Winter Blogfest: C. J. Anthony

December 25, 2017 By 10 Comments

This post is part of Long and Short Reviews’ Winter Blogfest. Leave a comment for a chance to win a $20 Amazon gift card.

My Favorite Time of the Year

The End-of-Year Holiday Trifecta (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s) is my favorite time of the year—except for the weather being colder and wetter (depending where you live). But this is the one time of year I will forgive Mother Nature, even for snow; in fact I have even been heard to say snow is pretty during the holidays.

The year is winding down, but we have all these celebrations to get in before the very end. It can be a very rushed stressful time for a lot of folks. Not matter what is going on for me at the time, the holidays always lift me up. They are something to look forward to, to bring some cheer and light into my world.

Christmas is obviously the big holiday but I combine the three together because let’s face it, they do kind of run together.

Thanksgiving gets saddled with the kickoff. These days with stores bringing out the Christmas decorations and sales as soon as Halloween is over, quite frankly the poor holiday almost gets swept aside.  But Thanksgiving has its moments. For me, it is the Peanuts Thanksgiving special—I know, EVERYONE loves the Christmas special, but the Thanksgiving one is my favorite. Not sure why, other than I love that Snoopy helps serve a feast of popcorn, toast and jelly beans to Charlie Brown’s friends, then turns around after they’re gone and shares a full turkey feast—including pumpkin pie—with his little buddy Woodstock.

My other favorite of Thanksgiving is making my mom’s pumpkin pie. It is the BEST and most yummiest. If you like a spicy pumpkin pie then this would not be the one for you. The spice is much lighter and the pie more creamy than a traditional pie. (It’s actually the recipe from the Libby pumpkin pie can, minus the cloves and substituting real milk for the condensed milk)

On to Christmas…well, I have to say I start getting in the mood early. As I write this, it is the middle of November and I am ready to start breaking out the Christmas music! I do keep it to myself; I try not to annoy those who aren’t quite in the spirit yet. And I don’t put my tree up until Thanksgiving weekend. But I have already done a little shopping for new Christmas ornaments and such.

Most of my family Christmas traditions are pretty low key. I do make a few varieties of Christmas cookies, and some fudge. Christmas dinner is at my aunt’s house. It’s my mother’s side of the family and we’re Italian so no turkey or stuffing. We have pasta and sauce and a few other family dishes. The rest of Christmas Eve/Christmas Day I like just doing nothing…relaxing on the couch with the tree lights glowing, watching Christmas movies or reading a good book (usually a good M/M Christmas story.)

And then we have New Year’s bringing up the rear, literally the Trifecta Hangover, LOL. Everyone’s kind of done with the holidays, but not quite. Some folks start taking down their trees and decorations. (I always wait till after New Year’s Day.) Some people go all out for fancy New Year’s Eve parties and others stay home in their P.J.s and watch the ball drop.

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I hope everyone reading this has a wonderful holiday, however and whatever you choose to celebrate. But most importantly I hope everyone finds their own piece of happiness this season.

Share your thoughts on the holidays in the comments below, and if you feel like a fun holiday read check out my book Falling for Santa Claus.

When Jack Frost’s aunt dies and leaves him her house in the tiny town of Great Falls, Jack seizes the opportunity to escape the rat race of Chicago for the quaint village he loved as a child. On his first night he’s welcomed by a baseball bat and a trespassing warning from Nick St. James—longtime Great Falls resident and infamous curmudgeon.

Jack wants to give Nick the benefit of the doubt—he can’t deny his attraction to the big man—but after several run-ins with Nick’s grumpiness and closed-off heart, he’s ready to give up. Only after discovering the secret Nick’s been covering up for years does he vow to break through Nick’s walls to find the loving man hiding behind them.

About the Author: C. J. Anthony grew up watching soap operas and reading piles of books. She attributes her love of reading and romance to her mother, who not only taught her to read but also made countless trips to the library lugging piles of books home for her. It wasn’t a far jump to start writing her own stories, early childhood tales about flower families and traveling to the moon with her best friend.

C. J.’s favorite stories to read and write include “opposites attract” pairings—couples who appear to be an odd couple to the rest of the world, but fit together perfectly, finding their own happily-ever-after with a little hard work and a whole lot of love.
Not surprisingly, C. J. is a big lover of rom coms—she’ll gladly take Julia Roberts standing in front of Hugh Grant asking him to love her over car crashes and shoot-em-up movies any day. She also watches way too much TV and every singing reality show there is. She loves music of all genres and attending live concerts.

She spends most of her time juggling a day job and a commute and freelance and falling asleep on her couch, dreaming of a day when she can write all day in her pajamas while living in a house by the beach.

