Christmas in July: The Jack Frost Novel is Finally Out!

Click image to check out buying options.

Back in 2013, when the book that was to become my wife’s first bestseller was months away from publication, I found myself with time on my hands. It had taken her seven years to write and research that book, and we were constantly driving up and down the east coast so she could interview people and investigate archives.

But now her book was done, and something I had wanted to write finally had the breathing room to come to life. I envisioned a multi-book series about the life of Kris Kringle. I was inspired by the Mary Stewart books I’d read as a kid, on the life of King Arthur. The first book in that series focused not on Arthur but on Merlin as a boy. Because it had seemed logical to Stewart that we should understand the mentor before the mentee.

I wanted to do something similar. The book I wrote in 2013 was in Jack Frost’s voice. As I described it to my then-agent, the book was: “The life of Kris Kringle, as told by her adoptive father, Jack Frost.”

No matter who I told that pitch to would sit up and say, “Her?”

Which was cool. That, after all, was the whole point of the series—that Santa was a woman all along.

Point being, no one cared about Jack Frost, including, possibly, my agent. It took me the better part of a decade to realize that there are not enough cultural references that click with people (ie, readers) about Jack Frost. But everyone in the world knows Santa Claus, or whatever the gift-bringer icon is in their culture.

So I focused the story on Kringle, writing at least two vastly different drafts of her story. The second version clicked with the agent, but she was not able to sell it. Editors don’t want a seasonal fantasy novel, went the argument.

Oh well, silly me for thinking otherwise.

I indie-pubbed Sorceress Kringle in 2019, and got to work on a sequel.

But I had all this Jack Frost material burning a hole on my hard drive. And when I occasionally peeked at the opening scenes of his story, I got sucked in. I loved his voice. He was a cantankerous prick, the total opposite of sweet, wholesome Kringle.

Could I revise the material and release a prequel? Well, why the hell not?

So today I’m happy to announce that The Icemaster of New-York is finally out in the world, eleven years after it was first conceived. It’s a shorter book than Kringle, and takes place about sixteen years before Kringle takes the stage. It’s bloodier, messier, and sexier too.

I’m proud of it, mostly because it does a good job of telling how Jack Frost came to be, and why he’s so freaking angry. I think you would be, too, if the work of your hands was considered bleak and miserable by most people after the glamor of Christmas wears off each New Year’s Eve.

The book is available in three formats: ebook, paperback, and hardcover. Design by the marvelous James Egan of Bookfly Design, who did the Sorceress Kringle cover back in 2019.

Check out both books here. Autographed copies, as always, are available from Malaprop’s, the bookstore in my town.

It’s good to see the old bastard out in the world at last, telling his own story. You might hate him, but rest assured he hates you, too.

Click image to check out your buying options…

Best Christmas Cocktail Books

We have a little stash of cocktail/mixology books that get a workout every year in December. One year I shared my top four favorite books over at SleuthSayers, in a post entitled A Serious Case of Libations.

If you want to cut to the chase, visit that post immediately.

If you don’t like clicking over, let me make this painless. If you’re one of those people who hates planning parties because you never know what to buy, what food and drinks to set out for guests, and how much is too much, or worse, too little, then the book you need is the first one on my list.

What’s a Hostess to Do? by Susan Spungen. Why this book? Because Spungen is a freaking expert, a former food editor at Martha’s magazine. She teaches you the difference between a dinner party and a cocktail hour, and she spells out exactly what sort of menu you need to lay out for each. I hate thinking abut this stuff. But with this book in hand, suddenly I look like the second coming of the Galloping Gourmet. So get this first, mostly for the food, the recipes, and the logic. Yes, she talks about booze and how much you need to buy, but so much more. And if you’re a big hairy macho dude who thinks the title is too girly, write me and I’ll mail you a Sharpie.

