Multiple Thanksgivings and Holiday Do-Overs by Gigi Pandian

JENN McKINLAY: One of my very favorite people to see at Left Coast Crime or Bouchercon or Malice is the fabulous Gigi Pandian. When we first met, we were both hammering out books around working actual jobs that we love. We commiserated about the push and pull of being writers and employed and have remained bonded by the emotional angst ever since. Plus, I'm a huge fan! Welcome, Gigi!

GIGI PANDIAN: I didn’t intend for it to happen. Really I didn’t. But this Thanksgiving week is turning out to mirror that of Jaya Jones, the heroine of my Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt mysteries. OK, aside from the fact that I didn’t catch a bad guy or find a long-lost treasure. Where we overlap is that I ended up on more last-minute flights than I intended, and I get to have two Thanksgivings.

I love holidays. They’re a wonderful excuse to slow down and celebrate with friends and family I admittedly don’t make enough time for on other days of the year. But the actual date of a holiday has never held a particular significance for me.

 My chose-your-own-holiday-date idea began decades ago, when I was in college, for two reasons. First, it turned out my birthday fell during finals week. Every. Single. Year. Not so fun. So I pushed celebrations back a week so I could properly celebrate. Second, as a starving student who’d grown up with a love of travel instilled in me, I used holiday breaks to satisfy my wanderlust. That meant I didn’t always make it home for the holidays. But I wanted to have the best of both worlds, so if my cheap flights had me traveling on an inconvenient day, I’d make it up to friends and family by throwing another party once I was home. Or inviting people to join me in my travels.

This tradition continued as I grew older. My husband and I love traveling abroad over holidays like Halloween and Christmas, because it’s fun to experience how other countries celebrate holidays. Edinburgh’s Christmas Market feels like stepping directly into the spirit of the season. Halloween in Tokyo is like waking up in a fantasy world; the holiday is primarily celebrated by adults, and they go all-out with their costumes, including some super-creepy contact lenses.

In my new novel, THE NINJA’S ILLUSION, history professor Jaya Jones has a weeklong break from classes for Thanksgiving. She uses the time off to join her best friend Sanjay in Kyoto for his Japanese magic show debut in which he’ll be performing the fabled Indian Rope Trick. She sacrifices a traditional Thanksgiving for the opportunity to support her friend and to look into her own research on a mysterious trading ship that disappeared from historical records centuries ago, but in the end Jaya’s brother plans a second Thanksgiving in San Francisco so Jaya can be there.

I’ve got a book deadline coming up, so I thought I might have to skip Thanksgiving all together. But nearly too late, I realized I wasn’t properly prioritizing my life. So I’ll be joining dear friends for a traditional Thanksgiving on the official day, then flying the next morning to a writing retreat where we’ll take a break for a second Thanksgiving. Two Thanksgivings, plus giving this new book the time it needs. Yup, I’d say I’ve got the best of both worlds.

What about you? Does the date of a holiday hold special significance for you, or can you celebrate any time?

A bit about THE NINJA’S ILLUSION, the 5th book in the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt mystery series published this fall (and currently long-listed for the American Library Association’s 2018 ALA Reading List!):

When Jaya Jones travels from San Francisco to Japan with her stage magician best friend Sanjay—a.k.a. The Hindi Houdini—for his Japanese debut, she jumps at the chance to pursue her own research that could solve a tantalizing centuries-old mystery.

With the colorful autumn leaves of historic Kyoto falling around her, Jaya soon loses sight of what’s real and what’s a deception. A mysterious ninja attempts sabotage on Sanjay’s trick, along with Japan’s most controversial magician, Akira. Ancient folklore blurs the lines between illusion and reality when a magician’s assistant appears to be a kitsune, a mythical fox spirit. As tricks escalate to murder, Jaya and her friends must unravel secrets hidden in the ancient capital of Japan, before one of their own becomes the next victim.

And a teaser for “The Library Ghost of Tanglewood Inn,” a brand new Thanksgiving-themed short story published last week that takes place right after THE NINJA’S ILLUSION ends, as Jaya and Tamarind are trying to get home for a belated Thanksgiving.

An unsolved murder from the 1930s. A ghost story to explain the impossible crime. 
A dead man in the haunted library. And no way for the authorities to reach the survivors until the snowstorm clears… 

USA Today bestselling author Gigi Pandian is the child of cultural anthropologists from New Mexico and the southern tip of India. She spent her childhood being dragged around the world on their research trips, and now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and a gargoyle who watches over the backyard vegetable garden.

Gigi writes the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery Series, the Accidental Alchemist mysteries, and locked-room mystery short stories. Gigi's fiction has been awarded the Malice Domestic Grant and Lefty Awards, and shortlisted for Agatha and Macavity awards. Learn more about Gigi at http://gigipandian.com/ and sign up for her newsletter at http://gigipandian.com/newsletter/