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Winter Blogfest: Pam Binder

December 25, 2017 By 5 Comments

This post is part of Long and Short Review’s Winter Blogfest. Leave a comment for a chance to win a Matchmaker Cafe coffee/tea mug filled to the brim with chocolate.

Welcome Brownies – Or – How to Bridge Story Lines

This is the first entry in my blog series that combines chocolate and the craft of writing. The first topic is how to bridge story lines.

As I celebrate the release of the third book in the Matchmaker Café series, Falling in Love with Emma, about a French baker who wonders if she will ever get out of the friend-zone with the man who owns a fish market, it seemed appropriate to write a food-themed blog that combines chocolate and the craft of writing. Chocolate because it’s mentioned in every book I write, and the craft of writing because I teach writing and am always pushing myself to improve. I also wanted this blog to be about writing tips, so what better place than to talk about the “Welcome Brownies,” and what they mean.

As the story opens, we see both of our characters in their element. Bjorn has just returned from fishing in Alaska, and Emma is up at dawn, baking for a big event in the town where they live. But they are in the friend-zone, with no hope of breaking out of the rut. I also have two story lines. The first involves Emma and Bjorn, and the second is the reoccurring story about three sisters from Scotland who own a matchmaking business. The trick was how to get these two stories together.

I needed to create a bridge between story lines. After an event with Emma’s grandmother that left Emma in charge of the bakery, I opened my cookbook and found the perfect recipe I could use to create the bridge. The recipe page was frayed at the edges, torn and scotched taped together. It was a recipe for brownies and was my family’s favorite. It brought back a wave of warm memories. I’d bake these brownies for all occasions, including when new neighbors arrived in our neighborhood, or to bring to a friend. It was the perfect solution. Emma’s grandmother, and one of the story’s mentors, tells Emma to bring over a batch of “Welcome Brownies” to the Retail Village’s newest tenants, the three sisters, who own The Matchmaker Café. Welcome Brownies was the perfect solution. Naturally, the sisters invited Emma inside…and the story takes off…

Please check out book three in the Matchmaker Café series, Falling in Love with Emma and let me know what you think. I have posted the recipe for Welcome Brownies below.

2 sq. unsweetened chocolate (2 oz)

1/4 cup butter

1 cup sugar
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2 eggs

3/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt (I use 1/4 tsp. salt)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a square pan 8x8x2″. Melt chocolate and butter over hot water. (It says this in the recipe, but I never have. I melt in a saucepan and just watch over it). Take the pan off the stove and beat in the sugar and eggs. Blend flour, baking powder and stir in. Spread in pan. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until slight imprint remains when touched lightly with finger. Cool slightly and cut into squares. Makes 16 2″ squares.

Falling in Love with Emma – A match made in time.
Ever since the sudden death of her mother left Emma in charge of caring for her grandmother and the family’s French bakery, she has survived by rejecting change. The last thing she want is an ex-boyfriend with commitment issues.
Bjorn has made a mess of things. He returned from fishing in Alaska believing his relationship with Emma would go back to the way things were, only to have Emma smash a pie in his face. but when Bjorn learns she is in danger, he leaps at the chance to save the woman he loves, even if she wants nothing to do with him.

About the Author: Pam Binder is an award-winning Amazon and New York Times Best-selling author. Pam believes in smiles, Irish and Scottish myths and like Wonder Woman, the power of love. Pam writes historical fiction, contemporary fiction, young adult and time travel fantasy.

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Winter Blogfest: Becky Lower

December 25, 2017 By 7 Comments

This post is part of Long and Short Reviews’ Winter Blogfest. Leave a comment for a chance to win an E-book copy of Winning Violet and a $5 Amazon gift card.

Warm Memories

I grew up surrounded by siblings. Four girls and one boy were crowded into a tiny house in the middle of nowhere, Ohio and money was always tight. Despite our circumstances, we always looked forward to Christmas and our presents. Mom and Dad managed to stretch every dollar and interspersed practical gifts like a new lunch pail and saddle shoes with a doll cradle and a baby carriage. I don’t remember much about the presents, but I do remember the warm family that surrounded me. Here’s a picture of us digging into our gifts.

Mom and Dad are gone now and the five of us children are nearing retirement, but we lean on each other in adulthood to continue our family traditions. We’re located all over the country now, so we have Thanksgiving whenever we get three or more of us together and Christmas presents can happen any day of the year. It may not be the same nuclear family that was such a staple as we grew up, but it’s as warm as I remember and each visit from a sister or brother is poignant.

