Well, the folks over at SleuthSayers, the mystery blog I write for, have me contributing a post on this, the deadest reading day of the year, Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving when all good Americans are out spending themselves blind. Not to be outdone, I have managed to blame the entire Black Friday concept on short story writers, the very same folks who operate the SleuthSayers blog. I know, it’s wacky clickbait premise, but you can’t blame a guy for trying. My argument is based on one of the oldest American Christmas traditions: giving books of short stories to children and adults. This, eventually led to the creation of Christmas presents.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. You can learn all about it in an article entitled:

Writers, Black Friday’s on You!

Here’s a little of the story:

The earliest advertisement for “Christmas Gifts” that Nissenbaum was able to find dated to 1806, in a Salem, Massachusetts, newspaper. Tellingly, the ad was placed by a bookseller. Eventually, adults also became recipients of the book-buying tradition. These books were more lavish, with gold-leaf paper edges, embossed covers, colored engravings, and “presentation plates”—a page at the front where the giver would inscribed the book to their loved one. Husbands and wives gifted each other these books; suitors presented them to young ladies who were the object of their affection.

That’s just a taste of the story. I hasten to add that two of the figures who appear in my tale are Edgar Alan Poe and his onetime editor, Sarah Josepha Hale, the so-called mother of Thanksgiving. (I have written of them before!)

Editress Sarah Josepha Hale and her frequent contributor, Edgar Allan Poe.

I hope you’ll visit and check out the story. It certainly took me quite a bit of time to research and fact-check. Luckily, I can now treat myself to some pie.

I wish you all a belated Happy Thanksgiving!

Turns out, I have never written a Thanksgiving short story or novel. And until very recently, I had never written a Christmas story. Well, that all changes now. I hope you will check out my warmhearted Christmas time travel novella, Preston the Provider. (Affiliate link.)