18 Ideas for Gifting Books

At times, friends and relatives can be hard to buy for. Some seem to have everything. Due to age or illness, others may be less mobile than in years past. Some don’t really want much. Families scatter across this huge country and selecting a gift, packaging, and shipping can be a chore.

A book is a perfect gift ... and a great way to avoid the crowds. Books provide a great entertainment value, delivering hour upon hour of pleasure. Reading fiction is like taking a mini vacation without leaving home. An engrossing story makes worries fade away. Reading nonfiction can also entertain while learning how-to tips, gaining perspective, adding to knowledge, or finding enlightenment.

If you take the time to match the recipient’s taste in fiction or nonfiction, your thoughtfulness becomes part of the gift. Whether your relatives or friends are interested in the Civil War, literature, romance novels, photography, westerns, paranormal fiction, fishing, railroads, guns, cooking, collecting old comic books, antique automobiles, politics or anything else, there's always a book that will bring a smile to their face.

Top Tips for Book Gift Giving

1. Write a personal message on the title page that won't get tossed out like last year's Christmas card.
2. Write surprise messages in the margin of random pages.
3. There are books about every hobby and interest in the world. Picking a book that fits you’re your recipient’s interests shows you care.
4. Search out an author signing for your recipient’s favorite author.
5. Gift an entire series, like a complete set of Harry Potter books.
6. Gift a collector’s version of the recipient’s favorite book. (I’d like a First Edition of The Virginian.)
7. Shop at an independent or specialty bookstore to get professional help selecting your book.
8. With Amazon Prime, gift wrapping and shipping is free and the book can be sent direct to the recipient.
9. Mail early to take advantage of media class at the Post Office.
10. Give a book as a piece of art, like a fine print book, unique coffee table book, favorite book as a child, or collectible cover art. (I like early 20^th Century Westerns with period cover art.)
11. Make a highly personal photo book with ShutterFly or Mimeo.
12. Give a bookseller gift card for e-book and audio book enthusiasts.
13. Give a new model Kindle or a nice cover to an e-book enthusiast.
14. College students appreciate gift cards for their campus bookstore. (For fun, I put it inside a trashy novel for them to read on Spring break.)
15. As a bookmark, tuck in crisp currency.
16. If your friend or relative already owns piles of books, give a unique set of book ends to hold them in their proper place.
17. Children's books are great gifts. We search for autographed storybooks for our grandkids. The icing on the cake is that when we visit, we read these books to them.
18. Coloring books now come for every age.

If you choose to gift one of my books, thank you.  I appreciate it.

Opening a story—First, grab their attention

It was a cold and windy night.

Laura Borealis has published a blog article on TheTen Worst Story Openings. As I've mentioned previously, I open each of the Steve Dancy Tales with a number that is actually the sequence number of that particular novel in the series. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but it's merely the opening word. I normally jump into the middle of a conversation. My intent is to make the reader curious about what the characters are talking about.

As an example, here are the opening lines of Leadville. The idea is to convey that something is about to happen and it is vitally important.

“Three.”
“Days or weeks?” I asked.
“Days.” Jeff Sharp squinted at the telegram as if it hid additional information. Rubbing the back of his neck, he added, “He can’t make it. It’s a six-day ride.”
“If Captain McAllen says he’ll be here in three days, we’d better have a room ready for him.”

Here is an example from my latest work, Jenny’s Revenge. The idea here is to start the book with tension and tell loyal fans that Steve and Virginia are together.

“Six.”
I recoiled. “Six dollars per night?”
“Yes, sir.”
“May I see the suite?”
Virginia squeezed my arm. “It will be perfectly fine.”
I never took my eyes from the clerk. “I’m sure, but I’d like to see it just the same.”

Are these great openings? I don’t know. I only know that I like to get the story moving from the gitgo. How about Borealis’ terrible openings? I agree with them all … except every one of these rules can be violated on occasion. In Tempest at Dawn, I simultaneously violated #1, #2, and #6. The opening lines of my prologue are:

Anxiety woke me before dawn. Rolling to my side, I pulled the heavy quilt around my exposed ear. Was I ready? Had I prepared sufficiently? Would the old man reveal what I had come here to learn? He was stubborn and had frustrated many before me.

The prologue was my agent’s idea and I believe it worked for this novel. A few reviewers disagreed, but they appeared to object because they had heard the oft repeated rule to avoid prologues. Generally, this is sound advice, but prologues can perform a positive function if they don't violate other guidelines of good writing. For example, show instead of tell still applies.

I don’t remember violating any of the other seven“Worst Story Openings,” so there appears to be a lot of work ahead of me.

11 Things Writers are Tired of Hearing

BuzzFeed listed 10 Things Writers are tired of hearing. Add cute animations and some acerbic replies and you have an interesting article. Here are the BuzzFeed’s 10 and my personal answers.

     

     1.     Do you make any money doing that?

             Yes, but I’m still struggling to make more than minimum wage.

     2.     When does your book come out?

             Darn … last year.

     3.     Oh, I have a great story for you…

             I only have enough time on this planet to write my stories.

     4.     You should write about me!

             I’m glad you haven’t noticed I already did.

     5.     Cool. You know, J.K. Rowling is a millionaire.

             Yeah, but she went to school at Hogwarts.

     6.     What’s your novel about?

             About 72,000 words.

     7.     You have your MFA? What’s that do?

             Actually, I have an MBA. It taught me how to make money so I could write.

     8.     Have you ever considered being a journalist?

             I write fiction, which means I lie for a living. Wait a minute …

     9.     But what’s your real job?

             Not writing. I enjoy it too much for it to feel like work.

   10.     Really? Nobody reads books anymore.

            You obviously don’t have grandchildren bugging you to buy them chapter books.

Okay, so here is my #11 thing I am tired of hearing: When will the next Steve Dancy book be out? 

Actually, I love to hear that, but I tend to over-promise, so I cringe when people ask a second and third time. It takes way too long to get a book from first draft to print-ready.  And if I haven’t worked on it for a few days, the query makes me feel guilty. 

Honest stories filled with dishonest characters.