Thirty One Wicked Days of Xmas With Natasha

WickedLilPixie hosted a month-long question and answer series called 31 Days of Christmas  featuring a gaggle of the brightest authors being published today. 
I'm sharing my responses with you. Thanks Natasha for inviting me to take part. (Everyone go visit the other 30 authors at her site when you're done here.)
What is next for you book wise in 2013?
I'll be writing "Blood of Ten Kings" (working title), the third book in the Guardians of Aandor series. Also finishing up a short-story featuring Lelani Stormbringer at age 10, that takes place in the Aandor universe. Reading wise, I hope to start "Casual Vacancy" by J.K. Rowling. 

Do you have a favorite book of 2012?  

      "Voyager" by Diana Gabaldon. Prose, character, plot... this book has it all. It's also so thick, it makes an excellent door stop. But read "Outlander" first since Voyager is the third in a series.

 

      What is your favorite holiday food?

      Struffoli (Italian honey balls with sprinkles). These are so addictive, they make blue meth seem like unbuttered/unsalted popcorn. Can't go wrong with fried dough and honey. Ever.

 

      Least favorite holiday song?  

     "Simply Having A Wonderful Christmas Time." Don't get me wrong... I love Sir Paul. His show at Yankee Stadium last year was the best I'd ever seen in forty years of concerts. But he must have been on the tail end of a week-long ganja binge when he wrote that one.

      Do you have any holiday family traditions? 

      We're Italian. When we eat, we put starving pigs to shame. We also tell each other "No presents this year" to pretend that we're only in it for the spirit of the season, but then get each other gifts anyway. No one trusts anyone in my family. We're a pack of degenerate pathological gift givers. We also open one present on Christmas eve, just to whet the appetite.

      Worst gift you ever received? 

       Can't remember. It was worse than socks. It was so bad, I blocked it from my mind. (I do that sometimes.)

      Worst gift you ever gave?  

       I have NEVER given a bad gift. Even gifts that people thought were bad at the time turned out to be useful at a later time. By comparison, my worst gift is everyone else's average gift. Maybe my worst gift is an example of my magnanimous modesty and humility?

      Favorite holiday memory? 

      Getting a 10-speed bike when I was 13. My old bike had just been stolen (I was mugged) and my parents said they couldn't afford a new bike that year (and they really couldn't). Surprise! I got all gushy and teary, like the way you get at the end of A Charlie Brown Christmas--or when Mitt Romney gets his tax refund. (Just kidding.)

 

      If you could share one lesser known fact about yourself to our readers, what will it be? 

      You may think that because The Sex Pistols are blasting on my iPod I'm not a sentimental softy. You'd be wrong. I'm more thin-skinned than even I realized.

     Weirdest thing you collect?   

      Dust. I've mastered it like an art form. My mother says I have dead people using my apartment as a transfer junction. (Ashes to ashes, dust to dust...) Other than that, I've given up collecting all the things I used to love. Magic Cards, comic books, DVDs, CDs... It's not that I've stopped loving all things geeky; I simply had a Carrie Bradshaw moment a few years back. She had $40,000 worth of shoes in her closet and no money to buy a house with. I had a few thousand $$ worth of geekabilia, and no home of my own. So I bit the bullet and started buying things called mutual funds instead. So hopefully, one day, I'll be able to invite ya'll to my "house." I won't have anything to read or watch, no games to play, and no posters on the wall, but it will be mine, and the Nissan noodles I'll serve in paper bowls will be top quality.