The Imbible: A Cocktail Guide for Beginning and Home Bartenders, by Micah LeMon. I know the author. He’s a real bartender and mixologist. This book is as beautiful as the drinks he makes. It’s a little hard to find, but it’s a really lovely book, kind of like a small coffee table book with gorgeous photos. You won’t find mixer drinks in here (such as gin and tonics) because they are frankly too easy to make. It’s also a great gift book because it’s so damn attractive. Lots of photos showing such things as what kind of glassware to buy, what tools, and how to make perfect ice cubes.

To Have and Have Another: A Hemingway Cocktail Companion, by Philip Greene. Now we get to the literary books. This one is focused almost exclusively on the world of Erenst Hemingway—his books, his real-life settings, the actors and directors who brought those books to life on the big screen, and the sexy man-drinks that emanated from his typewriter. Yes, there are recipes, but there are also movie stills and photos of Bogey. If you have a writer friend who digs that world, this is the book to get them.

Mixed Up: Cocktail Recipes (and Flash Fiction) for the Discerning Drinker (and Reader), edited by Nick Mamatas and Molly Tanzer. Another literary book, but this one is packed with actual literature. The editors asked a bunch of writers to write short stories that each feature a cocktail. So you read the story, and then you get the recipe for how to make the drink. Clever idea, and the stories are equally so. This is a great gift for writer friends too. The stories are all flash fiction, which means you’ll down them quicker than the bevs.

Okay, those are the books I mentioned in my original post, but readers and my fellow bloggers also had ideas on the subject, so I’ll add a two of those.

The Hour: A Cocktail Manifesto, by Bernard DeVoto. The author was a Pulitzer Prize-wining historian who really knew his cocktails. The original book was pubbed in 1951, but has been lovingly recreated for modern audiences. The prose is somewhat mannered and restrained tongue-in-cheek, as if anyone who drinks cocktails will be appropriate after knocking back a few. Definitely for friends who enjoy three- and four-syllable words.

The Deluxe Savoy Cocktail Book, by Henry Craddock. This is another historic text, pubbed in the 1930s in the UK. The author was an acclaimed mixologist who shared 750-plus drink recipes for newbies. You can find many versions of this book on the market. Get the cheaper one if you think you’ll spill angostura bitters all over it; save the nicer one for gifts.

Later this year, I discovered another marvelous book that I simply had to add to this list:

A Booze & Vinyl Christmas, by André Darlington. Lots of writers write about cocktails, but Darlington is the master, with 10 books to his credit. This one is the third in his Booze & Vinyl series, and grows out of his past as nightlife journalist, restaurateur, and DJ. He literally only focuses on vinyl, so if a Christmas album never appeared in that format, it’s not featured in this book. That allows him to dream up magnificent scenarios during which you can listen to, say, the A or B side of an album, drink one of his wonderful cocktails, and get your tree decorated, hide your pickle, write your Christmas cards, and so on. He includes wonderful light snacks along the way as well, and behind-the-scene stories about the songs and albums. Best of all, it’s a beautiful book with great photography. It’s my new favorite book to gift hosts when I arrive at their home for a Christmas party.

There you go—all the ones I have personally used and enjoyed.

I’ll leave you with one promise: The modern world of mixology owes a huge debt to two men, Harry Johnson and Jerry Thomas, who were bartenders in the 19th century. Both wrote bartenders’ manuals, which have entered the public domain and are often cheaply reissued. I’m trying to find which editions of their work is the best. When I do I will add them to this post in the future. Enjoy then, drink up!

---

Photo above by little ol’ me. (And no, that monstrosity is not in any of these books, thank God.)

Best Christmas Books

Some people leave their Christmas trees up all year. Some people bake Christmas dishes all year round. And some people—like me—read Christmas books throughout the year. I even have a bookshelf in our house where I keep all the Christmas books, so I can easily find them and display them attractively during the actual Christmas season.

To cut to the chase: I wrote a post for SleuthSayers some time ago called From the Christmas Shelf that focuses on only five of the books. I chose five at the time to make that article brief and approachable.

If you don’t want to click over, here are the books I mention. (Most of these are affiliate links, which means if you buy any of these books I’ll get a small commission at no cost to yourself.) Before you read this, understand that these are my picks for best books. Ones that I have personally enjoyed over the years. They may not necessarily be your cup of tea.

