Welcome to the 2023 ARIA Author Showcase and Giveaway Event! 

  

  

How to enter – Comment on the daily showcases to enter the daily giveaway. Comments close one week after the initial Showcase post. GRAND PRIZE drawn on Dec 8th (1 -$250, 1 -$100, or a 1 -$50 Amazon gift card. One grand prize pp) – For every showcase you post on, you automatically gain one entry to the grand prize. 30 Authors = 30 entries.    

 

On to the Showcase! 

 

What name do you like to write under? Debbie Kaiman Tillinghast 

Where do you call home? Northern RI 

What genre(s) do you write? Memoir, Fiction, Poetry 

What genre(s) were you drawn to when you were younger Was there a reason that genre(s) appealed to you the most?  I didn’t write when I was younger, but I read fiction, including mysteries. I liked characters who had adventures that I could imagine having. 

What were some of your favorite books growing up? Why? Mr Popper’s Penguins, by Richard and Florence Atwater, all the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, The Nancy Drew Mystery series by Carolyn Keene. I liked to think I could face the challenges and adventures that the characters did. I loved going to the library every two weeks and finding the next book in the series. And a penguin in the bathtub? What fun! 

What are some of your favorite books today? My favorite book is Gift From The Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. I also like The Shell Seekers by Rosemunde Pilcher, and any book by Elin Hilderbrand, Jenny Colgan, or Debbie Macomber 

What inspired you to become a writer?  I wrote The Ferry Home, a memoir about growing up on Prudence Island, to preserve the memories of island living for my children. I discovered I loved to write, and I felt disappointed when I finished the memoir, so I kept writing. 

 

A Gift of Cookies, A Gift of Love 

A Gift of Cookies, A Gift of Love Generations of cookies, made together and shared with love. 

 

Tell us a little about how “A Gift of Cookies, A Gift of Love” came to be. Did it start with an image, a voice, a concept, a dilemma or something else? I originally wrote it to preserve the tradition and recipes for my family. After many requests, I published it to share them more broadly. 

What do you like best about being a writer? I love following a new idea, a character, or a memory that joins me unexpectedly as I walk. I lose myself in words and stories, and I can write myself to peace. I can live everything twice. I savor the stillness of a winter morning when I experience it and again when I write about it. Details in life matter, and moments that might have vanished unnoticed, I save on the page. 

If you could collaborate with any author past or present, who would it be? What would the title of the book be? (If possible) - Give us a one sentence blurb.  Erin Hilderbrand. The title would be Island Girls The saga of three generations of women born on three islands in Rhode Island. 

You can follow Debbie Kaiman Tillinghast here - 

http://www.debbiekaimantillinghast.com 

Debbie is giving away a copy of A Gift of Cookies, A Gift of Love.  To enter comment below -->  What is your favorite traditional holiday food?

 

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