Fangtastic Books: Holiday Gifts I Love to Give with Thirteen Nights Author Sabrina Garie

Holiday Gifts I Love to Give

Every year around the holidays, I am always scrambling around for gift ideas. I not only like to give people I care about things they’ll appreciate, but I want my presents to speak to them in personal and meaningful ways. Here’s my list of what I’ve found over the years that work with loved ones as well as with the new gal in the office down the hall you’ve talked to maybe three times that showed up in your secret Santa list. These ideas also work for all ages.

1. Charitable Gifts. I’ve started to give gifts that give back. There are two main ways to do this.

a. Support charities directly. My favorite is world wildlife, which has endangered species adoption kits (prices range dramatically). This works especially well with kids who have favorite animals, families who can adopt together, or animal loving adults.

b. Select gifts that support charities. You don’t just have to pick charities to be charitable. Many companies are getting into this game in many ways. Think Tom’s shoes, which gives away a pair to a poor child for pair bought or Target’s Feed line or all Paul Newman products.

2. Books personalized to the recipient, from the giver, or to the relationship. What does that even mean? I like to give books that have meaning or relevance in some way.

a. Meaning to the recipient. For children’s birthdays, for example, I’d look for books in which the main character had the same name as the child receiving the gift. As another idea, I have a friend who loves poetry and used books. I often comb used book stores for just the right volume (and it gives me an excuse to spend time around old books).

b. From the Giver. I often gift my very favorite books to others because they mean so much to me, I want to share them.

c. To the relationship. I gave a boyfriend, with whom I shared a love of Italy, speaking Italian and urban places, a copy of Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities in Italian. It took me an afternoon of find calls to find a copy in a bookstore five states away, but I did it. As another example, one year I gave copies of a book about our county’s school system to all my friends with kids in the system, it was one think I knew we had in common.

3. A sensual Indulgence: Another favorite gift is to give someone a sensual indulgence they probably would not pick up for themselves or dig out the time to do without an incentive.

a. Taste. Thick chocolate dipped strawberries, the perfect cup of tea (e.g. loose tea and a cup with a filter) or a matched wine-cheese coupling, a unique bottle of wine.

b. Touch. A massage or spa day, even a mani-pedi.

c. Scent. An orchid, scented soap or candles.

d. DIY Indulgences. Find ways to support their indulgences such as a year subscription to Gourmet Magazine, Buon Appetit or Wine Spectator so they can indulge themselves regularly.

4. Presents which take years to complete. This is the one gift-giving idea only works for close friends and family members because it assumes the relationship will endure over time. But I like this strategy because it manages the chaos of holiday gift giving. I gave my mother a Pandora bracelet and then have been giving her one charm for every event (birthday and/or holiday) until we complete the bracelet. Other examples include given one season of their favorite TV series every year until they have the whole thing or all the movies of their favorite actors/actresses until they have the entire collection. My sister has been slowly replacing my favorite videos with the dvd versions.

5. Activity-Centered Gifts: Getting people to go out and do fun things is also a great holiday gift. I once gave three bottles of the same type of wine (e.g. merlot) and told them it was a wine tasting. I researched the wines to find highly regarded ones in three price categories ($10,00; $15:00; $25:00). This could be done with a host of things—chocolate, coffee, tea. Personalize it to the tastes of the recipient. Other gifts in this vein are movie, play or concert tickets along with babysitting coupons. Just the babysitting coupons are a great gift.

6. Do it together. This year, my daughter and I are getting a chocolate tour and tasting in a local neighborhood across five different stores. It’s from friends and we’ll all go together as a joint family outing. That’s my kind of holiday gift—friendship, laughter, togetherness and indulgence.

What are your favorite gifts to give and why?

Thirteen Nights

Divine Temptation

Book 1
Sabrina Garie

Genre: Paranormal/Fantasy

Publisher: Ellora’s Cave

Date of Publication: December 6, 2013

ISBN: 9781419941764

ASIN:

Word Count: 23,000

Cover Artist: Kelly Martin

Book Description:

Annie’s always been different. An empathic Amazon, she hides her emotional anomaly beneath her legendary fighting skills. To avoid passing on her genetic disorder, she’s always avoided the Thirteen Nights Ritual—the annual breeding rite among the warrior races of the Greek Pantheon. Only months away from 30, she is now duty-bound to participate. When she meets Tai, a half-human warrior who revs her up beyond legal limits and nurtures the gentleness she’s had to keep secret, thirteen nights of pleasure don’t seem nearly enough.

As a half human, Tai has survived by being faster, more lethal, and a whole lot smarter than his brethren. While the male warriors accept him for his achievements, the Amazons have never given him a second look. Until he meets Annie, whose smile is warm and real and whose body shudders with desire—for him. Determined to have her, he hacks into the Thirteen Nights database and rearranges the pairings to make Annie his breeding partner. Together, their strength and tenderness combust into pure love.

But Tai’s actions are forbidden under Amazon law, subject to a death. To stay together and alive, they must take on the Greek Pantheon and win.

Ellora’s Cave Amazon BN Kobo Goodreads

About the Author:

Sabrina Garie is on a journey to create the most kick-ass heroine romance fiction has ever known and the hero who can take her. A believer that big, audacious goals spice up life, she relies on coffee, red wine and laughter to make those goals (and her characters) come alive.

When not at the computer, she wrangles vegetables and extra helpings of homework into her fashion-loving progeny, kowtows to a fat cat and reads, a lot.

Since it is more fun to travel in packs, come along for the ride.

Catch the train at www.sabrinagarie.com

Facebook: facebook.com/sabrinagarieauthor

Twitter: @sabrinagarie

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/Sabrina_Garie

Other Blogs: www.darkertemptations.wordpress.com

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