Easy Bake Ovens, Macy's Parades, and A Book Giveaway!!!

Once, early in our marriage, my husband gifted me with an Easy Bake Oven. We'd had a conversation at some point about 'stuff our parents didn't let us have'-- and Easy Bake Oven was on my list. For whatever reason, my mother had decided that this was too expensive or too frivolous or too something, announcing that if I wanted to bake something I could do it in our actual oven and really what was the point of this thing. Which only made me want it more. Because who doesn't want to cook tiny cakes under a light bulb? Well, I did.

So one birthday, there was this sizable wrapped box and when I opened it there was my Easy Bake. For a number of months, I cooked us tiny baked goods until (as my mother probably predicted) the excitement wore off. It's still in the back of my closet where I peer at it occasionally while looking for lost hangers or that stray pair of boots that seems to have wandered off.

It was, let me say, one of the BEST GIFTS I've ever received. A surprise and yet not exactly because I'd coveted the stupid thing since I was like six and it felt both weird and wonderful to actually get it and mostly it felt wonderful that my husband had tromped through Toys R Us because my six year old self had wanted something. Would I have felt as delighted if I'd gotten it when I was still in first grade? Probably. But the sweetness was different at 30.

Which is all to say that sometimes it's the waiting that makes gifts sweeter. (Of course sometimes it isn't but stick with me.)  Like last Thanksgiving when the whole family decided they were tired of listening to me say that 'gee, I want to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in person some day' and decided that this was year. And then I decided the heck with pesky things like mortgage payments, I was going to find us Hamilton tickets and so when four popped up for the matinee the day before Thanksgiving I closed my eyes and bought them and we still talk about that trip and probably will for a very long time. I stood in the cold and watched those balloons and yeah, it was pretty amazing.

Writing is like this. See where I'm going? Some people get their Easy Bake right away. Often it goes well for them and they are very happy with their tiny cakes. But some of us keep on dreaming a little longer, and then just as we've convinced ourself that whatever, life is fine, it drops the Macy's Parade in our laps and we add to it with a full blown vacation and possibly almost get squashed in the subway at one point but it's okay because we are living the dream. Sometimes none of this happens. And we keep making our list.

And hey! Here's something you weren't expecting! I'm giving away 8 copies of the pb of IT WASN'T ALWAYS LIKE THIS, my most recent YA novel in which, among other things, forever seventeen year old Emma beats out more than one evil huckster con man to save the day. I think we all need a bit of that. 

Tell me you want one in the comments and then message me or give me your email or some way to contact you and I'll send one your way.