Most of the stories I write are about families, the larger the better. My first series, the Cotillion Ball Saga, features nine upper-class children in America in the 1850s and 1860s. My next work, the Flower Girl series, is about four sisters in Regency England who work for their father at his nursery and landscaping business. The girls–Iris, Violet, Lily and Poppy–are eager to tell their stories. Winning Violet releases on Christmas Day, with Losing Lily being planned for release in June, 2018.

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Everything’s coming up roses for an English miss and an American gentleman in this delightful new series from the author of the Cotillion Ball saga!

After British soldiers killed his wife and child during the War of 1812, Parker Sinclair vowed to never set foot on English soil. But as Thomas Jefferson’s landscaper, one must sometimes make the ultimate sacrifice. The last thing Parker expects to find is an educated English beauty who can teach him so much more than how to plant a magnificent garden.

An expert at cross-pollinating roses, Violet Wilson’s dreams of becoming the first woman recognized by the Royal Horticultural Society are fading because she’s afraid to leave the quiet solitude of her family’s nursery. Distrustful of men after a traumatic encounter, she’s not keen on disrupting her routine to help the American landscaper, but she soon blossoms under his kindness and respect.

As they fall in love, can this shrinking Violet take the risk of leaving behind all she knows for a new life with Parker? Or is he considering a different ending altogether?

About the Author: Amazon best-selling author Becky Lower has traveled the United States in search of great settings for her novels. She loves to write about two people finding each other and falling in love amid the backdrop of a great setting, be it in America on a covered wagon headed west or in Regency England. Her Cotillion Ball Series features the nine children from an upscale New York family prior to and during the Civil War. Her first Regency, A Regency Yuletide, received the Crowned Heart and has been nominated for the prestigious RONE award from InD’Tale Magazine. A regular contributor to USA Today’s Happy Ever After section, her books have been featured in the column on eight separate occasions. Becky loves to hear from her readers at beckylowerauthor@gmail.com. Visit her website at www.beckylowerauthor.com

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Winter Blogfest: Ravon Silvius

December 22, 2017 By 4 Comments

This post is part of Long and Short Reviews’ Winter Blogfest. Leave a comment for a chance to win a digital copy of The Storm Lords.

Christmas Without Snow 

Ravon Silvius here, author of The Storm Lords. You may have heard of it as that fantasy M/M romance that revolves around the weather. So today I want to talk about the weather a little bit, and how it can set a mood—even if it doesn’t quite seem to fit the mood at first glance.

I love Christmas time, but where I grew up, it was a little different from what you see on TV.  The iconic image of a Merry Christmas is a blanket of snow over everything, with a warm fire burning in the hearth and gifts piled under a pine tree. Check out most Christmas logos—chances are, they’ll have snow or a wintery theme. I distinctly remember an old cartoon where the child character was very worried that Christmas wouldn’t happen without snow. The episode resolved with a magical snowstorm that made it a white Christmas.

But it doesn’t snow where I grew up. In Northern California, we were lucky if it even rained. And there are plenty of places where the weather is far from Christmasy—I spent a week before Christmas last year in Mexico. The hotel had a huge Christmas tree in the lobby, but outside it was 80 degrees and there were cacti everywhere. People don’t ordinarily think of Christmas time as being good for a beach vacation, but it was certainly enjoyable!

In my writing, I love using the weather to set a scene and enhance the mood. It’s a fairly common thing for writers to do—after all, nothing makes a spooky scene spookier like a thunderstorm, and a nice soft blanket of snow makes everything feel cozy when two characters are intimate.  But sometimes, like a desert Christmas, it can be fun to have a setting not quite match the mood. The contrast can somehow, paradoxically, make things even more intense. A scary storm can make a few grabbed moments of intimacy feel even sweeter. Maybe there’s a nice layer of snow, but the angry conflict between two characters is hot enough to melt it. Having the setting not fit with the action can enhance the scene and make people pay close attention to what the character are doing and thinking.

Think of it this way—a family is opening gifts in a nice warm house and a roaring fire is offset nicely by snow falling outside the windows. It’s a picturesque scene that you’d find on a hallmark card. But what if outside the windows there was a bright sunny day, and the people inside opening gifts were wearing swimsuits after just getting back from the pool? That was my Christmas as a child. Its still a nice, happy family setting. But its unusual, and that can tell a story by itself and make readers take notice.
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The heat took everything from Rowen: his parents, his voice when the local cure for heatstroke poisoned him, and the trust of his fellow villagers, who branded him a water thief. It would have claimed his life when he was deemed unworthy of precious resources and left in the sun to die, had not a strange man named Kristoff ridden in on the wind and told Rowen he had power.