History Books

The Battle for Christmas: A Social and Cultural History of Our Most Cherished Holiday, by Stephen Nissenbaum. The title is bad, but the book is actually a historical look at how Christmas came to be such a massive holiday in the U.S. Nissenbaum, a historian, credits the creation of the Santa Claus myth for altering the holiday from its Baachanialin roots to something child- and family-centered

Christmas: A Biography, by Judith Flanders. Another book by a fine historian, but this one looks at the story of Christmas from a worldwide perspective.

Literary Fiction for Adults

A Christmas Memory, One Christmas, & The Thanksgiving Visitor, by Truman Capote. The lead story in this collection is a classic, about a boy and his older cousin enjoying the holiday together, making fruitcake. It’s amazing how great a writer he was at the beginning of his career. The stories are short enough that you can read them aloud in front of the fire.

Seth’s Christmas Ghost Stories, illustrated by Seth. This is a series of 22 short stories that celebrate the tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmas. (A tradition, I might add, that inspired Dickens to write A Christmas Carol.) The stories are all by famous writers, and I encourage you to pick the one you like best. If you read on an e-reader, you can get all the stories for $18! (I have the short story by Edith Wharton shown at top right.)

For Kids

The Snow Queen, illustrated by Vladyslav Yerko. This edition of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale by the Ukrainian artist Yerko is stunning. The book is out of print, but you can still find various editions online. There is a 32-page edition, but the one I love is a 96-page stunner in a slipcase cover. (The slipcase cover is shown top row, right; the book is shown separately in the image above—the one with the two kids.) I can’t provide a link for these books because as soon as one of these pops up online, it gets snapped up. Check rare book sites such as Biblio , Alibris, and Bookfinder. MAKE SURE YOU ARE BUYING THE ENGLISH EDITION—unless you speak Ukrainian, that is.

Okay—those are just the books I mentioned in that SleuthSayers post way back in 2021. Here are more books I keep on the Christmas shelf, in case you’re a bigger geek than I am.

Fiction for Adults

My fiction list skews heavily toward mysteries because—duh!— I’m a mystery reader and writer.

Mr. Timothy, by Louis Bayard. This is a strange, dense novel that imagines Tiny Tim’s adult years, after the reformed Scrooge’s largesse saved his life.

This is the 25th book in the Ellery Queen mystery series.

The Finishing Stroke, by Ellery Queen. This mystery novel has the great sleuth solving a murder at Christmas in the 1920s.

The Mistletoe Murder, and Other Stories, by P.D. James. I love P.D. James novels, and never knew that she wrote an abundance of short fiction. Luckily, they saved four for this edition, and they are more “cozy” in nature than any of her more realistic-yet-cleverly-plotted novels.

This is the first of the nine paperback editions of the Holiday Anthology series (edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch) currently available.

The Holiday Anthology Series, by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Every year, the writer Rusch runs a subscription-based “advent calendar” of short stories, in which she emails a daily short story by a variety of writers from the day after Thanksgiving till the end of the year. Romance, mystery, ghost stories—you name it. I subscribed one year, and loved having a new story show up on my phone every day during the holidays. Later, she pubs them in paper editions. You can easily choose the genre you like.

A Lot Like Christmas, by Connie Willis. Willis, a giant in the field of SFF, is also a huge Christmas geek and a comic genius. This massive book collects most of her science fiction/fantasy Christmas stories, which often read like screwball comedies, but also reveal her encyclopedic knowledge of Christmas music, the Bethlehem story, the history of the Rockettes, the It’s a Wonderful Life vs Miracle on 34th Street debate, and so much more. Be warned that this might be the only book you read in a single Christmas season, because mot of the stories are sizable novellas. I can’t think of a better way to spend the season.

The Last Christmas Letter, by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. I read this one every year because it’s a short story. A group of sisters receive their father’s annual Christmas letter in the mail, which is strange, because their elderly dad has been in a hospice, lingering near death. Each time one of the women reaches for the letter, a new page appears. A magical, ultimately uplifting story by a master of the craft.

