Hello dear friends and loyal blog followers! I’m grateful to all of you…and so, in the spirit of the season, there will be THREE giveaways today! Giveaway #1: a signed copy of any one of my books. Giveaway #2: a 30-minute Zoom chat with me about anything. Giveaway #3: a picture book critique. There will be three questions randomly scattered through this post…and you can answer them in the comments…let me know in the comments which prize you would prefer.

GIVEAWAY QUESTION #1: WHEN DID I BUY THE OUTFIT I’M WEARING? (Hint: I’ve had it for a long time)

I apologize for my absence and sporadic social media presence. Many of you know I’ve been dealing with vision challenges for a long time. On December 9^th, my eye surgery went smoothly and the doctor says everything looks great…although to me, things are still blurry…but he feels that within a few weeks, my vision should sharpen. Meanwhile, I’m able to use the computer since I can increase the font size and also change the background for greater contrast.

Huge thanks to an organization called Future Insight which is active in New Hampshire and provides assistance in the form of in-home mobility and technology training. One of the simplest…and most helpful aids has been my use of Siri on my iPhone. Honestly, I was aware that Siri existed on my iPhone, but I never used it. Picture getting up in the middle of the night and fumbling with your phone to navigate to find out the time…or frantically swiping through apps to find the flashlight icon. And then. on one of the visits from the Future Insight angel, I learned that all I needed to do was press the home button and ask Siri for the time…or to open a particular app. LET THERE BE LIGHT!

And while I’m on the topic of light, today is the first day of winter…the shortest day of the year…the day when there is the least number of hours of light. But in that moment, there is also the promise of possibility…because from that day on, the days lengthen and the hours of light increase! Even as a child, I was struck by that knowledge…and it always gives me hope as I moved forward into the new year.

With the new year approaching, it seems appropriate to look back on 2025. It was a difficult year for many, both here and around the world and my heart goes out to all who struggle with illness, loss, and danger. In those respects, I have been fortunate. Although my younger son was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer a few months ago, he, too, is moving forward with a positive outlook for his future.

Fortunately, for myself, other than the eye issues, my health is excellent and I was able to enjoy several trips…to Costa Rica in February with a dear local friend…and to Austria and Portugal in April with my son. The year began with the launch of my latest NF PB bio, ONE GIRL’S VOICE: How Lucy Stone Helped Change the Law of the Land, which received the California Reading Association Silver Eureka and was a Mighty Girl pick and a Junior Library Guild selection. Huge thanks to my fabulous editor, Carolyn Yoder…and to the incredible illustrator, Rebecca Gibbon. I was able to present at schools in Dunstable and Billerica, MA as well as participate in bookstore events…at the Silver Unicorn in Acton, MA and at G.Willikers in Portsmouth, NH.

Also in March, we held another successful #50PreciousWords, receiving 586 submissions, distributing 65 prizes, and donating over 200 books to the Children’s Literacy Foundation (CLiF). I’ll ever forget the very first contest in 2016 when I thought a few friends would enter…but we had 128 submissions and the winner, Julie Abery from Switzerland, walked away with 1st place, a critique with my amazing agent, Essie White, and who later sold that story which became a board book series! I can’t express how rewarding it is to receive an email from a former #50PreciousWords participant who shares that they now have an agent or a book deal because of that contest.

GIVEAWAY QUESTION #2: WHAT YEAR DID 350PRECIOUSOWRDS START, HOW MANY SUBMISSIONS DID WE HAVE AND WHO PLACED FIRST IN THAT CONTEST?

In October, I was invited to panel at the New Hampshire Book Festival in Concord NH…sharing the stage with several other NH authors, Kari Allen, Sandra Nickel, and Erin Dionne.

In November, I traveled to Denver to attend the NCTE conference (National Council of Teachers of English)…and again presented on a panel for a cohort of fabulous authors: Jolene Gutierrez, Nyasha Williams, Nadia Salomon, and Bianca Schulze. It was so much fun…and I got to meet one of my long-time critique buddies, Tina Cho!

GIVEAWAY QUESTION #3: WHO IS MY FABULOUS EDITOR FOR ONE GIRL’S VOICE AND WHO IS THE INCREDIBLE ILLUSTRATOR FOR THAT BOOK?

November also heralded my receiving the New Hampshire PBS Literary Award for Excellence for PEDAL, BALANCE, STEER: Annie Londonderry, the First Woman to Cycle Around the World. I’m grateful to the New Hampshire Writers Project and its director, Masheri Chapelle, who is certainly a beacon of light for New Hampshire writers.

I also submitted a new manuscript to my agent…a story I co-authored with the amazing Hanh Bui. She immediately sent it out on submission.

Which brings me to looking forward into the light of the possibilities of 2026…hoping for positive responses from editors, getting ready to reach out to my fabulous #50PreciousWords judges: Maria Marshall, Diane Tulloch, Pamela Coutney, Shirin Shamsi, Leah Moser, Carmen Castillo Gilbert, Amber Lavoie (fingers crossed they all want to return as judges) and equally incredible prize donors; planning a presentation for World Read Aloud Day on February 4^th for a Bronx, NY school; already ticking off a tentative packing list for a trip to Scotland and England in May; and extremely excited for the launch of two brand new books in the Fall: PIPPA’S HANUKKAH HUNT (the sequel to Pippa’s Passover Plate) and FRIENDS COUNT, a board book that will be a PJ Library selection for our littlest story-lovers.

Thank you all again…for your friendship…and for sticking it out till the end of this post. Don’t forget to enter the giveaway…the three questions can be found in the captions of some of the photos.

And please remember that the best gift you can give an author is to buy their book, review their book, tell friends about their book, and ask your local library to purchase copies of their book. Three of these suggestions don’t cost any money…just a few minutes of your time…and they say that Amazon reviews are important – they say that 50 is a magic number and when a book gets more than 50 reviews, it is given precedence in some way on Amazon. I just checked…and ONE GIRL’S VOICE, which came out almost a full year ago, only has 31 reviews, even though it’s a Junior Library Guild selection, a Mighty Girl Pick, and was awarded the Silver Eureka from the California Reading Association – and I just found out that it will be used at Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts for student field trips in the coming year. If any of you haven’t reviewed it yet, maybe you can find a few minutes to do so – I’d be grateful!

I’m wishing you all the happiest of seasons…and a New Year filled with light, love, and laughter.