Are there any authors who have been inspirational to your work? Do you have any suggestions for future book club picks?

E. L. Doctorow because he was the first person to mix the real with the imagined. Truman Capote for using fictive techniques in nonfiction and changing the face of nonfiction. Jodi Picoult because you fall in love with her characters even though they’re flawed, and you can’t stop reading. Philip Roth because of his examination of sexuality and his amazing growth in his perception and understanding and portrayal of America. Margaret Atwood because of her interweaving of story and politics.

Do you have any advice for aspiring novelists hoping to also draw from real life experiences?

We’re told to write what we know and we know our own lives best, yet distilling what the story is in our lives that may be interesting to others is not easy. So much of what we experience is exquisite because it’s ours: our baby’s first smile, falling in love, the death of a dear friend. Making that particular have universal appeal requires digging deep and ferreting telling detail and language.

Can you tell us about any other projects?

Marybeth Bayer and I recently finished writing The Christmas Cookie Cookbook, a workbook chock full of recipes and ideas for cookie exchanges. It was published in November 2010. I’m writing A Gift for My Sister, the sequel to The Christmas Cookie Club. Sky and Tara are the main characters; it’s been a joy to write.

More from the Author
A Gift for My Sister	The Christmas Cookie…

‘A Gift for My Sister’ Teaser

Keep reading for a preview of

A Gift for My Sister

by

Ann Pearlman

Sky

EVERY DAY WE WALKa a razor thin line between the ordinary and the tragic.

That thought bolts me awake.

3:42. The green numbers on my clock blare. The rest of the room is dark. The numbers are a beacon in the black. Why do I wake at the same exact time every morning? 3:42. As though Mia’s death had implanted an internal alarm.

Troy is curled around his folded hands.

No sounds come from Rachel’s room.

The air-conditioning snaps on.

Some of us tiptoe anxious about chasms on either side of the path we walk and some of us skip along ignoring them. And me? I thought if I walked a direct line with a firm destination in view, fulfilling each goal along the way, I’d be safe. Having a safety net was my plan to thwart lurking misfortune.

I felt as though it were my father’s fault for dying. What else does a child think when parents seem all powerful?