Illinois author Deborah Cobban "D.C." Brod has written fiction most of her life but didn't think she had a novel in her until she graduated from Nothern Illinois University with an MA in journalism. It was then that she decided if she could spend 120 pages discussing postal oppression of the radical press, she could write a novel. The result was 1989's Murder In Store, featuring private detective Quint McCauley, and four more McCauley books afterward.
D.C.'s latest focus is her "Getting Even" series, which debuted with Getting Sassy in 2010 and introduced down on her luck freelance journalist Robyn Guthrie. The second installment in this humorous series is being released this month, titled Getting Lucky, and finds Robyn back on her feet with a new assignment that leads to discoveries about toxic dumping and mob financing.
D.C.'s holiday offering for Bookmas is titled "The Art of Giving and Receiving Coal":
My brother and I have always been close, and one of the pillars of our relationship is good-natured teasing. So when I was Christmas shopping one year and came upon a piece of coal packaged in an attractive holiday box, I knew I had to get it. I wrapped it in red paper with a green ribbon and set it under the tree for him. (I did get him something else that year, although I don't remember what it was.) He opened it, we all had a good laugh, and I thought that was the end of it. Until the following year, when I opened one of those large but light-weight boxes and found, amidst wads of tissue paper, the chunk of coal. It had lost its holiday packaging, but it I recognized it.
That was 25 years ago and many things have changed. Our parents have passed away. We've both married. My brother has three kids all college-aged or beyond. But that piece of coal has been a constant — passing back and forth between us. It has been buried in a canister of loose-leaf tea, sprinkled with cocoa and disguised as a truffle, and sewn into a stuffed carrot (don't ask). Every year it becomes more of a challenge to concoct a clever delivery system. Admittedly, some are more inspired than others. But we've never missed a year.
We figure if we keep this up long enough, one of us is going to wind up with a diamond.
Favorite Charity is: World Wildlife Fund. You can donate, adopt, or book trips through them to support saving life on earth.
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