Don't let the holidays suck the lifeblood out of you!

Merry Christmas, et al. I have two gifts & a giveaway for you all!

First, I wanted to write you all a Christmas poem. It's not really about Christmas, but it's in there... so here you go!

Meet the Jones

To Mulberry Lane,
In Sycamore Square,
Moved a handsome new family
With skin oh, so fair.

Respected, adored,
Admired by many,
They had wealth to spare
And flaunted it plenty.

In the spring they threw parties,
They lit up the night,
A few lucky chosen
To stay until light.

In summer they vanished,
They left the harsh sun,
Facebooked from down under
To show off ski fun.

When weather turned cooler,
Guess who reappears,
In time for fall fests
And Halloween's spooky fears.

But as winter approached,
The neighborhood thinned.
Where's everyone gone?
Asked the lone, chilling wind.

The family laughed
So full and so jolly.
Christmas wishes were granted
By vain human folly.

When New Year arrives,
The Jones will be gone
To another quaint village,
Fresh blood to feed on.


The Second gift I have, is the lovely and talented, Sharon Bayliss! She has a fun, "You might be..." post to celebrate the coming of her next December People book, WATCH ME BURN!

Dark wizards living in the Mundane world have a lot of challenges. Here are some signs that you might be one of The December People...

1. Your favorite football team really did lose because you forgot to wear your lucky socks.
2. You have to move every year because your house keeps getting destroyed.
3. You're on a first name basis with all of the nurses in your local ER.
4. If all your kids are alive and safely inside your home, you think you're the greatest parent ever.
5. You care way too much about the seasons.
6. You're angry at J.K. Rowling for her unfair treatment of Slytherins.
7. You celebrate Christmas either way too much or way too little.
8. If you and your family members stand in a circle, the house might burn down.
9. You have way too many children and they keep stealing your car.
10. It's your fault that it's raining.

Begin the series with Destruction for only 99 cents (12/1-12/21 only)!

Semi-finalist in the Kindle Book Review Awards and #1 category bestseller in coming of age fantasy.

DESTRUCTION
David Vandergraff wants to be a good man. He goes to church every Sunday, keeps his lawn trim and green, and loves his wife and kids more than anything.

Unfortunately, being a dark wizard isn't a choice.

Eleven years ago, David's secret second family went missing. When his two lost children are finally found, he learns they suffered years of unthinkable abuse. Ready to make things right, David brings the kids home even though it could mean losing the wife he can’t imagine living without.

Keeping his life together becomes harder when the new children claim to be dark wizards. David believes they use this fantasy to cope with their trauma. Until, David's wife admits a secret of her own—she is a dark wizard too, as is David, and all of their children.

Now, David must parent two hurting children from a dark world he doesn’t understand and keep his family from falling apart. All while dealing with the realization that everyone he loves, including himself, may be evil.

WATCH ME BURN
David Vandergraff lost his home, his job, and contact with his oldest son, but remains determined to be a good husband and father despite being a dark winter wizard.

His resolve is tested when a flyer for a missing girl--who happens to be a summer witch--begins to haunt him. David believes a spell needs to use him to save her, so he follows the magic's command and looks into her disappearance. His teenage daughter Emmy resents him for caring so much about a random stranger. But when she uncovers some disturbing evidence close to home, she begins an investigation of her own.

David and Emmy quickly learn that the mystery is not only about a missing girl they barely know, but a deeply personal story that impacts everyone they care about. As their world crumbles, they fear the warning may be true—never mess with summer wizards, because the good guys always win.

ADD ON GOODREADS

PRE-ORDER ON AMAZON

And lastly, the GINORMOUS GIVEAWAY!

My good buddy, Andrew Buckley from Curiosity Quills put together a colossal Christmas giveaway. It's a chance to win one of 24 awesome books!

I'm helper elf, Twinkle Fluffenguff, offering POP TRAVEL and BROKEN BRANCH FALLS. Sharon, aka Giggles McJinglebell, has DESTRUCTION in it as well! Check it out!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

TO ALL!

AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Historical Romance Requires Endurance

Christmas is creeping (hmm, I might have to make that into a song!) I'm mostly ready... I find as I get older, I have less people to buy for. Yippee! And even though I was going to take December off from book events, I asked around and lucky me, I got to do a book signing at Half Price Books. They were awesome! I gave out some cookies and sold some books, it was great! Just goes to show, never hesitate to ask. And to top the night off, I brought some more Broken Branch Falls cookies to my neighborhood cookie exchange and won most creative cookies! Yay!


Now for the main feature.
I've been friends with Carrie Anne for a long time, you might say we are historic! (Sorry)

Carrie Anne writes historical romance, and her word count often triples or even quadruples mine! It's amazing! She is knowledgeable, descriptive, and romantic. Her scenes are picturesque and informative. In her latest novel, she blends historic Russia with emotional characters. Sometimes it's hard to find an audience, and don't we all know! But I'm pulling for her! And with that, I'll let her give you a fascinating "Behind the Book" post!

Sometime during my first major writing phase, I decided to have Lyuba fall in love with Ivan, her other best friend and the guy who’s stepped up to help to raise her daughter Tatyana after Boris abandoned her right before she went into labor.  Their latest romantic reunion in Chapter 7, “Lyuba’s Time of Troubles,” was originally written as the very first time they’d kissed or Lyuba had declared her romantic feelings.  Then I stumbled onto the idea of Lyuba having secretly been in love with Ivan since childhood.  Ivan no longer had an unrequited case of love for her.  During the second major phase of writing, I came up with the plot point of them having had a month-long clandestine romance which had ended right before the book started.

Lyuba and Ivan both became survivors of traumatic childhoods, with different types of abuse.  This did a lot to explain some of the behavior which hadn’t had any motivation or context, like Ivan’s volatile temper and why Lyuba doesn’t want to get married or have children.  They’re two wounded, scarred souls who instinctively understand one another.  They don’t know how to be normal, even though they know what normal is supposed to look like.  Their whole lives, abnormal has been normal, and Lyuba in particular doesn’t know how to make normal happen for herself.  She’s too used to being hurt and abused by men, and is scared of the thought of being forever with a nice guy who treats her with love and respect.

Lyuba’s former preference for Boris became a pretended preference, and I created the backstory about her mother having drilled into her the importance of marrying a man who can offer financial security and social status, even if he might be abusive or uncouth.  Over time, Boris became more and more of an antagonist, a far cry from the pretty decent guy he’d originally been written as.  Because of Lyuba’s psychological baggage, she lets their charade relationship continue and later goes back to him a number of times.  But all along, Ivan is always the only man in her heart.  She reminds me a lot of Scarlett O’Hara and Amber St. Clare.  They might appear bad on the surface, but when you take a deeper look, you understand what drives them and feel sympathy.

It was beautiful Divine Providence that I gave my female protagonist the name Amy, since the Russian equivalent is Lyubov, which literally means “love.”  It’s such a perfect, fitting name for a character who’s in desperate search of love and its healing power.  I also love the wordplay it creates in Russian when Ivan calls her “my love.”  Not only is she his love, but she’s also his Lyubov.

Had I been older than thirteen when I started the book all those years ago, I would’ve given my male protagonist anything but the most common male name in Russian history, but it really suits who he is.  He’s old-fashioned, solid, dependable, hard-working, with a quintessentially Russian soul. There’s also the frequent symbolic contrast between Ivan II, the Meek, and Tsar Ivan IV, Grozniy.  He was named for Tsar Ivan III, the Great (the first Russian ruler to call himself Tsar), yet he too often is either too meek or lets his volatile temper get the better of him, thanks to his traumatic childhood.

Available now at Amazon!