Rowen works hard to become a Storm Lord, one of a secret magical group that brings storms to break the heat waves overtaking their world. But Rowen is starting his training at a disadvantage since he cannot speak and is much older than the other novices. The desire to please Kristoff inspires him to persevere even more than the threat of being sent back to his village to die should he fail. Still, he cannot gather rain, and when his abilities manifest, they are unlike anything known to the Storm Lords. Unless Kristoff can help him control his deadly powers, the entire world will be in danger.

Kristoff might be among the mightiest of the Storm Lords, but he’s never been a mentor before. For a chance to be with Rowen, he’s willing to risk everything.

About the Author: Ravon Silvius lives in a tiny apartment with two tiny cats in a tiny town in the United States. Despite the cramped living quarters, Ravon enjoys coming up with big ideas for novels, with some plots coming from Ravon’s findings as a neuroscience researcher and others coming purely from Ravon’s imagination.

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Winter Blogfest: Ginger Dehlinger

December 22, 2017 By 2 Comments

This post is part of Long and Short Reviews’ Winter Blogfest. Leave a comment for a chance to win a digital copy of my short story, “The Black Silk Stockings”.

Christmas Blues

Although the Christmas season basks in Macy’s red, angel white and evergreen, I’m drawn, like a kid to Toys R Us, to the color blue. Not just any blue. It has to be that captivating shade of cobalt blue that’s found in Christmas lights.

I grew up in Klamath Falls, Oregon in a house so small we had to move two living room chairs to the garage in order to put up a Christmas tree. We adorned our tree with one string of lights—an assortment of bulbs that didn’t blink, twinkle or bubble, and only one of which was blue. To protect the pine needles we put star-shaped aluminum collars around the bulbs before screwing them into their sockets. No matter where I sat, I’d make sure the collar of the blue bulb didn’t hide the mesmerizing effect its color had on me.

On the rare evenings our parents weren’t home, my sisters and I would darken the living room and take in the magic of this gleaming, tinseled tree that prettified our modest home a few weeks each year. No one spoke, each sister absorbed in her own thoughts, mine soothed by the one blue light that held my gaze.

I still live in a small house, this one in Bend, Oregon. The artificial Christmas tree my husband and I bought came with clear mini lights, and since people our age shouldn’t climb ladders, we no longer hang lights outside. Sarah Street, a few blocks away, is a virtual Disney light parade during the month of December, and for many years, one of the properties on that street was, for me, a blue fantasy. Nothing but blue lights bordered its windows, outlined the roof, and decorated the branches of every tree in the front yard. After dinner sometimes, while my husband napped, I’d drive over there and sit in the dark like I did as a child, filling my soul with blue serenity.

Last year there wasn’t a single light on the house I hoped to see. I drove home in a funk, feeling low as the lyrics in “Blue Christmas.” At least I wouldn’t be spending Christmas alone like Elvis, I told myself, and when I got home, I shared my blue light disappointment with my husband. The next day, while I was running errands, he bought a string of blue lights and wrapped it around the trunk of the tree outside our kitchen window. During dinner, he made some excuse to leave the table and turn them on. After we finished eating, I carried our dishes to the sink, and the minute I entered the kitchen, my heart swelled at the sight of our pine tree lit in blue. What a glorious way to get rid of my Christmas blues!
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Colorado. 1885. Sparks fly as two young friends become ex-friends after one secretly marries the other’s widowed father. Overnight, fourteen-year-old Clara’s world crumbles when she learns her best friend Geneva, only two years older than she is, has become her stepmother.

Feeling betrayed by a father she adores and her only friend in the remote San Luis Valley, Clara wants nothing to do with her stepmother. Geneva pushes back, beginning a clash of wills that lasts until the flu epidemic of 1918.

About the Author: Ginger Dehlinger writes in multiple genres including two published novels–Brute Heart and Never Done. She writes for women in general and nature lovers in particular, focusing on lesser known aspects of the American West. She’s a member of Women Writing the West, Central Oregon Writer’s Guild, and a small, but fastidious critique group.

Ginger lives in Bend, Oregon with her husband Dick and a cat named Kiki.

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Winter Blogfest: Megan Morgan

December 22, 2017 By 9 Comments

This post is part of Long and Short Reviews’ Winter Blogfest. Leave a comment for a chance to win a $10 Amazon Gift Card.

The Life of a Christmas Tree

What’s the best part about Christmas? The Christmas tree, of course! Many of us put one of these up in our homes. We enjoy decorating it, lighting it up, and stuffing presents underneath it. And, for households with a cat, we cross our fingers that our furry friend at least gives it 24 hours before their first attempt to climb it or knock all the bulbs off it.

