Where to even begin… Well, I guess I could literally start with the beginning. I was in the car with my husband (randomly scrolling Facebook and commenting aloud while he chauffered me around) when I came across an event post about “Miracle on 34th Street, Hampden Christmas Street Holiday Show.” Being from Baltimore, this was not news to me. I’ve grown up hearing about and visiting this event. The author gears started to move though once I went to the comments and began reading through them. Some were… intense. This gave me the idea of a fictional neighborhood in Maryland that was just as intense and in a bit of a competition with the Baltimore event.

Milton, Maryland

It’s fictional. Sorry 🙁 But it’s loosely based on Chestertown, Maryland which I visited frequently throughout college since a close friend of mine attended school there.

First Date Crabs?

They’re the real deal!

Yup, this is what we do. I did originally have a scene of everyone picking crabs at a big family dinner, but ended up with Scott taking Jackie for crabs as a first date instead. It really is a very social thing since it takes forever to pick enough meat from crabs to actually fill yourself up. Picture below for reference. We usually put thick brown paper down on the table and dump out a pile of crabs on top for people to pick through. It’s quite barbaric if you’re not used to it. Ordering all-you-can-eat crabs was more of a thing a few years back when they weren’t quite as expensive. I kept that part in there for nostalgia.

What’s Up With Richard Simmons?

This one goes way back – probably a few decades. A friend dressed up as Richard Simmons for Halloween and it just cracked me up. His sweatbands on his wrists, his frequent squats he’d bust out of nowhere because he stayed in character most of the night. I guess I was trying to recapture that a bit in this portion of the book. It was either that or Bob Ross and I felt like Richard Simmons just worked better given the situation.

What’s Up With Babs?

This is a bit of a random rabbit hole, but here we go! I’m a huge fan of My So-Called Life. I think I was in high school when it came out, and it spoke to me. It helped me keep my own sanity as I navigated it all. I knew back then even that Rayanne Graff’s mom was not the parental role model of the show. And yet I loved her free-spirit character and put a lot of that into Babs – or at least that was the inspiration with the tarot card readings and such. I myself went through a tarot card phase in middle school where I got a deck and read a few books on how to read the cards.

Okay, But the Cat Form Dad?

I’m just as surprised as you are about that one. Seriously, I’ve got nothing about where that all came from. I’m also not a cat person so I needed a few cat-people readers to make sure I got the mannerisms right.

Santa Claws?

Have I mentioned our obsession with crabs? Especially people who live on the Chesapeake Bay which is where my fictional town of Milton is located. Santa Claws somewhat stemmed from a gift I made for my parents a few years back. In my mind, I pictured this as a few feet tall, made of metal, and able to tip its hat on and off.

Jackie’s Blood Donation Fiasco

This came from personal experience, unfortunately. Low iron was an issue for me for a while and often I would go to donate only to find out that I wasn’t eligible. Jackie’s reaction to being able to give is how I felt when I finally got my iron levels in check. I’ve also fainted, twice, after giving blood, so I felt pretty confident writing out that scene.

The first time was when I took my mother for an outpatient procedure. I was her ride home afterward. The hospital was doing a blood drive at the time and I thought, why not? I’m sitting here for a few hours, might as well. I was okay for a bit but then when I was walking next to my mother on our way out, I started to feel woozy and that was it. I slumped down to the floor. They gave me my mother’s wheelchair and we headed back into the hospital since I was her ride and I was seemingly incapacitated.

The second time I ran into Bed, Bath, and Beyond after I’d donated and I fainted at the front counter. In a useless effort to keep myself from falling, I took down a pyramid display of KCups on my way to the floor. Boxes crashing all around me. That’s right, folks. It doesn’t just happen in the movies and tv shows. I took out a giant display. As soon as I came to again (maybe a minute later) I apologized and left the store without buying anything and vowed never to return.