I’ll be honest, I’m in the full December crunch. Between parties, the mall, food, family stuff, baby-prep, work…the holidays are (somewhat) a voluntary form of insanity. I barely have time to figure out what to get my wife’s 3^rd cousin-once-removed, much less a list of things for myself that everyone keeps hounding me about (all items must be between $10 and $50). Now, I’m supposed to blog about what people can get you…

*Bret’s mind explodes…you wipe itty-bitty brain bits off your monitor*

Just kidding.

I’m happy to share with you my opinion of the single best thing a writer can receive: GUILT FREE WRITING TIME¹

¹This is not just time, but time where you don’t have to feel BAD about writing…a.k.a. what you’re missing or neglecting.  

Picture it: Sitting at your desk with hot coffee. The music is on and the manuscript is open. No distractions. No lingering worry that you should be at the family party or doing the laundry or any of that jazz. Sounds like the holy grail, huh?

It’s not. Your friends/family hold the golden ticket – the same folk desperately searching for the perfect gift to give the writer in their life.

Here’s how it works:

• They cut 20 (or 40 or 80) strips of paper
• On each they write (or have printed):

• Staple twice along short side.
• Wrap with some purrrrty paper.
• You open, surprised and maybe a bit teary.
• At any time in the next year, you can redeem a voucher (or chunk of them).²

²Make sure to give ample notice

• The issuer arranges for all your distractions to go adios, assuring you it’s no trouble.  
• Example: Smiling, your sister-in-law watches the baby and let’s you go to the coffee shop.
• Another Example: Your spouse makes up a perfectly valid excuse why you can’t be at the church potluck.
• Yet Another Example: The kids promise that they shall not knock on the office door, scream bloody murder in the house, or bother you in any way – unless death is imminent.
• Then you sit down and write.³

³Warning: Don’t waste this time reading blogs (exception being The Muses), Facebooking, Twittering, etc. Doing that would be like taking a sharpie to the sweater someone gifted you. Not cool. So write and savor.

See, I figured out what they can get you. If only my aunt’s dog was a writer…

Continuing our series this week, here are my recommendations for gifts for writers:

1. Fingerless gloves - For warmth, fun, and coolness factor. Because we writers can actually say we need our fingers free to type.

2. Coffee & Tea - The good kind, in all kinds of flavors. We writers like to sip, and type. Yes?

3. Book Store Gift Certificates - We love to read, and it gets expensive. Certificates to a local independent book store are preferred, but the big chains will see us now and again, too. (Similarly, many of us love music, so gift certificates for that are also appreciated.)

4. Scarves - (OK, this is venturing into "gifts for me" territory) In the winter, I'm almost always wrapped in a scarf when I write. Call it uniform. Call it a security blanket. Doesn't matter. Love them in all colors and fabrics.

5. Notebooks - I like the Moleskine notebooks. Most of my writing happens on a computer of sorts, but you have to carry a notebook at all times as a writer to capture that perfect snatch of dialogue you overhear at the grocery store.

6. Massage - Do you sit at a computer up to ten hours a day? Then perhaps you know where I'm going with this.... A little loosening up is good in a largely stationary practice.

7. Tennis Shoes - Yes, you heard right. To piggy-back on the above, writers need balance. Writers need to move in order to offset the sedentary nature of writing. A good pair of tennis shoes, sweats and an iPod. We're writing about the world, right? I think it's important that from time to time, we get out there and see it.

8. UNDER THE NEVER SKY - I hear there's this great book that's coming out... OK. Sorry! I couldn't resist. I'm really nervous, you guys. Less than one month! Anyway. I do think it would make a good gift for readers of YA/Crossover fiction. I'm buying it for a bunch of people : D

What are you wishing for this holiday season? What have I left out?

This week we're writing about gifts for writers.  Here are the things on my wishlist:

1.  A Writing Retreat:  As much as I enjoy writing from my comfy spot on the couch, I always get energized by writing from somewhere new.  This could be as extravagant as spending a weekend at a remote location, or as simple as an afternoon in a coffee shop with my laptop. 

2. A Writing Conference:  My gift in December 2009 changed my writing life.  That was the year my real life love interest treated me to my first writing conference in Monterey, CA.  That weekend I met the Muses and my writing made the leap from a hobby to a profession.  Conferences can be expensive, but SCBWI has regional conferences that are close to most writers and much more cost effective.  Connecting with other writers and publishing professionals provides a wonderful sense of community in an otherwise solitary endeavor. And I always come away with something I can use to improve my own writing.

3.  Chocolate:  You can't go wrong with chocolate.  Did you know they have Texas themed chocolate?  I'm just saying. 

4.  A New Purse:  One large enough to fit my netbook and ipad, but small enough so it doesn't look like a suitcase.  Okay, maybe this one is just me. 

