FAKING CHRISTMAS is on sale!

and my trip to my hometown's fair/my high school reunion/Just Another Love Song-core

It’s an exciting day…for me, and for you if you’ve been waiting to get a discounted copy of Faking Christmas. It’s a Kindle Daily Deal today, which means it’s only $1.99! This is by far the cheapest it’s ever been, and most likely the cheapest it will be before Christmas. I know it’s September and you’re knee-deep in a Gilmore Girls marathon while mainlining seasonal drinks, baking pumpkin bread, and wearing Halloween sweaters, but please, think of future you. Imagine what you’re going to want when Thanksgiving ends, Mariah Carey plays, and Christmas season is upon us. You’re going to want a short, sweet, very goofy holiday rom-com. Publisher’s Weekly said I have “a keen eye for both the wacky and the wonderful” (taking that as a compliment) and called the book “a clever comedy of errors.” It is! It’s a screwball comedy in book form (it’s inspired by the movie Christmas in Connecticut) and you can read it now or save it for later, but either way, you’ll want to snag an e-copy.

If you need more information, the book also features: adult fans of Lego (also known as AFOLs), goats, beef wellington mishaps, a sugar cookie decorating party, a lot of Last Christmas, an emotional It’s a Wonderful Life moment, Elf arguments, crying to Adele, a defense of animal communicators, pillows with Christmas puns, Maxxinistas, over-the-top antics, NO third act breakup, general chaos, SNOWED IN (my all-time favorite trope), romantic ice-skating injuries, a little cameo from Not Like the Movies, a big white farmhouse, and, of course, just one bed. I’ll also note that I saw a Goodreads review that took off a star because the book said bad things about Michael Buble, which simply isn’t true. This is a pro-Buble book, but I did mention that his cover of Santa Baby, which changes the lyrics to “Santa buddy,” is bad. I must speak truth to power, even if it costs me Goodreads stars. :(

You can buy your copy right now, because I don’t want you to wake up tomorrow full of anguish over missing this deal.

In other book news, I recently lived out another one of my novels, Just Another Love Song. You may know that JALS is about a fictional town named Baileyville that puts on a big street fair. Well, this was not-so-loosely based on my hometown Bellville’s very real street fair, often called the Bellville World’s Fair. The Bellville Fair is unique for being a street fair. It does not take place at a fairground, and it does not charge admission. It just…takes over the town for a few days every year. It’s a big deal and a lot of people come home for it, including both of my brothers, who traveled from Brooklyn, and one of my besties who lives in Florida.

It was also the setting of my twenty year high school reunion. I was honestly extremely nervous about this reunion. It wouldn’t be accurate to say I didn’t enjoy high school, because there were parts of it I did enjoy, but I don’t enjoy feeling like I did in high school. Writing Just Another Love Song, a heavily nostalgic book that relies on feelings and music from my youth, was pretty difficult. I know that seems like a nutso thing to say about a rom-com, but it’s true! I didn’t like being back in that headspace and I underestimated how much it would bother me. It’s the hardest book I ever wrote, and the reason why I wrote Faking Christmas (a short fun book) next. Also I got made fun of a lot when I was younger, and there’s a part of me that’s still like, “wait, are these people making fun of me?” Even though I’m pretty sure they don’t care, or maybe even don’t remember…but I do! I remember everything! That’s why I’m good at my job but bad at letting go of grudges!

But…surprise…it was fine. I stuck close to my friends, I made Hollis come with me, and I talked to some nice people. It was fine. And then we went to the fair and I got a corndog.

The mustard dispenser would NOT give me a cute squiggle >:(

Not every fair detail in Just Another Love Song is true (I made up lots of things, like the fire station dance, and there’s unfortunately no Ohio themed B&B), but I do think the general vibe of the fair is accurately depicted. There are quilts, needlepoint, very large vegetables (the pumpkins get bigger every year), a kids tractor pull, music, rides both terrifying and not, carnival games where our son threw darts into balloons to win a stuffed chicken nugget wearing a fanny pack that said “sweet and sour” (?), an art show, animals, and a lot of things I didn’t mention in the book. Like a Republican tent that always has a cardboard cutout of Donald Trump, and a tent that sells cowboy hats, counterfeit Lego minifigs, and Hawk Tuah girl t-shirts. If you go to the fair, you need to be prepared to see all aspects of American life presented.

I wouldn’t get on this thing even if you paid me.

It was probably the best fair I’ve been to in awhile, mostly because I got to see so many friends and spend a ton of time with my family. I laughed until my abs hurt more than once. If you want to have your own Bellville Fair experience, you can read Just Another Love Song.

And if you want to get the best deal possible on Faking Christmas, it’s on sale TODAY ONLY! I hope you’ll get a copy and read it now or in December…or after Christmas if you want. The cops aren’t going to come after you!