We’re FIVE weeks away from the release of THE MOONSHINER’S DAUGHTER! Check out what a couple of the trades are saying!
“Rousing…movingly explores Jessie’s struggle with her eating disorder, viscerally describing her twin desires for nourishment and purging in relation to a deep need to define herself…Everhart’s story of self-discovery, rife with colorful characters and a satisfying twist, will thrill readers.”- Publishers Weekly STARRED REVIEW
“This riveting novel set in the 1960s will have readers, especially those who enjoy Kaye Gibbons and Anna Jean Mayhew, captivated from the first page.” – Booklist STARRED REVIEW
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I hope those who celebrate Thanksgiving had a wonderful visit with family, and friends, and PLENTY of good eating! I’m still recovering. As many of you know, this was my first holiday without my mother. The picture below is of our gathering last year, and there she is, right in the middle of it all, (fuschia top) loading up her plate, seemingly healthy. Less than two months would pass and we would learn the devastating news of her cancer. The best way to remember loved ones who are no longer with us, is to recall them in their happiest, healthiest moments, which is what I did yesterday, remembering her laughter, her demand, “where’s my glass of wine???” and all of the other ways she had about her that made her uniquely her.
As mentioned in last week’s post, I want to have a special giveaway to extend my gratefulness to all of you out here!
This week, I’m giving away copies of my other three books as well as the ARC of THE MOONSHINER’S DAUGHTER. That means one lucky reader will get all of these books!
For as long as I can remember, (we’re now talking decades) my mother and I chose a Saturday in early December to bake Christmas cookies. I am grateful we did it last year on a VERY reduced scale (we only made sugar cookies) because little did I know it would be the last time. In this picture are my mom, daughter, and you can barely see her, my granddaughter, Abigail working together in my kitchen. What I regret is there was no one there to snap a photo of all four of us, four generations sharing a tradition that’s as old as I am.
How to win the book stack this week? Tell me about a favorite holiday tradition you shared with your mother, or another close relative – could be your dad, an uncle, a brother or a sister, or a friend. Winner will be chosen on Monday!
Onto the sentence for this week!
Coming December 31, 2019 from Kensington Publishing, Inc.
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One of my favorite resources for research are thesis papers. In one, written in 2009, I read about the secret back roads, and paths used by bootleggers when they hauled their goods. Sometimes they had a deal worked out with the owner of the land, where they’d give them some of their product, or they’d pay them. Sometimes they traveled roads used by by the general population, but because of the speed of their cars, plus knowing a few shortcuts here and there, unless the revenuer knew the region as well as they did, they were likely to get lost. And did quite often.
From the flap copy, we know the Sassers have kept a journal with everything they’ve ever done with regard to moonshining and bootlegging, but, this sentence, what is meant here? Stolen journal? What has happened?
Ah, but, you’ll have to read the book to find out. 🙂
Chapter 30
It was a private road, a route identified in the stolen journal, a new path I wasn’t used to yet, but remembered because there’d been a note saying it was a shortcut around Shine Mountain and just off Lore Mountain Road.
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The Goodreads giveaway finishes today! CLICK HERE TO ENTER!
Below are ways you can support me:
- Pre-order a copy –> here. Included is the chance to win a truly lovely leather -bound journal like the Sassers use.
- Add THE MOONSHINER’S DAUGHTER to your Goodreads To Be Read list!
Do you know why doing both of these is important? It gauges early interest in the book which can attract the attention of industry influencers. Thank you ever so much!
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I used to have a tradition to buy two Christmas of the same thing. I would keep one and give another to a friend. We would place it next to a light that reminded us that we were always thinking of each other.
That’s such a thoughtful thing to do!
We have the age old tradition of reading the Chriatmas story from Luke before opening any gifts.
Ah, we do a similar thing at my mother-in-laws – where the youngest in our group, lately it’s been my nephew, Alex, will read those passages before we eat Christmas dinner.
I love the Christmas tradition of getting together with my family one night during the weekend after Thanksgiving to decorate the Christmas tree and the house! We have so much fun decorating, laughing, eating, and getting this done!
I like that idea too, and it had to have been fun!
One Day in Dec, my mom and sister would head out to a mall, not really to shop but to enjoy the day and have lunch. It was so fun to look forward to this special day!
