by Deb Adamson
A CHRISTMAS EVE WISH FOR SANTA is the product of my love of all things Christmas, especially Santa. Just to illustrate, I carry a keychain that reads, Keep Christmas in your heart all through the year. I know the merry-making seed was planted by my mom who went all out during the holiday season. She created magical memories and traditions that stuck with me, and I hopefully have done the same with my own son!
A CHRISTMAS EVE WISH FOR SANTA wrote itself. And for me, that is rare. I am known to simmer with a manuscript, ruminating for weeks or sometimes months until I feel I have what I need to sit at the keyboard and see where the idea goes. But this book came to me in rhyme and rhyming ideas, for me, are oftentimes more intuitive. I also have another Santa picture book manuscript ready for submission. And that one, written in prose most certainly did not write itself! I came at it from a completely different angle—a super, silly spin on Santa.
Ok, so all that said, I guess I must have a thing for holidays in general because in 2022 my newest board book, A THANKFUL THANKSGIVING, will be published by Cottage Door Press. And I’ve also got another fun witch/Halloween manuscript that I’m just polishing up.
Holiday manuscripts are often said to be a difficult sell to editors because these books have a shorter window during the year to make their splash. There are also so many great seasonal backlist titles to compete with. But it has been my experience through working with my agent, that there are editors who are always open to something new and some specifically request holiday stories. With A CHRISTMAS EVE WISH FOR SANTA, Amy Dean, the editor at Blue Manatee Press, loved the manuscript at first sight! She immediately took to the international flavor of the text. She specifically liked paying homage and offering well wishes to Santa on his annual journey as he heads out to treat children from different cultures all across the globe. She, like me, envisions this book as a keepsake—one that will be read during the Christmas season and especially at bedtime on Christmas Eve, year after year.
I can’t say enough about Anne Zimanski’s cover and her illustrations for this book. In fact, I can’t say enough about Anne Zimanski’s children’s book illustrations! I’m fortunate and proud to say this is my third book-pairing with Anne. She illustrated a nonfiction picture book biography I wrote as a pet-project—a fundraiser for The Florence Griswold Museum, my favorite local museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut. FLORENCE GRISWOLD: THE KEEPER OF THE ARTISTS was traditionally published in 2019. Anne also illustrated my recent board book, I MISS YOUR SUNNY SMILE, published by Blue Manatee Press in March of this year. Although I offer some illustration notes, she instinctively knows what I am envisioning, so when I see her initial sketches I am blown away by how she meets and exceeds my expectations. For A CHRISTMAS EVE WISH FOR SANTA, Anne created mixed media, watercolor and line, illustrations that depict a traditional looking Santa. The interior spreads show him zipping across the world on a snowy Christmas Eve in the glow of star and moonlight. Several spreads offer a glimpse of how families, draw from their own culture to prepare and welcome Santa on his big night.
Here’s the cover reveal! And I’m adding one interior spread because I just can’t help myself.
Isn’t Anne amazing?!
GIVEAWAY ALERT! Deb is giving away a virtual school visit for the holidays! It can be for your child/grandchild’s class, or your own class if you’re a teacher.
Leave one comment below to enter.
A random winner will be selected soon!
Good luck!
Deb Adamson has two books out this year by Blue Manatee Press—I MISS YOUR SUNNY SMILE (March 2021) and A CHRISTMAS EVE WISH FOR SANTA, (December 2021.) She has another picture book BING, BANG, PLING coming out with Blue Manatee Press (spring 2022). A THANKFUL THANKSGIVING will be published by Cottage Door Press (fall 2022), and more to come!
Deb also writes personal essay. Her homeschooling column was syndicated by Gatehouse News and her essays have appeared in various magazines. For a decade she has been teaching weekly, adult memoir classes. When Deb isn’t focused on writing, she’s happiest hanging out with her family, gardening and pretending to be a visual artist, capturing her flowers in a watercolor-sketchbook-journal that she shares with no one but her trusted- cat, Lumpy. Visit her at debadamson.com or on Twitter @DebAdamsonBooks.
