Advent Calendar Day 1

Happy Holidays!



What. A. Year. 
I have no idea where 2021 went. It started out well enough, but kind of unraveled midway through, and that was that. Wherever those 336 days went, they're gone forever, and all we can do now is make the most of the thirty-one sunrises and sunsets remaining. 
(Actually, we already had today's sunrise, so that's thirty sunrises, and...yeah. It's the quality, not the quantity, right?)
I went back and forth on whether to do the Advent Calendar this year. I'm certainly feeling better than I did a few months ago, but I'm still writing so flipping slowly, so I can't promise that there'll be any codas this year (my focus has to be on finishing these final long-promised books). However, I can still do my part to start you off each day with a little bit of Christmas cheer. It's such a busy, hectic, and (too-often) stressful time of year, it's great to take a few moments each day just to...take a breath. 
That's the point of this calendar, really, to give you a moment or two of Happy Holidays! To say Thank You. 
Thank you for buying and reading (and re-reading and re-re-reading) my books. Thank you to those readers all over the world who consume my stories in languages I can't speak! Thank you even-sort-of to those of you who are so impatient for the new stories, you get a little, er, cranky sometimes.
Seriously, I appreciate you all very much. Writers write for themselves, but we publish for others. I publish for you. I want to give you the best books I can because I want you to love the books. I want you to love the way the books make you feel--ideally, kind of the way the holidays make you feel. ;-)
(Er, I mean the good holiday feelings, not the way you feel when your parcels are misdelivered or the liquor store runs out of cake-flavored vodka.) 
So what's ahead this month? As in previous years, I'll probably share a couple of favorite holiday songs or a poem or a some inspirational photos or a vintage cartoon or a cocktail recipe (or three). There will likely be giveaways. And maybe one of our talented and generous previous contributors will pop in with some fiction or art? I honestly don't know. I think we'll just take it one day at a time.  
This morning I want to share a YouTube video that my friend David Warner shared with me. It's tender and crazy and altogether lovely.  I hope you enjoy it. It's called When Harry Met Santa. ;-)