Nonfiction

The Man Who Invented Christmas, by Les Standiford. This was a surprise. A remarkable piece of narrative nonfiction that tells how Dickens came to write A Christmas Carol, thinking he’d make a mint on the Christmas market. He self published the book and nearly lost his shirt because it was so lavishly produced, with gilt edging and illustrations. Yet it ended up becoming his most famous book. I haven’t seen the movie version of Standiford’s book. Why would I, when this book is so good?

This is Christmas, Song by Song, by Annie Zaleski. This a gorgeous book, perfect for gift-giving, by a respected music writer. Zaleski tells the behind-the-scenes stories of 100 Christmas songs. In her hands, you really get to see the rich variety of tunes we've heard all our lives, from deeply religious to hilarious, fun-loving, romantic, and secular. The production value of the hardcover book itself is wonderful, so you’ll really make the music-lover on your list a happy camper.

Classic Books for Kids

How the Grinch Stole Christmas! by Dr. Seuss. I’d seen the TV version a million times but it wasn’t until I married that I read this book, which my wife has treasured since her own childhood. This is one of those books that is fun to read aloud to the family because nearly everyone knows—or can guess—the endings of all the rhymes, not unlike the next book on my list.

The Night Before Christmas, illustrated by Charles Santore. There have been tons of editions of this classic poem, but this specific hardcover with Santore’s illustrations became a New York Times bestseller and has been spun off into different types of books—board books, coloring books, a book-and-CD combo, etc. You can’t go wrong gifting any of these to a child on your list. Be sure to choose carefully so you pick the version appropriate for the child. (Board books are intended for really little kids, for example.) The CD version is read by the Dude himself, actor Jeff Bridges.

The Polar Express, by Chris Van Allsburg. I don’t love the movie, but I love the original book. This edition comes with a little ornament to hang on your tree. It’s fun to also hide a little “reindeer bell” in your pocket and ring it at the appropriate moment in the story. You’re sure to create magic when reading aloud to young family members. (Rest assured that you can find numerous “Polar Express Reindeer Bells” online.)

Digital Reads

These last two are not found on my shelf but on my phone. Technically they don’t really qualify for this post, but I’ll mention them because I think they are quite special.

A Child's Christmas in Wales, by Dylan Thomas. This audio version of the prose poem was recorded in 1952 by the Welsh poet himself. (He died a year later, at age 39.) As you listen, you really understand that the story consists of multiple voices, and Thomas is playing each of them. A treasure, and marvelous listening for the entire family. Also available via Apple iTunes and Audible.

A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. Public domain works are often churned out in crappy editions by no-name publishers trying to make a quick buck. Top Five Books is a Chicago publisher that curates a list of truly special ebooks. Their Complete Sherlock Holmes ebook, for example, is arguably the best on the market, and comes with all the original illustrations—none omitted. This ebook edition of Scrooge’s story contains all the illustrations that appeared in the first 1843 edition, plus ones that appeared in a U.S. edition published in 1869. This would be a lovely book to read to family members on an iPad or full-color Kindle.

That wraps my current list of Christmas books. I’m sure I’ll be adding more. I’m a junkie for the subject, obsessed with good stories and great illustrations. Christmas may well be the only time of year where families have the time to read to each other in a relaxed setting. If you’re going to do it, do it in style.

The Greatest Christmas Mystery, Ever!

I have a pair of lovely blog posts up at the Sleuthsayers mystery writers’ blog this month that I think are worth a look if you are a fan of all things Christmas. It’s the true story behind the making of one of America’s best-loved poems: A Visit from St. Nicholas (aka ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas).

Did you know that there is a very serious question about who really wrote that poem? Did you know the true story is mired in accusations of plagiarism, which only modern science could intelligently untangle?

If you’re interested in the full story, check out the first post, which went up back in November. That post is right here.