I love putting up the Christmas tree. On the day I put it up, my son and I spend hours decorating it, playing Christmas music, and having some real family time. However, I’m rather pragmatic about my tree. I know a lot of people who put up their Christmas tree very early, people who put it up on Thanksgiving, and of course, people who leave it up well into January. While I like having a Christmas tree around, I feel like putting it up too early and leaving it up too long will just oversaturate the joy of it for me. I prefer to keep my Christmas tree around for a shorter time, so it feels more special.

I never put my tree up until it’s actually December. I figure that’s good enough, especially since the stores are already shoving Christmas down my throat as soon as Halloween is over. If I want Christmas before or after my allotted Christmas tree time, I only need to take a walk through town, as Christmas isn’t hard to come by in public as soon as November begins, and then sticks around well past Christmas, into the New Year. But inside my house, I only want Christmas in December! To me, it doesn’t “feel” like Christmas until December rolls around.

Am I being a Scrooge? Not at all. I love Christmas! I love decorating for it and I love having a tree up. I just don’t want to overdo it for myself and end up resenting it. As I said, having it around for a shorter time makes it feel more special to me. Just like summer—since I unfortunately live in a part of the world where summer is short and fleeting, and all the more precious for it, we get it in small doses and have to enjoy it heartily. If I lived in a place where summer lasts for ages, I’d probably be longing for winter. If Christmas lasted for months, I’d get tired of it.

Of course, I don’t mind when I go to visit friends and they already have their tree up by Thanksgiving. To each their own, and I’ll enjoy all your trees, lights, and decorations, whenever and for however long you choose to keep them up! It’s a joyous season and we should take the time to celebrate, especially with sparkles and lights. But if you’re already feeling like there’s too much Christmas being heaped on you as soon as the turkey is eaten, stop over at my place. ?

How about you? When do you put your tree up? When do you take it down? Do you like having a Christmas tree around for a nice long while, or would you rather have a short engagement with it? No matter how long your celebration, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!


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Witches and Lycans and hillbillies, oh my!

Lorena Mills is a witch, but she’s not very good with potions and incantations. Working for a government agency that puts down dangerous uprisings of supernatural creatures, she does much more paperwork than spell casting. When her less-than-magical job lands her in the small Appalachian town of Blue Ditch, Kentucky, in the shadow of Black Mountain, her life starts to get a whole lot wilder.

In the forests surrounding the town, Wolvites—twisted, bestial creatures who hunt and kill humans—are posing a threat. When handsome, charming, and altogether reckless local Deacon Kelley insists on taking matters into his own hands, Lorena has more than monsters to worry about. He won’t stay out of her way, and he won’t take no for an answer.

Deacon is a Lycan–in modern terms, the non-shifting descendants of werewolves–and he and his family have protected Blue Ditch for generations. But now, something too sinister to be controlled by their efforts alone is stirring, and the Wolvites are far more vicious than they’ve ever been. Will Lorena be able to stop the threat and uncover the deadly secrets surrounding it before it’s too late?

To keep the town, and Deacon, safe, she’ll have to—and she’s really starting to like this town.

About the Author: Megan Morgan is an award-winning paranormal and contemporary romance author from Cleveland, Ohio. She also writes urban fantasy. A mild-mannered bartender by day and purveyor of things that go bump in the night, she’s trying to turn writing into her day job, so she can be on the other side of the bar for a change. She lives on the often-wintry shores of Lake Erie with her spoiled cat and adult son, both of whom shed too much.

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Winter Blogfest: Gail Kittleson

December 22, 2017 By 3 Comments

This post is part of Long and Shorts Reviews’ Winter Blogfest. Leave a comment for a chance to win a dish towel with a recipe for lefse – USA only.

Traditions

When I married into a German-Norwegian family, I hadn’t given much thought to my family-of-origin’s nationality. We labeled ourselves Heinz 57, with the biggest share falling to the English. But my husband’s mother was 100% German, and she married a ¾ Norwegian, ¼ German man. Yet as far as Christmas traditions, the Norwegian side won out.

The only person in the entire extended family who doesn’t drool over lefse? That would be me. Nobody cares for the slithering Norwegian dish of lutefisk, but lefse—oh my! Early in our marriage, I learned to make these thin potato-flour rounds, but have since gotten lazy. With so many church bazaars offering the goods, and my husband receiving packages as gifts, why go to the effort?

