The Quiet Work of Holidays
Happy Holidays, and the Stories We Tell Around Them
As we move into the holiday season, I wanted to pause for a moment and wish you warmth, comfort, and a little extra kindness wherever you are. The end of the year has a way of asking us to slow down, look back, and notice what lingers.
This year, I’m staying home for the holidays. There’s comfort in avoiding highways and crowds, in letting the season be quieter, slower, and more inward than the world usually allows. For me, that is part of what draws me to stories this time of year. In fiction, holidays do more than mark time. They create atmosphere.
In my first two novels, holidays quietly shape the emotional landscape. The Option opens in early fall, with September slipping toward October. By the time Halloween arrives, the story reaches a turning point that forever alters Max’s life. The holiday is not just a date on the calendar. It becomes a moment when the world feels thinner, when loss feels closer, and when change arrives uninvited.
In Finding Tommy, Halloween takes center stage in a different way. Three friends meet in a cemetery on that night, honoring memory, friendship, and love in a space where the living and the dead feel closer than usual. The story itself stretches forward toward Christmas, carrying that autumn mood into winter, where endings and beginnings often meet.
My third book, A Boy From Before, steps away from a central holiday focus. Thanksgiving is mentioned, but the story is less anchored to a season and more to an emotional journey that unfolds over time. That choice was intentional. Some stories want the structure of a calendar. Others want room to breathe outside it.
As I continue working on the next book in the series, I’m reminded how quietly holidays shape a scene. They bring scent, light, tradition, and expectation into a story without needing explanation. A mention of falling leaves, a carved pumpkin, a shared meal, or a string of lights can ground a reader instantly. These details place us inside the story and remind us where we are, and sometimes who we are, in relation to one another.
As the holidays approach, I hope you find books that feel like a place you can step into and stay for a while. Thank you for spending part of your reading life with mine.
Wishing you peace, reflection, and a season filled with moments that matter.
Mj