Hot off the Press - great holiday reads!

Sweet Lemons 2; international writings with a Sicilian accent,  Delia De Santis and Venera Fazio, editors, Legas, New York

Just released by Legas Publishing (New York), Sweet Lemons 2; international writings with a Sicilian accent, " Sweet Lemons 2 is a collective resistance against the erasure of the Italian immigrant and post-immigrant narrative." Kenneth Scambray, preface.

Edited by Canadian writers, Delia De Santis and Venera Fazio, the nearly sixty, featured North American writers include American Book Award Winners, Maria Mazziotti Gillan and Daniela Gioseffi and Inge Israel (Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettre, France) among others-august company which I am humbled to share. My piece, Where the Lemon Trees Bloom  ( p. 163), is an entertaining essay about sex, Sicily and the history of gelato.



 Give the gift of armchair travel - no full-body scans, endless line-ups and luggage - let this engaging anthology transport you to the exotic realms of the imagination where the lemon trees bloom eternally.

***

Christmas Chaos, Roberta Laurie, editor,  Prairie Dog Publishing

If you've had enough of the push and shove, hurry-up and wait, hand-wringing hustle and anxiety of preparing for this festive season, then you need to settle down with a stiff cup of eggnog by a warming fire and enter the oasis of Christmas Chaos, Prairie Dog Publishing's seasonal offering. "Within the pages of this anthology, you will find twenty-five true stories of tragedy and triumph, nostalgia and memory, comedy and silliness," not to mention my humorous memoir, The Gift of the Magi (well, sort of) p. 173, a tale of a quest for lingerie and the perfect frit, so what's no to love?

A portion of the sales proceeds will be donated to Jasper Place Health and Wellness Centre, a non-profit, volunteer organization in Edmonton benefiting homeless men, women and children.