Besides, our daughter married into an even stronger Norwegian family, so she’s learned the process. People eat this delicacy several ways, but my husband’s favorite is buttered with an extremely generous sprinkling of brown sugar. After that, we roll them up tight and insert in mouth. For my husband, some sort of heavenly bliss follows that last step.

Other than lefse, we follow a mix of traditions. The Christmas tree originated in Germany, as did lighting candles at the Christmas Eve service and singing Silent Night. Now that the grandchildren are older, it doesn’t matter whether we open gifts after the service or before. Oh—but we do enjoy oyster stew with homemade rice pudding. The pudding contains one almond that goes to the fortunate scooper, and supposedly foretells a year of good luck.

Tucked in my computer, a simple Christmas novella waits publication—otherwise, my novels offer little in the way of holiday celebrations. After all, it’s World War II, and empty places at the table do nothing to increase the cheer. Some families lost loved ones for good during the past year—others wait for word.

But through it all, the underlying hope that brightened this old weary world that first Christmas keeps these families going. At the candlelight service when we share that light with our neighbor, we’re reminded that whatever challenges and sorrows we face, we’re not alone.
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In war-torn London, American Kate Isaac grieves her husband, awaits their child’s birth, and welcomes her best friend Addie. But after her miscarriage, a meeting with mysterious Monsieur le Blanc launches her into Britain’s Secret Operations Executive(SOE). In late 1943, Kate parachutes into Southern France to aid the Resistance.

Domingo, a grieving Basque mountain guide-turned-saboteur, meets her parachute drop, tends her injured ankle, and carries her to safety. Reunited a few months later, they discover the injured Monsieur le Blanc who with his dying breath, reveals his familial connection to Kate.

In the shadow of the Waffen SS, Domingo and Kate find his younger brother Gabirel missing. While Domingo seeks Gabirel, Domingo’s parish priest, Père Gaspard, creates a new identity for Kate.

United once again, Kate and Domingo subject their mutual attraction to the cause. But can mere human will and moral courage change the war’s tide and forge a future for them?

About the Author: When Gail’s not steeped in World War II research, drafting scenes, or deep in one edit or another, she does a limited amount of editing for other authors. She also facilitates writing workshops and classes, both in Iowa and Arizona, where winters find her enjoying the incredibly gorgeous Ponderosa forest under the Mogollon Rim. Favorites: walking, reading, meeting new people, and hearing from readers who fall in love with her characters.

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Winter Blogfest: Peggy Jaeger

December 22, 2017 By 6 Comments

This post is part of Long and Short Reviews’ Winter Blogfest. Leave a comment for a chance to win a print copy of A KISS UNDER THE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS to anyone from the Continental US who makes a comment. If no one from the Continental US makes a comment, I will pick a winner for an ecopy, no restrictions as far as location.

 

A Christmas Wish

My parents split when I was an infant and both remarried. My parents are of Irish extraction, my stepmother the same. My stepfather, though, was first generation Italian/American. This made for some memorable Christmas get-togethers during my childhood.

Christmas Eve was usually spent with the Italian relatives, starting at around 4 p.m. with the first course of the Feast of the 7 fishes. Every hour on the hour for 7 full hours a different fish course was served by my Sicilian-speaking-only step-grandmother. And with every course, a new bottle of wine would be served, so that by the time my mother, stepfather and I left, most of the relatives were gluttonously full and three sheets to the wind drunk. It made for many an interesting evening.

Christmas day was always spent with Irish relatives, starting with Midnight Mass Christmas eve,( and yes, we traveled to them as soon as the last fish course was finished on the Italo side.) and culminating in a day of drinking and eating. And when I say drinking I mean it in the purely alcoholic sense. Unlike with the stepfamily, my mother’s family consumed more booze than food. And they started drinking earlier, too. Like noon early. There would only be two courses for dinner, which was usually served at 5 without any food before that, because my Irish grandmother didn’t want any of us to spoil our dinners and eat too much before the meal was served. I never understood how she didn’t equate the falling asleep drunks at the dinner table with the lack of food to sop up the afternoon booze. By seven p.m. most of them would be passed out in various lounge chairs and couches, the Yule Log blasting Christmas music in the background to drown out the yelling coming from the kitchen where my mother, her mother, and my aunt would be fighting about….anything and everything.

From the time I realized my family was different from all the other families in my school I started asking Santa for a different family every year for Christmas. The number one item on my Santa wish list was: a family that didn’t fight, drink, or yell.

It wasn’t until I was married and made my own family that I got my wish. When I wrote my very first Christmas romance, A KISS UNDER THE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS, I invented the family I wished for as a child. The San Valentinos are  loyal and loving and they do fight – but only in the best sense of the word because they fight for each other, not against one another. I got my wished-for family twice: One, I married; the other I created.

