We love strong women at Christmas Lake Press. So in this edition of the communiqué, we’re celebrating the strong female characters in our recent titles, as well as our co-founder, Julia Bobkoff, whose innumerable strengths include beating back a most definitely not mild case of COVID after 25 days in quarantine. Julia is back now in full force, applying her talents to guide books from concept to completion as Christmas Lake Press Editor-in-Chief.
The Big One, which Julia co-wrote with Mike Krysiuk, tells the story of Mike’s remarkable recovery from a life-altering (and nearly life-ending) accident. Mike’s mother, Anne, was a formidable force in his recovery, ever-present, ever-patient, ever-praying, and ever-ready with Mike’s favorite root beer popsicles. His older sister, Mary Ann, was also an integral member of “Team Krysiuk,” along with Mike’s father, as the family rallied to bring Mike back from the brink. We’re working to bring you the audio book, which Mike—who had to learn how to speak again after his accident—narrated beautifully himself.
In Greg Lawrence’s debut novel, With You, three generations of strong women form the backbone of the Rain family, passing down determination, perseverance, and an independent spirit from matriarch to mother to a daughter devoting her life to her dreams. Greg dedicated the book to the women in his life, noting that “strong women are made by strong mothers.” He also just settled on a narrator for the audio version, coming in March, whose voice exudes feminine strength with every word. With You continues to garner 5-star reviews, including this one just in: “I laughed and I cried and I celebrated this new author. Waiting for the story to continue....”
What we’re working on…
Looking forward, two of our upcoming releases introduce women—one old and one young—overcoming monumental challenges as each is forced to accept and ultimately embrace a new stage of life. We’re popping with excitement about both of these titles, the first (which we’ve already mentioned) featuring 98-year-old Edith Sharp as she transitions to the River’s Edge long-term care facility and meets a cast of characters unlike any she knew when she lived in her comfortable cape with the white picket fence; the second a historical fiction thriller set in eastern North America approximately 1000 years ago. It’s author David Long’s first book, and he thoroughly researched native American culture and customs to bring to life a people and a time period on which little has been written. David’s book is in the final stages of editing, and you’ll be hearing more about it in future communiqués.
Line editing work is also about to start on our comical, cynical, at times criminal, and captivating coming-of-age novel that alternates between the mental pressure-cooker of an Ivy League school and the low-pressure storm system of a mental institution.
In addition, Tom’s little book of essays on love is moving forward.
Part of what we do at Christmas Lake Creative (the parent organization of Christmas Lake Press) is help writers achieve their goals. To that end, we’ve been busy coaching a science fiction and fantasy author with one book recently published and another almost done to help him set and meet weekly objectives for not only output but also professional advancement and building his marketing machine. Another coaching client has returned to his novel (after his wife’s tragic and untimely passing)—the first book in a trilogy that challenges us to explore what healthy masculinity might actually look like.
What we’re looking for…
We continue to lean towards books that ignite a discussion on the challenges we face as technology advances faster than our culture can process and absorb it, as well as memoirs that—through the slice of life they examine—cut deeply into our assumptions about what it means to be human. This may sound heavy—and of course we always love a light, entertaining read—but our focus is on books that stimulate the mind and spark the imagination.
What we’re reading…
We didn’t get very far into Rilke’s The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge, partly due to time pressures and partly because it didn’t grab us, but we’re still going to give it a chance. Likewise, we only spent a bit of time in Stephen King’s On Writing and James Woods’s How Fiction Works. We were, however, captivated by Hisham Matar’s Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, The Return (enough to order another of his books), which we’re reading aloud at dinner chapter by chapter. And in the queue are yet another book on writing, The Half-Known World by Robert Boswell, and a spiritual philosophy volume—The Courage to Be by Paul Tillich.
What we’re listening to…
Tom’s current audio adventure is a fascinating biography of his father’s favorite author, Joseph Conrad—The Dawn Watch by Maya Jasaloff—while Julia (never satisfied with one title at a time) is listening to Lost in Ghost Town: A Memoir of Addiction, Redemption, and Hope in Unlikely Places by Carder Stout, Let Love Rule by Lenny Kravitz, and A Light so Lovely: The Spiritual Legacy of Madeleine L'Engle, Author of a Wrinkle in Time. Tom did finish listening to Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals (in only one week), a sobering assessment of how much time we’re given here and how we can stop misusing it.
What we’re cooking up…
This past week Tom was interviewed for two podcasts: Happily Ever After Is Just The Beginning! with marriage expert Lesli Doares, and What Are We Talking About—an exploration of all things communication—with Tammy Palazzo and Louis Sacco. Both recordings will be going up in the next week or two. Julia—who works independently as a screenwriter and film producer—continued her work on several solo and collaborative projects.
On the company front, we’ve joined the Independent Book Publishers Association, Writers & Publishers Network, and the Connecticut Press Club, and we’ve applied for membership in Small Press United to expand our reach into bookstores.
Last but not least, in the idea basket Tom has a quirky concept for a cookbook on relationships, and he and Julia are starting to map out plans for co-writing a four-book series.
That’s all for this edition—stay tuned for the next. As always, we are grateful to our authors, clients, friends, and supporters. Onward and upward in 2022 and beyond!
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