Bloganuary: What is the most memorable gift you have received?
My daughter worked so hard on this Christmas gift.
As you can see, it has the following:
- a map
- a treasure hunt with clues
- a large glass crystal
- a keepsake box with a hand-painted coffee cup
And yes, she sent me all over the house searching for my gift. And it was all in honor of the first season of Coffee and Ghosts (long before there was a second, third, and fourth season).
For my daughter, I’ve always been a writer. She witnessed my first novel being published by Simon and Schuster. She saw the ups and downs, mainly because I shared them with her and explained what I was doing and how publishing worked. My kids know how to check print books to see if the book in question is a first edition. This might be an unusual skill to pass along to your children, but there you go.
So she also witnessed my transition to indie publishing. I explained my reasons for that as well. How no publisher (in their right mind) was going to publish a series based on the slim premise of catching ghosts with coffee*.
When I reached the end of the treasure hunt, she told me why she created this Coffee and Ghosts-themed gift.
Because when everyone said no to you, you said yes to yourself.
And that’s a gift I hope will continue to linger—for both of us.
*To be fair, “The Ghost in the Coffee Machine” was part of the Coffee: 14 Caffeinated Tales of the Fantastic anthology. It was also produced in audio by The Drabblecast.
Writing Wrongs 