Squawk Radio

KRISTIN HANNAH SEARCHES FOR SOME COMFORT AND JOY THIS HOLIDAY SEASON











Well, well, well. So I’m sitting here in my living room, with a fire in the fireplace and snow falling past the window outside, and I’m trying to psyche myself up to begin my first blog. Really, it sounds like something my mother would have warned me against. “You know, honey, nice girls don’t blog…you’re sure to end up with a bad reputation if you try…” Or something like that. And as the least technologically advanced writer on the planet, I have this sense that I won’t blog correctly and will therefore embarrass myself, but oh well. Life is short and we have to try new things and I adore Teresa and Christina and their blogging friends, so here goes.

Let me say first and foremost that once again I’m caught off guard by the passing of time during this holiday season. For weeks and weeks I’m thinking about Thanksgiving and telling myself that Christmas is light years away and that I won’t think about one holiday until the other is over. Then, suddenly, the turkey is gone, I’ve cleaned up the mess, and all of a sudden it hits: I’m behind. I haven’t done anything in preparation for Christmas and it’s a month away. I have packages to mail to my sister in California and they have to be airborne by the second week in December. AAAAAGGGHHH.

That’s where I am now. Desperate to get things in the mail that I haven’t yet bought or thought about. On top of that, this happens to be a particularly crazy December for me. Why? you ask. I’ll tell you. My son is a senior in high school. For those of you that have lived through this particular terror, I’m sure you know what I mean. For those of you that haven’t, all I can say is it makes the spit-up baby and crawl-everywhere toddler years look like Heaven. He’s smack full of senioritis (I can’t imagine how I’ll survive spring when the sun in shining) and supposed to be filling out college applications.

There it is. The real center of my life right now. College applications. We’ve been visiting colleges and traveling and talking endlessly about a future that I can see much more clearly than he can. It is crazy and stressful and exhilarating. The one absolute truth I’ve stumbled across is that I should be the one going to college.

On top of all that, I’ve got books coming out. And not just one. There’s "Comfort and Joy," my Christmas novella, which is on the stands right now; the ten year reissue of one of my favorite novels, "Home Again," at the end of the month; and "Magic Hour," my next novel, in February. For a girl who usually has one book a year, this is a virtual avalanche of product. I’m not much on self promotion, but I will say that I think "Comfort and Joy" is a lot of fun for the holidays and "Magic Hour" is my best book yet. Let me know what you think.

Hmmmm. I guess that pretty much wraps up my story right now. I’d like to thank the girls at Squwakradio.com for inviting me to blog with them. Actually, it’s been really fun. I’m a big fan of all of their work and I appreciate being included in this special holiday roundup. So here’s to Happy Holidays for all of us and a great new year.

And if any of you have any advice for me in this wild ride, I sure would appreciate it. How do we survive the lot of it—senioritis, college applications, leaving home (and the corresponding fear that they’ll decide not to leave), and the new “I’m eighteen” which corresponds roughly to the old “you’re not the boss of me” but with teeth? Help!

Kristin Hannah is the New York Times bestselling author of thirteen novels. She's been published in 27 languages in hardcover, trade, and mass market paperback. She currently lives in the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii with her husband and son. Her next novel is Magic Hour, coming Feb. 27, 2006.