My brother and his family have gone back to Petaluma, and with all the excitement, we have decided on a quiet New Year celebration, meaning just the four of us.  Couldn’t quite get our acts together after the riotous time with young and younger cousins, Disneyland (you mean you went to Disneyland the week between Christmas and New Years???  Are you nuts?!?), ice skating in Santa Monica twice (it was only 70 degrees), and football on the beach.  One of my sons is currently at the surf store, hanging out and helping them move.  Maybe we’ll try to catch one of the new movies out there.  Our time is our own. 

All of us here at Sweetsmoke wish you the happiest of holidays, a Merry Christmas, a first rate solstice, joyful Mithra’s birthday, and a swell Saturnalia. 

All of us would be, ahem, me. 

It seemed to come on so quickly, this yule season.  The San Francisco book trip, then the trip for the funeral.  I struggled after being in Florida to find a cheerful, joyous, festive place, but it slips in now and again.  We were at Scott and Chelsea’s party this past Sunday, and that was, indeed festive.  My sons had practiced a clarinet/trumpet duet especially for that night and played it nicely, despite the crowd and the noise.  What terrific practice that is, to get up in front of adults and just play.  Scott, Chelsea and their sons did a Trapp Family song that was delightful.  Just a lovely evening. 

I seem to be mostly ready for Christmas, although there is wrapping yet to be done.  A Christmas stocking journey for Mom to be made with boys.  The day after Christmas my brother arrives with his family, always something to anticipate with pleasure. 

The hardest part is to be pulled off the new book, as I need a series of weeks of uninterrupted focus so that I can get into a groove.  I will hopefully have that come January, and then the pages will mount and grow.  Every time I go back after a short layoff, I find myself rewriting what’s there just to make sure I’m in the head and the voice of the new narrative.  Patience and readiness.  It will not be long. 

Deborah caught my last post, and warned me about not delivering until June.  She’s tough, that woman.  I should have said July… Hah!

This is the best time of year to be a White Sox fan, Mr. President, as you well know.  They’ve put together a team that, on paper, looks fantastic.  J.J. Putz.  Pronounced ‘puts’.  Juan Pierre (I always think of SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN — Oh Pierre, you shouldn’t have come).  Mark Teahen.  Sorry, Mark, no joke for your name.  Third base is a tough position to play, just stay strong, baby.  Moving Gordon Beckham to second.  Getting a full year out of Jake Peavy (what do the P and the V stand for?).  Once the season starts, never mind.  But right now, this team is World Series caliber.  Dream dream dream on, oh ye fans of the stockings of white.  Dream on. 

My wonderful agent, Deborah Schneider, seemed surprised and delighted that I hope to have a draft of the new novel perhaps as soon as the end of February.  She said eight years versus eight months.  I probably should have said June, then delivered in February, right Deborah?  Undersell and deliver early, thereby beating expectations.  Silly Dave.  When when when when when will I ever learn? 

I’m not going to belabor this or anything, and I don’t mean to brag, but you can ask my wife if I didn’t see this coming.  Last week I said they were going to kill off Dexter’s family.  Okay, so it was (SPOILER ALERT) only Rita, but they didn’t have anything for her to do except bitch and moan.  Time to shake things up.  I figured for sure they’d let Dexter’s son survive.  I imagine the other two children will slip over the horizon to somewhere else in the world and then be alluded to here and there.  Nice reveal with the cell phones, by the way. 

There she goes again.  Judy Wheeler has been wonderfully supportive of SWEETSMOKE, and she mentioned it once more in the newspaper, in the San Jose Mercury News, in fact.  In a discussion about The Good Thief.

Towne Center Books

What we liked: “Good writing and character development.” “The orphanage with all the kids.” “The lifestyle seemed pretty accurate for those times.” “Both Ren and Benjamin were good in the same ways.” “I especially liked the lady who ran the boardinghouse.” “It’s different from what I usually read.”

What we didn’t like: “It was gory. Not appealing to me.” “I kept waiting for it to lighten up.” “Ending was too neat.”

We were surprised that: “It was written by a woman. It had a very male energy, the way she described the smells.”

We thought the theme was: “Survival. Every person in the book was trying to survive something.” “Family.” “Identity.”

The comment of the night: “It was nature vs. nurture. Ren could still be good.”

Other books we like the looks of: “Old Cape Magic,” by Richard Russo; “Sweet Smoke” by David Fuller; “Sweeping up Glass” by Carolyn Wall; “Traveling with Pomegranates” by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor.

Hey, I just came across something very nice indeed.  Kindle Boards is sponsoring an End of the Year Holiday Extravaganza and Giveaway! (their exclamation point), and Jaazy put up her list.  Okay, I wouldn’t be writing this if it wasn’t good for SWEETSMOKE.  She made it her number one pick of 2009.  Thank you for that!  (my exclamation point)

1.  Sweetsmoke by David Fuller
2.  Murder, Mayhem, & a Fine Man by Claudia Mair Burney
3.  Death, Deceit & Some Smooth Jazz by Claudia Mair Burney
4.  Deadly Charm by Claudia Mair Burney
5.  Kindred in Death by J. D. Robb
6.  Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man by Steve Harvey
7.  Going Down South by Bonnie Glover
8.  God Ain’t Blind by Mary Monroe
9.  Wicked Prey by John Sandford
10. Face of Deception by Iris Johansen

I will walk from writing this post to pick up my mug of tea (one of those yogi teas… it said trust your heart and you’ll always do right or somedamnthing.  I literally rewrote in pencil, crossing out the word ‘heart’ and rewriting it to say trust your skeptical mind.  Although a heart is a valve that you need to keep on working, so I suppose technically it’s good to trust that.  I don’t think, however, that that’s what the yogi tea people meant).  I shall walk my steeped tea to the living room where the rotten book I’m reading for research (by a big name author, badly written, horrible underdeveloped characters, excellent research) I will finish in front of a fire I’ve just built in the fireplace.  When it’s done, I will be writing again.  Maybe even today.