Books! Buy Three, Get One Free

As the holidays approach, I think of books. I love giving them as gifts, matching up the perfect read with the perfect reader. My publisher is making it easier for me to do this with a THANKSGIVING SEASON SPECIAL: Buy three Vanilla Heart Publishing titles before December 17th, and you'll get one free!

Whenever I look at a book catalogue, I'm like the proverbial kid in the candy store. There's so much to choose from, I don't know where to begin. If I'm selecting one book--or one candy bar--making a choice, as thrilling as it is, suddenly eliminates all the other books. How can I say "no" to all but one?

As he grew older, my grandfather--who was an excellent carpenter--decided to cut back on the number of tools filling up his garage. "You can have any tool you want," he said. How simple could it be? All I had to do was walk up to the work bench where a thousand and one delights were arranged in drawers and rows and hangers on the peg board and select my heart's desire. Claw hammer or ball-peen hammer? Crosscut saw or rip saw? File or wood rasp? I froze. I wasn't really choosing just one, was I? I was saying "no" to a thousand.

My grandfather understood my dilemma, and rather than turning the choice into a mysterious test of my character and resolve, he handed me the rip saw. "You're old enough to use a man's saw. Take this home and try it out."

I was proud of the rip saw as I walked the four blocks from his house to my house. I wanted people to see me carrying it, but the day was getting late and everyone else was already inside cleaning up for dinner. Unlike a handful of gum drops, that rip saw lasted a long time. It was well made, and I always remembered how I came to have it.

Books are like that. But still, I have to choose. Consider the books written by these authors, and you'll see why I wish Vanilla Heart would get me off the hook and just pick my books for me: Vila SpiderHawk, Smoky Trudeau, Chelle Cordero, Marilyn Celeste Morris, Misha Crews, Robert Hays, L.E. Harvey, Victoria Howard, Collin Kelley, Sandy Nicks, Malcolm R. Campbell, Charmaine Gordon, Janet Lane Walters, Anne K. Albert, S.R. Claridge, Melinda Clayton, Barbra Annino.

Fortunately, I already have copies of my books "The Sun Singer," "Garden of Heaven," and "Jock Stewart and the Missing Sea of Fire." Okay, that narrows things down. Before interviewing Vila SpiderHawk on Malcolm's Round Table, I read the first of her delightful "Forest Song" novels. Good, that narrows it down a bit more. And, before interviewing L. E. Harvey, I read "Imperfect" and got blown away by the ending. I'll be ready for the sequel when it's released.

Hmm, I've already read Smoky Trudeau's  "The Cabin," "Redeeming Grace" and "Observations of an Earth Mage." What beauties they are. Oh. and Melinda Clayton's gritty "Appalachian Justice." And that's not all, but this post is starting to run on a a while.

Ultimately, this is how it works with books: Every time I read one, I'm ahead of the choice game until the author or the publisher or fate adds more books to the catalogue. I know I'll never have all the books any more than I could have all of grandfather's tools on that day I was old enough to carry home a rip saw. You'll never have all the books either, but I want you to know that I understand what you're going through while you're thinking "oh, this romance looks hot" and "this time travel thriller will be perfect with hot chocolate on a cold winter's night."

While getting a free book after buying three others is a great help, let me make a suggestion. Print out the list of Vanilla Heart books, tape it on the wall and--while blind folded--throw four darts. Whatever you hit, that's your selection. Take a deep breath and the force will be with you because, as Yoda said, Do, or do not. There is no ' try.'

By the way, the deep breath isn't optional. Without it, you might puncture your wedding picture, Aunt Edith's sampler, or the smoke alarm and I'm here to tell you Christmas will be less merry after that happens..


--Malcolm