Gia San Valentino is the beloved baby in her large, loud, and loving Italian family. Family dramas, passion, and food rule the San Valentino clan, and Gia takes it all in stride, her family the touchstone of her life. But with Christmas fast approaching she longs for a life and home of her own with a husband and bambini she can love and spoil. The single scene doesn’t interest her and the men her well-meaning family introduce her to are all wise guy wanna-bes, with old world views on women – the pregnant and barefoot kind – just the type of man she’s trying to avoid.

When Gia lends a helping hand at her neighborhood parish’s Christmas Festival she meets a guy who has all her requirements for perfect-man status. Tall, sweet, good looking, and from a big Italian family of his own, it seems she might finally have found a man she can give her heart to. When a miscommunication has her believing he’s the new parish priest, her happily-ever-after hopes evaporate because he’s the proverbial forbidden fruit.
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Or is he?

About the Author: Peggy Jaeger is a contemporary romance writer who writes about strong women, the families who support them, and the men who can’t live without them.

Family and food play huge roles in Peggy’s stories because she believes there is nothing that holds a family structure together like sharing a meal…or two…or ten. Dotted with humor and characters that are as real as they are loving, Peggy brings all topics of daily life into her stories: life, death, sibling rivalry, illness and the desire for everyone to find their own happily ever after. Growing up the only child of divorced parents she longed for sisters, brothers and a family that vowed to stick together no matter what came their way. Through her books, she has created the families she wanted as that lonely child.

Tying into her love of families, her children’s book, THE KINDNESS TALES, was illustrated by her artist mother-in-law.

Peggy holds a master’s degree in Nursing Administration and first found publication with several articles she authored on Alzheimer’s Disease during her time running an Alzheimer’s in-patient care unit during the 1990s.

In 2013, she placed first in two categories in the Dixie Kane Memorial Contest: Single Title Contemporary Romance and Short/Long Contemporary Romance.

In 2017 she came in 3rd in the New England Reader’s Choice contest for A KISS UNDER THE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS and was a finalist in the 2017 STILETTO contest for the same title.

A lifelong and avid romance reader and writer, she is a member of RWA and her local New Hampshire RWA Chapter.

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Winter Blogfest: Judith Sterling

December 21, 2017 By 9 Comments

This post is part of Long and Short Reviews’ Winter Blogfest. Leave a comment for a chance to win a digital copy of any of my books, fiction or nonfiction. Winner’s choice!

Never Far Away

Christmastime always makes me think of my maternal grandfather, Poppy.  He loved the holidays and died just before Thanksgiving in 2007.  My twin sons, Connor and Geoffrey, were three at the time and only got to meet him once…while he was alive, that is.

In mid-December, my husband Dan and I took them to my parents’ house in Florida for the weekend.  Twice during our visit, the boys’ gazes shot to my mom’s side at the same time.

Both of them looked, but it was Geoffrey who spoke.  “Poppy,” he said, pointing.

Each time, Mom nodded but said nothing.  The boys confirmed what she already sensed.

Later that day, she, Dan, and I were talking by the pool.  The boys played close by.

Geoffrey piped up, and his voice was adamant.  “No, no, Poppy.  Light on.”  He glanced to his side while his hands fiddled with a Spiderman action figure.  “No light off, Poppy.  Light ON.”

Dan gaped at him.  “Did he just say what I think he said?”

Mom turned.  “What?”

“I think he was talking to Poppy,” I said.

Wide-eyed, Geoffrey’s gaze traveled up to a point about nine feet high, right beside the pool.  “Poppy, why are you flying?”

Mom raised her eyebrows.  “Now I heard that!”
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Needless to say, the event made her weekend.

On our return home, Geoffrey scampered into the house, then halted in front of our Christmas tree, whose lights were off.  He grinned.  “Hi, Poppy!”

A minute later—by which time Geoffrey ignored the tree—Connor ran into the house.  He stopped and stared at the same spot his twin had.

With a smile, he pointed to it.  “Poppy!”

I felt my grandfather’s presence, strong as could be.  It was a reminder that those we’ve loved and lost are never far away.

Wishing everyone a joyous holiday season!

Ashling Donoghue never dreamed moving to Ireland would rock her perception of reality and plunge her into a mystery that brings legend to life.

At seventeen, she’s never had a boyfriend, but she feels an immediate connection to Aengus Breasal, the son of the wealthy Irishman who’s invited her family to stay at his Killarney estate. For the first time in her life, a guy she likes seems attracted to her.

