, doctor, detective) in the other bowl. Then I matched every guest with a role and direct-messaged them via zoom. I was the narrator, but actually the boys all really wanted to be the narrator so they could create different scenarios of how people died. I thought the boys would probably prefer to play Among Us (which seems to be the online game equivalent), but not all the boys were allowed to play it, so I did it the zoom way. It worked. We added in other characters inspired by Among Us: the Angel (can tell the narrator one person to protect — if the murderer picks them to kill, they don’t die; the clown (pretends to be the murderer).
Scavenger Hunt
So this game was inspired by my son’s gym teacher. He has them do a scavenger hunt for household items, which makes the kids run around the house like mad.
I decided to add a riddle component. So I used some of these riddles for toothbrush and book (items they’d be sure to have around the house) and also came up with my own.
I am soft. This item is not a hat. I donāt go on your hand. I slip over your foot. What am I?
Answer: Sock
#
I roll, but Iām not a ball.
Iām paper, but you donāt write on me
What am I?
Answer: Toilet paper
#
You rest your head on me
Answer: Pillow
One child unfortunately couldn’t go into the bathroom because someone is his family was using it, which was tough, given that I gave riddles for toothbrush and toilet paper as items they’d be sure to have around the house. š
Zoom Party Ideas Summary
Several parents emailed to thank me and say their children really enjoyed the party. I think the bar is low at the moment and I just occupied their children for two hours.
Happy Holidays!
Happy Holidays whatever you celebrate! I hope you had a wonderful Hannukah and have a wonderful Christmas!
We are busy making Christmas cookies. My favorite Christmas cookie recipe is gingerbread people (reduced fat!) from the Joy of Cooking. I have yet to find a sugar cookie recipe I really love, so if you have one, please share!
The cookies are quickly disappearing. In other exciting news, my first MS Partner Pursuit was the winner of the Hudson County RWA 25-4-25 contest, and the first twenty pages of my second MS Is This for Real? just placed third in the RWA Windy City Four Seasons contest.
Let’s Talk
Do you have any good zoom party ideas? What are some of your favorite holiday traditions?
Happy Holidays!
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Romantic Comedy Book Recommendations For Gifts
Christmas Shopaholic in a Mini Bookstore Here are my romantic comedy book recommendations and some of my favorite children’s books if you are looking for gifts for the holidays.
Romantic Comedy Book Recommendations for Gifts
All of these books made me laugh out loud. There are many light-hearted, feel-good moments, but they also touch on serious issues. (This is in addition to my recommendations in my earlier post.)
- Christmas Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
- Big Sexy Love by Kirsty Greenwood
- Star-Crossed by Minnie Darke
- Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall
Some Favorite Children’s Books
- The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak
- Corduroy by Don Freeman
- Elephant and Piggy by Mo Willems (or anything by Mo Willems)
- Hippos Go Berserk by Sandra Boynton (or anything by Sandra Boynton)
- Is there a Dog in this Book? by Viviane Schwarz
There are frankly so many children’s books that I love, but I like to give the above as gifts. I’ve read both The Book with No Pictures and Is There a Dog in this Book? to my son’s class, and the kids laugh and love them. For older elementary kids, I recommend Dog Man and anything by Rick Riordan.
I love the dedication in Hippos Go Berserk: “I didn’t invite them. Did you invite them? (For Mom and Dad, with love.)”
Favorite Non-RomCom Book
My favorite non-romcom book was Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams. It does get very dark and I had to put it down a few times because I was like “noooo!” But it has a happy ending and I was strongly rooting for the character of Queenie. And the voice is very funny. (It is also quite explicit.)
It won the British Book Awards, among others.
What do you recommend?
Do you have any recommendations? What romantic comedies have you read in the past year and loved? Why? What children’s books do you give as gifts?
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Happy Valentine’s Day 2020!
Happy Valentine’s Day 2020!
Yes, these are dolls. My husband refused to model š I personally like spending Valentine’s Day reading or watching a good romcom. Although if some attractive guy wants to make me breakfast in bed, I’m all for that too!
Yummy! Plus all that unruly hair! Until I met my husband, I don’t think I ever had a date for Valentine’s Day. It was Galentine’s Day for me. When my daughter was due in February, I was really worried that she’d was going to be born on Valentine’s Day. A friend asked, “Why?” And I said, “I gather you’ve always had a date for Valentine’s Day!” (Thankfully, my daughter was not born on Valentine’s Day.)
