Aside from those dry, hot summer days spent stretched out in the sun in a Lemon-Drop daze, Christmas is my favorite time of year, and my friend Carly Alexander capitalizes on that big-time with her Kensington chick-lits GHOSTS OF BOYFRIENDS PAST and THE EGGNOG CHRONICLES.

Carly is like another sister, and while we've spent many a holiday season shopping together we also enjoy taking a break from the beach action to cruise through those quaint little shingled Christmas shops in shore communities.

THE SECRET LIFE OF MRS. CLAUS

This Christmas, a little red suit can make all the difference in...

Carly Alexander's THE SECRET LIFE OF MRS. CLAUS
Kensington Strapless, October 2005

Three women hired by Rossman's Department Store to play Mrs. Claus in Baltimore, San Francisco and Chicago are about to learn that a woman should never stop making that Christmas list. For these Mrs. Claus stand-ins, it's a Christmas where miracles happen, love is magical, and changing their lives is as easy as changing their outfits.

Click here for a flash video of THE SECRET LIFE OF MRS. CLAUS

Romantic Times called GHOSTS OF BOYFRIENDS PAST "An entertaining read, with lots of holiday imagery (Bloomingdales, Rockefeller Center, Serendipity, tree-trimming parties) that will get you in the holiday spirit."

FIRST SHE WANTED NAUGHTY…
Madison Greenwood's first post-college Christmas is more Sex and the City than It's a Wonderful Life. Sure, she does the home-for-the-holidays thing, but with her cynical pal Leo tagging along, her mom confessing to an extramarital affair, and every guy she ever dated (or lusted after) in high school beating a hot path to her front door, the movie of her life is anything but G-rated. Still, a girl's got to sow her wild oats while she can, right? …

THEN SHE WANTED NICE…
Five years later, Madison's more interested in nesting than sowing, and the Christmas of her twenty-sixth year finds her looking forward to the gift of a proposal. Her Scottish boyfriend, Ian, is picture-perfect…in an impressionistic sort of way. The idea of him - his looks, his career, his to-die-for accent - fuels fantasies of home, hearth, and a whole new life across the pond. Too bad the reality is a sham. A married sham. …

NOW ALL SHE WANTS FOR CHRISTMAS IS THE REAL THING
By the ripe old age of thirty-one, Madison would like to believe she's learned something about relationships. About what she really wants, and what she sure as hell doesn't need. As the holidays roll around once more, she's grateful, as always, for the blessing of good friends, but lonely for that one special person. The one she might just find under the mistletoe the minute she stops looking…

GHOSTS OF BOYFRIENDS PAST certainly pushed all the buttons on my Santa suit, and I'm looking forward to the release of Carly's next chicklit, THE EGGNOG CHRONICLES, in October, 2004. It's three novellas, one of which recounts a true-life crisis in Carly's life. It's fun and poignant and painful for a writer to dig into our past and turn our issues into entertaining tales with a new spin, and that's exactly what Carly has accomplished in the chronicles of Jane, Ricki and Emma. I found it so easy to relate to their Christmas lists:

ALL THEY WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS…

Jane

1. A relationship that runs deeper than the foam on my cappuccino.
2. A shot at writing about Tom Hanks while he's still alive instead of slaving away over celeb obituaries at the New York Herald.
3. A chance to develop "compassion" in my articles and not be "overly critical of my subjects," as per my boss, Marty. As if! I am so not critical, Mr. Short-Sighted Idiot with the Sexy Blue Eyes. You just wait and see.
4. A wish that my sister, Ricki, and my best friend, Emma, would break away from those self-centered jerks they're dating and find the real deal. If the real deal exists, and I've got my doubts.
5. A second chance to live the life I misplaced somewhere…

Ricki

1. To make Nate happy.
2. To run my Christmas shop in Nag's Head, North Carolina, and listen to the surf over a cup of coffee with my best friend, Ben.
3. To figure out why Nate isn't happy, what I'm doing to make him unhappy, and then make him happy.
4. To spend Christmas in New York City with Jane and Emma, and Nate, if he isn't still mad at me for getting mad at him for spending so much time with his why-isn't-she-your-ex-wife.
5. To figure out why - if I've got the guy and the job and maybe even the ring - I'm so unhappy…

Emma

1. The pregnancy test is pink…the pregnancy test is pink…Okay, I will not freak out. I am calm. Controlled. After all, Randy and I want to have a baby - just not my ex-boyfriend Jonathan's baby. What was I thinking, having ex-sex with that cheating cad? I'm calm, I'm calm. Of course, this is the end of my career at the bank. I'll be demoted. Run out of town. Abandoned by Randy. Living on the street in a box under a sagging wreath. Oh. My. God…I'm sorry, what was the question again?