Winter Blogfest: Rachael Richey

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

The Magic of Christmas by Rachael Richey

I think it’s very sad these days, just how commercialised Christmas has become.  I know, I’m only saying what everyone else says, but it seems to me that each year the shops start their Christmas promotions earlier and earlier.  For a long time now, even when I was a child, once Firework night was past, the Christmas decorations and gifts would appear in the shops.  I’d got used to that.  Then it crept a little earlier, starting before Halloween.  

But now – some shops have had Christmas themed items on the shelves since early September.  It’s far too early, and for me it takes away some of the magic of Christmas.  By the time December comes you’re fed up with it all and are ready to scream each time a Christmas song comes on.  

When I was a child, we didn’t get our Christmas tree until after I broke up from school, usually around the 21st of December.  Then on Christmas Eve we’d put up the rest of the decorations.  That made it exciting and magical – something to look forward to.  These days it’s considered normal to put up your decorations as soon as December starts.  To be honest ours have crept forward and we usually get the tree around the middle of the month, which is fine, but I know some people who put them up in November, and of course by then the shops are completely full of nothing else.  

I hope this doesn’t make me sound like a Grinch.  Far from it.  My grouse is that because it all starts so early, by the time Christmas Eve arrives (the most magical day of all), we are all weary and bored and beginning to wish it was all over.

But I do still have a little Christmas tradition that has hung on since childhood.  Even now, at my advanced age – my youngest child is twenty-two – when I go to bed on Christmas Eve I look up at the sky.  Just in case.  I hope I never lose that sense of magic.

Merry Magical Christmas everyone!

 

A remote coastal cottage; a group of old friends; the Christmas holidays. It’s just the break Olivia needs to help her relax and forget her worries. What could be more perfect? But that was before she found a handsome unconscious stranger on the beach. Add in a case of mistaken identity, a lot of kissing practice, and an inquisitive best friend, and things begin to get more than a little complicated. The large bump on Adam’s head hurts, but he refuses to go to the hospital—or back home—and eventually accepts Olivia’s offer of hospitality. When her friends arrive the following morning, a chance remark catapults them both into a bizarre and amusing situation that promises to make it a Christmas to remember.

Rachael Richey lives in Cornwall with her family. She writes Women’s Fiction and Romantic Comedy. She has been writing since she was a child, starting with stories about her teddy bears and dolls.

She lived in the Hebrides for nearly fourteen years, having originally gone there to work for the summer season. She met and married her husband David whilst there, and had two children, before moving to Cornwall at the end of 2000.

There are currently four titles in the NightHawk Series; Storm Rising, published in February 2015; Rhythm of Deceit, July 2015, Cobwebs in the Dark, February 2016, and The Girl in the Painting, July 2016.

Breaking All The Rules, a standalone romantic comedy, was released on 5th May, 2017, and Practising for Christmas, a seasonal romcom on 12th November, 2018.

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Buy the book at Amazon.

Winter Blogfest: Rachael Richey

This post is part of Long and Short Reviews’ Winter Blogfest. Leave a comment for a chance to win an ebook copy of my latest book, Practising for Christmas..

 My Christmas in Cornwall

I love Christmas, but what I don’t love is when the shops start selling Christmas themed goods even before Halloween.  It’s just like when they start advertising ‘Back to School’ items at the beginning of the summer holidays!  For me, the build up to Christmas starts at the beginning of December.  I reckon that’s quite long enough for the excitement to mount.

My favourite part of the Christmas season is definitely the days leading up to Christmas.  My son and I generally go to buy a tree the weekend after he breaks up from school (or this year, University!), usually around mid December, and spend the next day or so decorating the house, and beginning the Christmas cooking. 

But my absolutely favourite time of Christmas is Christmas Eve.  I like to get up early and really get stuck into the cooking, music on in the background, and preferably with some tinsel in my hair.  At some point in the day someone will usually realise there is something we’ve forgotten to buy, so my husband and son will be despatched off to fetch it, usually coming back with an extra load of chocolates.  We traditionally have a buffet supper on Christmas Eve, then late in the evening, put the presents around the tree ready for the morning.  

Then later still, when everyone else is in bed, the stockings filled and hung up, I like to creep back downstairs and sit with just the Christmas lights on.  And then on the way back up to bed I still take a look up in the sky – just in case!  

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

A remote coastal cottage; a group of old friends; the Christmas holidays. It’s just the break Olivia needs to help her relax and forget her worries. What could be more perfect? But that was before she found a handsome unconscious stranger on the beach. Add in a case of mistaken identity, a lot of kissing practice, and an inquisitive best friend, and things begin to get more than a little complicated.

The large bump on Adam’s head hurts, but he refuses to go to the hospital—or back home—and eventually accepts Olivia’s offer of hospitality. When her friends arrive the following morning, a chance remark catapults them both into a bizarre and amusing situation that promises to make it a Christmas to remember.

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In late 2000 the family moved to Cornwall where we have lived ever since.

I began writing stories at the age of seven, and have been obsessed with writing ever since.

My debut novel, Storm Rising, is the first in the NightHawk Series, closely followed by Rhythm of Deceit, Cobwebs in the Dark and The Girl in the Painting.

I signed a publishing contract with the Wild Rose Press in 2014 for the whole series and all four books are now all available in both e-book and paperback format.

In May of 2017 my first standalone romantic comedy, Breaking All The Rules, was published by the Wild Rose Press. A second standalone romcom,Practising for Christmas, was released on 12th November this year, just in time for Christmas!

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Buy the book at Amazon.