Fallen Chocolate Cake Recipe for a Happy Valentine’s Day
Fallen Chocolate Cakes in Ramekins. Image from FamilyStyleFood (with another recipe I will have to try) Here’s my go-to recipe for Valentine’s Day: the fallen chocolate cake from Cooks Illustrated. In my draft MS, my protagonist Audrey makes this for Jake when she wants to impress him with her cooking. He is duly impressed. š
Ingredients
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), plus extra for ramekins
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate coarsely chopped;
4 large eggs plus 1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Ā¼ teaspoon table salt
Ā½ cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour plus extra for ramekins
Butter and flour (or use cocoa powder) eight 6-ounce ramekins.
Instructions:
Melt 8 tablespoons butter and chocolate in medium heatproof bowl set over a pan of almost simmering water, stirring until smooth; remove from heat.
Beat the eggs, yolk, vanilla, salt, and sugar until the ribbon stage – the color will be pale yellow and the volume is nearly tripled. The mixture will drop from the beaters in a heavy thick ribbon. This usually takes about 10 minutes with the hand held mixer.
Pour egg mixture over melted chocolate and butter; sprinkle flour over egg mixture. Gently fold egg and flour into chocolate until batter is completely mixed.
Pour batter into prepared ramekins. (At this stage, you can put them into the fridge for about 8 hours. They’ll need to come back to room temperature [about 30 minutes] before you bake them)
Bake in a 400 degree preheated oven for about 12 minutes or until the the cakes have risen over the rims. They’re done when they have a thin crust and the center jiggles when you tap ramekins.
Run a knife around the edges to loosen the cake (didn’t need to do that last night cuz Kellie had buttered so enthusiastically) and invert onto a plate. Let the cake cool for about a minute before removing the ramekin.
When Adam Met Evie
When Adam Met Evie by Giulia Skye And if you’re looking for a fun escape read, my friend Giulia Skye just published her book When Adam Met Evie. Woohoo! We met on the train to the Romantic Novelists Association conference in Leeds several years ago.
I highly recommend When Adam Met Evie. The characters are very believable and engaging, the story hooks, and the setting is the Australian outback–what more could you ask for?
Here’s the blurb:
“When former Olympic Swimmer, Michael Adamsānow reluctantly Canadaās hottest reality TV starā insults his fake showbiz wife on social media, he escapes the ensuing scandal and jumps on the first flight to Australia. Desperate to experience ordinary life againāif only for a few weeksāhe becomes āAdamā, just another tourist traveling through the Outback. But with a reward out for his safe return and his fameās nasty habit of catching up with him when he least expects, he needs a disguiseā¦ and heās just found it.
Sweet and scruffy British backpacker, Evie Blake, is taking a year out of her busy London life. Tired of lies and liars, sheās looking for adventure to heal her broken heart. So when the hot Canadian she meets at the campground offers to be her travel partner through Western Australiaās wild Kimberley region, she grabs the chance, unaware heās got the world out looking for him. Heās just a down-on-his-luck traveler, right? ” From Goodreads.
Let’s Talk
What do you like to do on Valentine’s Day? Do you have any romcom or romance book recommendations? Any recent romcom movies you’d recommend? Happy Valentine’s Day 2020!
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Where do you hide your holiday presents?
Taking advice from Edgar Allen Poe’s The Purloined Letter (Hide it in plain sight) Where do you hide your holiday presents? We live in a New York City apartment, so hiding spaces are few (even for when you play hide-and-seek, as you do with kids).
And we are using all almost our space. We haveĀ even put in storage space abover our bathroom ceiling. That’s one of the main places I hide presents. You need a ladder to get up there, so it’s not easily accessible.
However, even my main hiding spots are beginning to fill up. My usual spot in the basement is storing toys which haven’t been played with in awhile. But they are in the purgatory period – will my son notice that they have disappeared? If not, in six months, we can donate them. (Not that that always works.)
But I’ve found a new spot. Can you spot the hidden presents?
Where would you hide them in this closet? Feel free to post your guess below. (I can use that next year in case my daughter reads this article).
The presents are in the laundry bags! (And yes, I have a lot of black clothes. And my closet looks nothing like The Container Store closets or any designed closets. :).Ā Although I do love the Container Store plastic boxes and highly recommmend those.
My tip is to wrap the presents in case they are found.
And then the key is to remember where you hid them.Ā I often forget where I’ve put the presents if I deviate from my usual spaces. When I am older, IĀ plan to spend December hiding presents for myself, so I can spend the rest of the year finding my presents š
Have a great weekend! Where do you hide your holiday presents? And how do you remember where you hid them?