What does King Kong have to do with Thanksgiving? That's a question I’ve been asking myself since I was a little kid. When I was growing up, the local UHF station, WUAB, used to show the original King Kong every year on Thanksgiving. If you grew up in northeast Ohio, you probably saw it at least once. Both of my parents grew up in Youngstown, Ohio, which is also the setting for my upcoming novel, The Heebie-Jeebie Girl. I remember every Thanksgiving my parents would pack all six of us kids into the station wagon and drive the 65 miles from Cleveland to Youngstown to see my grandparents. And my other grandmother. And maybe an aunt or an uncle or two. And some cousins. I remember happy food comas and poring over the J.C. Penny Wish Book (google it), and, yes, trying to watch a little bit of King Kong. In a small nod to my childhood and my family, there is a scene in The Heebie-Jeebie Girl in which the young protagonist, Hope, and her great uncle Joe watch King Kong on Thanksgiving 1977.

It’s an odd film to associate with Thanksgiving and gratitude–I’m not even going to try and make a logical connection. I don’t think there is one. Maybe there doesn’t need to be. Maybe the UHF station didn’t show it every year, but in the Thanksgiving of my memory, it did. It’s a fond if incongruous memory.

I haven’t watched King Kong in years, and I haven’t had occasion to spend Thanksgiving in Youngstown for a long time either. I still love that city, so much so that I wrote a novel about it. The Heebie-Jeebie Girl comes out April 21. You can read more about it on Goodreads (maybe add it to your bookshelf) or pre-order from your favorite brick and mortar or online bookseller. No matter how you celebrate it, I hope you and yours have a wonderful Thanksgiving.