But Aengus is secretive, with good reason. He and his family are the Tuatha Dé Danann, ageless, mythical guardians adept at shifting between this reality and the magical dimension known as the Otherworld. Evil forces from that world threaten the Breasals, the Donoghues, and all of Ireland. Ashling must open her heart, face her fears, and embrace a destiny greater than she could ever have imagined.

About the Author: Judith Sterling’s love of history and passion for the paranormal infuse everything she writes. Flight of the Raven and Soul of the Wolf are part of her medieval romance series, The Novels of Ravenwood. The Cauldron Stirred is the first book in her YA paranormal fantasy series, Guardians of Erin. Written under Judith Marshall, her nonfiction books–My Conversations with Angels and Past Lives, Present Stories–have been translated into multiple languages. She has an MA in linguistics and a BA in history, with a minor in British Studies. Born in that sauna called Florida, she craved cooler climes, and once the travel bug bit, she lived in England, Scotland, Sweden, Wisconsin, Virginia, and on the island of Nantucket. She currently lives in Salem, Massachusetts with her husband and their identical twin sons.

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Winter Blogfest: Clare London

December 21, 2017 By 6 Comments

This post is part of Long and Short Reviews’ Winter Blogfest. Leave a comment for a chance to win a free download in the format of your choice of any of my Christmas-themed books. All the choices can be seen at www.clarelondon.com/all-books/if-you-like-christmas/.

This Xmas 2017

This year I’ve been revisiting that perennial question: What do I want for Christmas?

Isn’t it always, what do *I* want? We really are driven towards being selfish, demanding and materialistic, even if our better self fights against it all the way.

Christmas is a special time for children, and despite all the marketing aimed cynically toward them, I think my two sons are very compassionate and tolerant of the wider issues in life. And that’s considering they’re young men and their minds rarely step beyond beer, FIFA, South Park re-runs, the latest guitar, boxing, and pizza.

 

We were all sick with the flu last year – I can’t remember us ever being that bad. Son#1 survived the best—partly because he escaped to the pub, he SAID it was to protect himself from the Contamination Zone—but Son#2 felt pretty bad. Both boys have been very healthy through their lives apart from the usual scrapes and occasional broken bones.

So this has all made me think more carefully. And made me rethink MY Christmas list.  Maybe I can wait for that diamond ring / new laptop / pair of Jimmy Choo’s / personal whippy ice cream maker that have all been on the list since I was a teenager LOL.

For example, I’d want…

  • Good health, for me, my family, and my friends.
  • Son#1 to continue playing guitar and singing, bringing pleasure to so many, and to find the job of his dreams.
  • Son#2 to succeed in his career, and hold on to his inspiring enthusiasm and liveliness.
  • Hubby to continue to enjoy teaching, despite the crippling administrative burden that teachers have to cope with nowadays.
  • My house to continue to stand steady, despite looking internally like a small thermonuclear device went off in a few of the rooms.
  • (am I allowed a small personal wish?! LOL) More time to write, and plenty of cheeky, sexy ideas to share.

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And for us all?

  • To continue to laugh, to love music and books and art, to over-eat all the good things, to talk, to argue, to be distracted by new and interesting topics, to leap to the defence of intolerance, to worry we never do everything properly enough, to forget to say ‘no’ when someone needs a hand…

All the things that make us HUMAN!!!

Do you have any alternative wishes you’d like to put on the list?!

The Peppermint Schnapps Predicament by Clare London

Frankie Faraday is a promising young salesperson at Mason’s Emporium. Bill Mason is his boss, the son of the store’s founder, and the object of Frankie’s long-suffering, deeply devoted crush. Bill is steady and sober; Frankie is frivolous and flaky. Or so they seem to each other, until the night of the annual inventory, when they’re trapped together in the Seasonal Gifts storeroom, with nothing but candy and peppermint schnapps to sustain them until they’re rescued. And then the real truths—and something definitely more intimate—emerge!

About the Author: Clare London took her pen name from the city where she lives, loves, and writes. A lone, brave female in a frenetic, testosterone-fuelled family home, she juggles her writing with her other day job as an accountant.
She’s written in many genres and across many settings, with award-winning novels and short stories published both online and in print. She says she likes variety in her writing while friends say she’s just fickle, but as long as both theories spawn good fiction, she’s happy. Most of her work features male/male romance and drama with a healthy serving of physical passion, as she enjoys both reading and writing about strong, sympathetic, and sexy characters.
Clare currently has several novels sulking at that tricky chapter three stage and plenty of other projects in mind… she just has to find out where she left them in that frenetic, testosterone-fuelled family home.
Clare loves to hear from readers, and you can contact her at her website and all over social media.

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