If you’re the sort of person who wants to cut to the chase, the sort of person who’s totally cool reading the last chapter of a mystery novel first, then by all means just read the stunning conclusion. I assure you that you will still understand the gist of the entire thing. The second post is right here.

Thanks, everyone, for your support this month and all this year. We’ll get through this.

May the rest of your December be bright!

---

Santa Image above courtesy of Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Three December Announcements!

Buy my books! There—I said it. What more could any writer have to say to the world in general (and this world in particular) during the month of December?

Actually, you know what? Buy our books. My wife’s and mine, I mean.

We both have some delightful offerings that we’ve cooked up for you lovely people during this disturbing pandemic holiday season we’ve got going on. Specifically, I launched a new book some weeks ago that I need to tell you about.

But let me march through these here announcements one by one, in the ever-popular ascending price order. Which means, let’s start with the deal you cannot miss.

Thing 1: The e-book of my Christmas epic fantasy, Sorceress Kringle, is on sale right now for the ridiculous price of 99 cents. Yes, I’ve gone nuts for Christmas. This gender-swapped, female Santa Claus story is probably my best book and I’m practically giving it away. Why? Because Santa. Because Christmas. Because ho-fucking-ho. So snap it up at wherever you buy your e-books. (Just do it soon before the price goes up.) Tell your friends. Tell your pets. And then, when you’ve immersed yourself in the Christmasy juices of this lush, evocative book, and you’re ready to burst with goodwill toward men, write a freaking review of the book where you bought it. Don’t read e-books? No problem. You can buy a paper copy wherever fine books are sold. You can order a copy from the bookstore in my town and they’ll get me to autograph it before they send it out. Get the deets on Sorceress Kringle right here.

Thing 2: My new book, Ear of God, is just out and it continues The Mesmerist thriller saga I started a few years ago. The new book’s a bizarro tale of a sweet harmless child with special gifts who gets himself kidnapped and unleashes hell on the world. I apologize for pubbing such a story during a freaking pandemic, but as I’ll try to explain a future post, writers gotta write, and I don’t write expecting my literary nightmares to become reality. So go grab Ear of God, and begin worrying about my sanity. The e-book’s $4.99, the paperback’s $16. And yes, you can get a signed copy from my local bookstore. All the details for Ear of God are here. Remember: if you do get it, please consider reviewing it at some online retailer. It’s one of the best things you can do to help an author out.

Thing 3: Lastly, the New York Times bestseller in the house—my lovely wife Denise Kiernan—just pubbed a nonfiction book called We Gather Together, which tells the remarkable story of how Thanksgiving (and thanksgiving) came to be. Among other things, it’s a book about a little-known woman, stirring events in the Civil War, the pursuit of love, honor, duty, and grace, and it includes what I think is one of the most compassionate, forthright portraits of Abe Lincoln I’ve seen in a book in a long while. The hardcover retails for $25; the e-book is $12.99. This book is destined to be a hit with book clubs, and a perennial bestseller. The book everyone needs to read around the holidays. If you don’t believe me, go hunt up the Wall Street Journal review and see for yourself. Get the details on We Gather Together right here.

So there you have it. Three important announcements to get off my chest before year’s end and the jangle of a hopefully better New Year.

There! Go! Buy! Crack some spines and snuggle in front of a fire and read thyself to thy heart’s content.

As for me, I gotta go vacuum the pine needles out of the carpet.

Thank you all. Hug the family for me. And stay safe out there!

Advent Ghosts 2019

Today I’m participating in the 100-word #adventghosts2019 flash fiction event run by writer Loren Eaton. You'll find links to all the stories at his blog, I Saw Lightning Fall. Here’s my piece.

Town Square on a Midnight Clear

As the carolers sang, Betty considered just how little God cared. Long ago she had learned that she was irrelevant.

Summoning that power now, she pressed past the singers to the unlit balsam. No one saw her pull the paper bag from her purse. No one watched her hang her great-uncle’s shrunken head on a bough, the old sinner’s sand-filled eyes and mouth stitched tight with waxed green monofilament.