That sounds like a lovely day, without the pressure of rushing around to buy the gifts!
As a child I always made Christmas cookies with my mom and sister and brother. Mom was always finding new and fun recipes in the newspaper. Some favorites were painting cookies with a paintbrush and paint made with food coloring. Also candy canes made by twisting pieces of red and white dough together in the shape of a candy cane. And of course frosted cutout cookies.
One of the cookies my mom and I would make were called spritz cookies – basically like a shortbread cookie. We did red, green and white – very pretty! I wonder if the twisted ones were of a similar dough? We never tried the cutout frosted version – but I might this year!
I always loved spending Christmas Eve at my grandparents house where we would have dinner, open gifts, and eat lots of cookies! I miss my grandparents dearly.
We had many traditions aside from the cookie baking one – and one of those was to go to my grandmother’s house on Christmas eve as well. I would TRY to pretend I was interested in what was on TV (It’s A Wonderful Life, usually) but I really only wanted to get home and go to bed so Santa Claus could come!
As kids, we all gathered at our late grandmother’s house and decorated and baked cookies and made fudge and Christmas candies. Since she has been gone, going on 4 years, the family doesn’t even get together anymore. So, I do all that fun stuff with my own kids, and always tell stories of my childhood. ❤️
You’re filling that role now with your kids, like I’ve done with mine, and now the grands. Some of what we do may be a bit different, but, I try to convey a sense of how it used to be, and adhere to it as best as I can.
decorate as a family for Christmas
I would like to try that, but I usually decorate the day after Thanksgiving, and because we have everyone here to eat – I’m too tired for another big gathering. Might have to switch it up one year, though, and give it a try!
My mom, my dad, and I decorated the tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. Always fun to sit with only lights from tree on at night. This was in late 40s and 50s. I’m 72 now and just lost my 90+parents in 2017.
I was just doing that this morning. Sitting with lights only, sipping on coffee. My favorite thing to do during the holidays – when it’s so quiet in the house. A lovely memory!
When we would put the tree up when I was growing up at home, we would decorate the Christmas tree and my dad always made sure that the icicles were put up just right! We joke about that now, my siblings and I. On Christmas Eve, we would all get in the kitchen and we all shared in making tamales, and that would be every Christmas Eve while I was growing up, it was a lot of fun. Those are good ol memories. I did not keep that a tradition, but one of my brothers still does that with his family.
Your dad sounds just like my mom! My dad wanted to “throw” the “icicles” on, but my mother would practically comb them straight. 🙂 She taught us to pull out several strands and lay them “neatly” over the tip of a branch. Too funny! And making tamales on Christmas Eve – I love that.
I have fond memories in my early childhood spending Christmas at my grandparents. It was spent with aunts, uncles and cousins having a big dinner and then opening presents. From the age of 12 on it was just me and my mom and we were very dirt poor so there wasn’t any Christmas. Absolutely nothing, not even a special dinner. During that time we lived up a KY holler not far from a bootlegger who made lots of moonshine. ???? Even though there wasn’t anymore Christmas’ I never felt like I was missing anything. I was just thankful if we had something to eat and a few pieces of coal to heat the house. So it’s memories like that that have made me who I am.
That sounds like a story in of itself. I agree that hardships and challenges, even current ones, continue to shape, and make us who we are. ***Interesting about the bootlegger!
We don’t celebrate Christmas, but as a child—and still as an adult—we’d always go downtown to look at the decorated store windows and have lunch under the huge tree. Thank you for this chance.
There is nothing prettier for a city or town than decorated store windows. There’s something nostalgic about it.
The cookie tradition wasn’t real big in the house I grew up in. Mom’s hands weren’t up to it, not that I would have been able to do more than eat a few. Guys lived in a different world in those days.
Kathy’s family did have that tradition and I enjoy helping her with some. Mostly I do drop cookies, though I sometimes fight with the cookie press for those spritz cookies. They can be a real pain to make down here. The butter has to be at just the right temperature or they don’t work and the weather in Florida doesn’t help that along. At times you have to put the whole press into the fridge to harden the butter some.
Through the years I have discovered that the kind of people I like to hang with appreciate things that someone else put some sweat into for them. A lot of the gifts that I give are gifts of food, food is always appreciated.
If you need someone to talk to this year, drop me a line and I’ll call you back.