A special holiday for Kristina McMorris...plus a book giveaway

Birthdays are holidays, right? If so, then Kristina McMorris is celebrating a holiday with us right now, as today is her birthday! And her latest novel, The Pieces We Keep, will be having a birthday on November 26th!

Kristina McMorris lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and their two sons, bundles of energy who take pride in transforming any cylindrical household object into a weapon.

While gathering her grandmother's biographical info for a self-published family cookbook, Kristina happened across a letter her grandfather mailed to his "sweetheart" during his wartime naval service -- a letter that later inspired Kristina to pen her first novel, a WWII love story titled Letters from Home. Praised by critics as a "sweeping debut" (Publishers Weekly), Letters from Home was published by Kensington Books and Avon/HarperCollins UK in spring 2011. Her second novel, Bridge of Scarlet Leaves, was released in spring 2012 to equally high critical acclaim. Most recently, her novella, "The Christmas Collector," appeared in the New York Times and USA Today bestselling anthology A Winter Wonderland.

To date, Kristina's works of fiction have garnered more than twenty national literary awards and even a nomination for the prestigious RITA® Award. A frequent guest speaker and workshop presenter, she holds a B.S. in International Marketing with a language concentration from Pepperdine University. For her diverse accomplishments, she has been named one of Portland's "Forty Under 40" by The Business Journal.

Kristina was first at CLC when Letters from Home was published. (The e-book is currently a #1 bestseller on Amazon, and is available for only $2.99 on all e-readers...only for a limited time though.) We're thrilled to have her back for another visit and to talk about her favorite holiday. She has TWO copies of The Pieces We Keep for some lucky US readers.

You can find her at her website, Facebook and Twitter.

Check out a trailer for The Pieces We Keep:




Favorite holiday from any time of the year: 
Christmas, without a doubt. I admit, I'm one of those utterly annoying people who starts playing Christmas music the very first day of November!

What is a tradition you partake in for this holiday? 
In our house, we host an annual Christmas cookie showdown, in which we strive to decorate the most creative sugar cookie in the family -- but here's the catch: the finished product cannot resemble what the cookie cutter intended. In other words, a rocking horse is transformed into the Grinch, or a candy cane into a bookworm on a fish hook.

Favorite memory from this holiday: 
I still remember the Christmas morning when I was a little girl and found boot prints in a layer of ash in front of our family's fireplace. What greater proof would a child possibly need?

Favorite song related to or from this holiday: 
 "I'll Be Home for Christmas." Whenever I listen to that song and think about the context of WWII servicemen and women -- and even our military today -- spending the holiday far from loved ones, it reminds me of the incredible sacrifices they made, and continue to make, for our country.

Favorite movie about or including this holiday: 
I'd have to name two: Love Actually and It's a Wonderful Life (at the end, Harry's toast to George never fails to make me teary).

Favorite food to eat during this holiday:
Candied yams covered in loads of mini-marshmallows. Yum!

What do you like most about this holiday? 
I love SO much about it: the snow, the scent of hot apple cider, curling up by a fire, our family's memorable traditions, decorating the tree, baking pies and cookies, and listening to my favorite carols. But I especially love the generosity it so often brings out in people (Black Friday madness excluded, that is). :)

Thanks to Kristina for kicking off her birthday at CLC and sharing a present (a.k.a. her book) with our readers!


How to win: Use Rafflecopter to enter the giveaway. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


US only. Giveaway ends November 26th at midnight EST.