5.  A Standing Pre-Order of 2012 Debuts:  Yes, I'm biased, but I've been lucky enough to read a few advance copies of some of the Apocalypsies' debut novels, and there are a lot of amazing books coming out in the next year.  I want them all, but I'll start with CINDER, FRACTURE, SLIDE, EVERNEATH, and I can't wait to get my hands on my very own copy of UNDER THE NEVER SKY.

6.  A Complete First Draft:  I wish it were as easy of unwrapping a box and pulling out a complete first draft.  I know the only way I'm getting this gift is if I buckle down and write.  But that doesn't mean I won't enjoy the moment when I type the last line of my new novel.  I know I'll have lots of people to thank for supporting me through it.  And, whether it's your first or your fifteenth novel, I hope you all get to enjoy that moment this year too.

What to you want to find in your stocking this year?

And don't forget to leave a comment so you can win a signed ARC of GILT!!!  I promise not to hand deliver it so that I can read it over your shoulder.  Because that would be creepy.

But I am tempted...  

As Katy mentioned yesterday, we had some great ideas for this previously on the blog. But there is one thing I can add this year that I couldn't in the past. KATY LONGSHORE'S AMAZING NEW BOOK, GILT!! And the BEST thing is you can win it! Check out the details on the banner above. This is definitely my number one gift for myself this season!

Now for a couple of other ideas:

1) I'm so excited to be asking for ULTRA-fine tipped SHARPIES, because this is the year the YAMuses get to actually start autographing! So much fun and the rumour is this is the best thing to use.

2) Writing my novel last year, I learned how much a bulletin board of images can be an important resource. I'd love to have a Post-it® Self-Stick Cut-to-Fit Unframed Bulletin Board or a Magic Whiteboard.

3. Massages are great gift ideas! Carpal tunnel, stiff necks, and creaky backs are the occupational hazards of a writer's life. Bath soaps, manicures, rock climbing gym passes, and yoga classes are also great ideas. Writers tend to spend too much time in their heads; help them reconnect with their physical side.

4. I talk to myself a lot. Most of the time about my story ideas, but you never know :) A good digital voice recorder would be a terrific gift, especially for the car.

So what about you? What would support your writing life this holiday season?

With major gift-giving holidays approaching, we’ll be discussing gifts for writers this week.  We wrote something similar last year, and had so much fun doing it.  And, of course, we’re always up for suggestions from our followers!

I remember the first Christmas I was more excited about a gift I would give than about the gifts I would receive.  I don’t even remember what it was, but I remember the feeling – I didn’t sleep well, I was so excited, and my stomach churned a little when my sister finally picked up the gift I had chosen and wrapped just for her.  I wanted so much for her to love it as much as I thought she would.  And I remember wanting to cry when she said she did.

Well, this week, I have that feeling again.  In part because I have something to give away.  But also because I’m asking you to give me something every writer wants.  A reader.  We write to communicate – our art, our passion, our stories – and a readership is the biggest gift anyone could give us.

So I’m calling this a giveaway, but really you’ll be giving me something I have wanted all my life.  Someone to read my book. 

In the Tudor age, ambition, power and charismatic allure are essential and Catherine Howard has plenty of all three.  Not to mention her loyal best friend, Kitty Tylney, to help cover her tracks.  Kitty, the abandoned youngest daughter of minor aristocracy, owes everything to Cat – where she is, what she is, even who she is.  Friend, flirt, and self-proclaimed Queen of Misrule, Cat reigns supreme in a loyal court of girls under the none-too-watchful eye of the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk.  


When Cat worms her way into the heart of Henry VIII and becomes Queen of England, Kitty is thrown into the intoxicating Tudor Court.  It’s a world of glittering jewels and elegant costumes, of gossip and deception.  As the Queen’s right-hand-woman, Kitty goes from the girl nobody noticed to being caught between two men – the object of her affection and the object of her desire.  


But the atmosphere of the court turns from dazzling to deadly, and Kitty is forced to learn the difference between trust and loyalty, love and lust, secrets and treason.  And to accept the consequences when some lessons are learned too late.

We have an ARC of GILT, to be sent to a randomly-selected reader anywhere in the world. All you have to do is comment and/or tell the world about us and the giveaway.

Each of these things will give you one entry into our hat:

◦       Any comment on any blog posting this week

◦       Any tweet or retweet (please include a #giltnovel hashtag and a link to the blog)

◦       Any Facebook link to the blog (please add a link to your comment, so we can see this!)

◦       You can enter as many times as you want

◦       Contest is open internationally

◦       Contest runs from right now through December 12 – winner announced next Tuesday.

I have some GILT-related items to give away, too, so come back and keep reading!