All over the city, on Thanksgiving morning, ABRAMS employees dragged ourselves out of bed at 4:00 and made their way to a hotel where hundreds of happy volunteers (I’m not kidding, they smile and praise you and treat you like visiting royalty) outfitted us (very heavy coveralls, gloves, hat, pinafore for your character), took up my pant legs(!) and put us on buses to our balloon.

Happy Cyber Monday! Hopefully you’ve digested your turkey or tofurkey, recovered if you were brave enough to go to the mall this past week, and are now ready to spend your Monday hard at work, at work, shopping. Whether you’re ready or not I’m here help you shop with some great holiday gift ideas from ABRAMS for everyone in your life.

Everyone in the office is excited about Thanksgiving this week. Lots of people are going home and looking forward to relaxing with their families and eating great food. But, for 25 of us there is another reason to be a little giddy about Thursday – we are marching with the Wimpy Kid balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Head over to the STC Cooks blog for a very special “Fakesgiving” feast and a recipe from the classic Stewart, Tabori & Chang title, Sprit of the Harvest by Beverly Cox and Martin Jacobs.

“I never wear perfume, but I love the smell of cordite.” 
–Windi

This has to be my favorite quote from a lovely lady of Houston, Texas and proud 20-gauge sidelock ejector game gun owner in the elegant and provocative new book Chicks with Guns by Lindsay McCrum (Vendome, 2011). Windi’s narrative describes hunting with her mother and chasing coyotes set next to a glamorous photograph of her in a red gown, sitting on a zebra chair, with her gun in her lap.  Amazing.

When I started working at ABRAMS I would have never imagined that I would make my first contribution to the blog talking about guns, but there is a first for everything.

Head over to the STC Cooks blog for three tasty Thanksgiving Day recipes from some of our favorite cookbooks: Good Eats: The Early Years by Alton Brown, The Complete Kitchen Garden by Ellen Ecker Ogden and The Vegetarian Option by Simon Hopkinson !

As some of you know, I have drunk the Oprah Kool-Aid. If I could have dinner with one person living or dead it would be Oprah. She has inspired me to be a better partner, mother and friend. She has given me the opportunity to be a more generous person to those who are less fortunate then me. I have become more aware that something greater out there is happening that is bigger than all of us and that I should live more in the moment instead of letting life pass me by.

I grew up an Army brat, and it’s made me the man I am today. I’ll get back to that in a sec. When you move around every few years, you come to rely on your family as more than just the people you live with. When you live on a post or base, this effect is magnified; other military families become a part of your tight-knit group, even if it’s temporary. So, when a family member serves, the whole family gets a taste of the pride of service and the support of the military “family”.

Well hello again, friends.

This is the second entry in my quest to explore all that New York City has to offer by way of Independent Bookshops, and this time we’re going full-on child. Oh yeah, that’s right, it’s time for BOOKS OF WONDER! Working in the Sales Department at ABRAMS has meant that I’ve heard of Books of Wonder many times; whether for an event, an order, or just for its glee-filled reputation Books of Wonder has always been in the back of my mind. And yet, I’d never been. Thankfully this blog provided me with just the opportunity I needed.

Like every writer on the planet, I fantasized about appearing on the Oprah Winfrey Show.  But my Oprah adventure turned out to be unlike anything I ever imagined. Last spring, I had the amazing experience of writing The Oprah Winfrey Show: Reflections on an American Legacy for Abrams.  Of course, I knew that she was a living legend whose show was coming to an end, and that viewers and journalists the world over were questioning if life would have any meaning after the final episode aired on May 25, 2011.  But I wasn’t a “regular” and hadn’t seen many shows –  writers who work at home spend more time standing in front of the refrigerator than watching television.  It wasn’t until after I started researching — and viewed twenty-five years of pivotal episodes –, that I truly understood what the fuss was about.  Quite simply, Oprah transformed lives, and always for the better. Now, thanks to this project, it was about to change mine. I made many discoveries and learned many lessons during my feverish race to meet the deadline.