Claude had loved Christmas (and children) a little too much.

No one watched the stranger in the boring car coat drive away, leaving town for good. She was invisible.

Copyright 2019 Joseph D’Agnese

My previous contributions to the Advent Ghosts events are here: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016.

Photo by Seoyeon Choi via Unsplash

Eight Arguments for a Female Santa Claus

My new historical fantasy novel about a female Santa Claus pubs today–the eve of St. Nicholas–and I thought I’d take the time to lay out the case for a female Santa Claus, and maybe clarify (if only to myself) how I even came up with such an idea. Some thoughts on the subject follow, and with it, I hope, some insight into this writer’s mind and process.

1. I think the seeds of the idea are rooted in my childhood. My mom grew up in Italy believing not in Santa Claus but in La Befana—a broom-riding female witch who brought presents to children on the eve of the Epiphany, i.e., the day the Magi encountered the Christ child in the manger. When Denise and I lived briefly in Italy, we’d see these adorable Befana dolls sold in Christmas markets in Rome.

2. It took me six years and three rewrites to get this book right. During that time, I learned that researching the history of Christmas sometimes feels like partaking in a massive, multi-century, international game of telephone, where language is constantly being corrupted and reframed for new purposes. The German-named Christkindl is a traditional European gift-bringer who is a kind of fae-like personification of the Christ child. But you could not ask for a more gender-ambiguous name than its corruption: Kris Kringle.

3. Similarly, the name Santa Claus is a corruption of the Dutch Sinterklaas (i.e., Saint Nicholas). But when I was growing up, my mom always referred to female saints as Santa Maria, Santa Teresa, Santa Cecilia. Male saints were San Francisco, San Giuseppe, etc. To my early mind, a Santa anyone was female unless otherwise noted.

4. I love the work of writer Washington Irving, who inserted a gift-giving St. Nicholas into his early 19th-century satirical history of New York City, so much so that one historian flat-out said, “Without Irving there would be no Santa Claus.” A couple of years after Irving’s book pubbed, the Dec. 28, 1815 edition of the New York Evening Post took a different tack, trotting out a female Santa Claus, dubbing her “Queen and Empress of the Court of Fashions.” Scans of the original article are a little hard to read (and the content sexist) but you can get the gist here.

5. My wife spent seven years researching women’s work during World War II. Among the many jobs women performed when men were off fighting in the war was the role of department store Santas. This did not always go over well with traditionalists during that era, leading to the over-the-top newspaper editorials described in this 2017 article in Smithsonian.

6. WWII was long gone by the time I arrived on the scene, but as a kid, I’m certain I sat on the lap of many a female Santa. More to the point, I’ve always thought that Santa’s look was outrageously…suspicious. Overdetermined, if you will. When someone dresses like they’re trying to hide something, they probably are. Why couldn’t the real Santa be a woman in drag?

7. In her book, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, author Karen Abbott investigates Confederate women spies during the Civil War. In one of her talks, Abbott, a friend, said that one of these women successfully passed as a man simply by donning men’s clothing. In 19th century America, that’s all it took. If you wore trousers, you had to be a dude, because what else could you possibly be? In my book, Kringle intentionally hides her identity, like any superhero, and takes up arms to defend the people she loves. Throughout history women fought in battle–disguised as men or otherwise–though the practice has strangely been ignored by us supposedly open-minded moderns, as brilliantly explored in this now-famous essay.

8. Last year, a viral news story raised the notion of a gender-neutral Santa, and Snopes had to step in to set the record straight. But academics have actually probed the notion, pointing out that most of the work of Christmas cheer, not to mention the nurturing of children and other family members, is still performed by women.

So there’s some of my thinking on the matter. As I’ve said the whole time I’ve been working on this book, I can’t really picture an elderly obese dude willingly leaving his cozy man-cave on a cold winter’s night to ride in a drafty open sleigh. There’s no question in my mind: the big man is not a man at all, and never has been.

---

If you’re interested, you can check out the first chapter of the new book here. Thanks for stopping by.