Supposed to

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Linda Andrews

Yesterday, I was supposed to write chapter 1 of my Valentine’s Day novel.

Instead, I read  A Done Deal by Jenna Bennett.

Today, I am supposed to write chapter 1 of my Valentine’s Day novel.

Instead, I’m taking my husband to see Sherlock Holmes then coming home and reading the new Bella Street novel.

Today, I was supposed to have a light breakfast.

Instead I made pumpkin, almond and chocolate chip muffins and ate two.

Today, I was supposed to write a holiday themed blog.

Instead, I decided to write about what I what I planned to do but wasn’t going to do.:-) Don’t think about it too hard. Your brain might explode.

Today, I was supposed to send out the last of my Christmas cards

Ha! I did that and I walked the dog, too! Took my daughter to school and ran through all my emails plus contacted the final judges for the contest I’m coordinating.   So there.

Now, I’m going to give myself the rest of the day off because I’m on a staycation! Drat. The sun is now up and I have to unplug the Christmas tree. Ah well, it’s rainy out so I should get to plug it in again soon. Now, I’ll just go round up the ornaments the cats have taken off the tree and hang them again!

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Mistletoe Madness Blog Hop

Posted on December 16, 2011 by Linda Andrews

Welcome to the Mistletoe Madness Blog Hop! What’s a blog hop? It’s a bunch of authors coming together to offer free books and other prizes.

I’ll be giving away two pdf copies of The Christmas Village.

 

And two pdf copies of Some Enchanted Autumn.

To enter, simply leave a comment about your favorite holiday. I’ll post the winners of the books here at the end of the blog hop along with instructions on collecting the prizes. It’s that simple.

Each of the participating authors is offering a prize on their website (you’ll have to check them out to find out what). And best of all, there’s a Grand Prize of a color Nook pre-loaded with over thirty books! The links to the individual give-aways are below. To enter, just hop on over to the author’s blog and follow their instructions for entering. For a chance at the Grand Prize, you’ll need to click here.

Here are the participating authors, with links to their give-aways:

This is a Blog Hop!

1.
3.
4.
10.
12.
21.
22.
30.
39.
40.

These are the books that will be loaded onto the Grand Prize:

A Brush of Darkness –Allison Pang (WINNER MUST DOWNLOAD THROUGH ADOBE DIGITAL EDITIONS)
A Hard Habit to Break – KC Kendricks
Angel in the Middle – Marie Dees
Betting on Hope – Kay Keppler
Blood of the Maple – Dana Marie Bell
Cry Wolf – Angela Campbell
Dearly Departed – Lia Habel
Entanglements – PR Mason
Eris – D. Renee Bagby
Golden – Joely Sue Burkhart
Grey’s Lady – Natasha Blackthorne
Her Dark Knight – Sharon Cullen
Hunting Kat – PJ Schnyder
Knight of Runes – Ruth A. Casie
Leading Her To Heaven – Kayleigh Jamison
Love on Cloud Nine – Linda Andrews
Lust on the Rocks – Dianne Venetta
Men of the Sea Anthology – Eliza Knight
Murdering Eve – Kelly Lee
Redaction  – Linda Andrews
Relearning the Ropes – DC Juris
Risking Trust – Adrienne Giordano
Shadows & Dust – Yvonne Nicolas
Sloane Wolf – Margay Leah Justice
Snowy Encounters – Clarissa Yip
Soul Catcher – Vivi Dumas
The Alchemist’s Perfect Instrument – AL Davroe
The Demon He Knows – RA Vaughn
The Fallen Queen – Jane Kindred
The Knife’s Edge – Stephanie Draven
Underdead – Liz Jasper
What Not To Fear – Robert C. Roman
White Hot Christmas: Santa’s Claws – Stephanie Burke

Good luck, and Happy Holidays!

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Christmas Elves

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Linda Andrews

One of my favorite Christmas movies is Santa Claus is coming to town. Aside from the Burgermeister Meisterburgers, I love how all the things associated with Christmas are explained. In the movie, a family of elven toymakers called the Kringles find a baby and name his Chris.

But where did elves get tied to the Santa Claus stories?

In the 1870’s Godey’s Ladies Journel showed the pointy-eared folks gathered around Santa making toys for Christmas. Just like the magazine had popularized the Christmas tree in the 1850’s, this single image attached the elves to Santa in Americans consciousness.

Except this wasn’t the first association of elves to Christmas.

Louisa May Alcott wrote an book called Christmas Elves in 1852 (it wasn’t published). And that famous poem The Night Before Christmas (really titled, A Visit from Saint Nicholas) referred to Santa as an elf in 1823.

Obviously, the elves themselves have been around in many Eurorean cultures for a lot longer than that but it was in the 1800’s that the Scandanavians were the first to associate them with the holiday.  Read more here.

Now I just have to figure out what a sugar plum fairy is and she came from.

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Where did Christmas Ornaments come from?

Posted on December 12, 2011 by Linda Andrews

Where did the tradition of Christmas ornaments come from? As I mentioned in my previous post, many of the original evergreens were decorated with fruit (particularly apples), nuts and metal. later, lights were added as was paper streamers representing angel hair.

Gradually, cookies cut into shapes-stars, bells and fruit-were added.  As the popularity of Christmas trees spread, different nationalities added their own decorations. Americans added strings of cranberries and popcorn while the British used  lace and paper and scraps cut out of magazines that reflected their interests.

During the 1800’s in the area of Lauscha, Germany known for glassblowing, entrepreneurs made ornaments strictly for Christmas. They originally designed them to look like fruit but soon imitated the cookie shapes. The addition of color made them particularly attractive.

Demand for the ornaments grew and other designs were added. In The 1880’s Woolworths began importing them to the US.

In cities near Lauscha, noteably Dresden, they produced pressed and embossed paper ornaments of animals. Others made brightly colored ornamentsoaf pressed tin or shredded it into tinsel.

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O’ Christmas Tree

Posted on December 9, 2011 by Linda Andrews

O’ Christmas tree, O’ Christmas tree where did the tradition come from?  See song lyrics. The vast majority of American homes will have a Christmas tree this year. The funny thing is, the actual origins of the tree itself is somewhat murky.

The Egyptians used evergreens to decorate their houses during the winter solstice. For them and many other civilizations, evergreens like pines and mistletoe represented life’s triumph over death. The Romans used evergreens to celebrate the feast of Saturnalia (in December) and decorated them with metal. Likewise the Druids used evergreens clippings. None of the ‘pagan’ cultures cut down the whole tree as it would have been destructive. Read more

The Early Christian churches hated the Christmas tree (and some still do today). But legend has it that in Germany Saint Boniface came across a group of people worshipping an oak tree. In a rage, he cut the tree down but from its roots sprang a fir tree. It wasn’t until the 16th Century that the trees were actually brought indoors. Read More

Of course, this isn’t the only legend that traces the tree’s Germanic origins to the 1500s. Some say that Martin Luther cut down a fir tree, brought it inside and decorated it with lights (to mimic the heavens) in order to teach his children the story of Christ’s birth. These early trees were decorated with gold, Communion wafers, foil, apples, dolls and sweets. Read More

Most scholars agree that it is German immigrants that brought the tree to the American Colonies. Some believe that it occurred in the 1600s; others that the Hessian soldiers brought it to the US during the Revolutionary War. The practice did not spread across the US until the 1850’s, coinciding with the first commercial Christmas trees for sale in 1851. Oddly enough, commercial tree lots themselves didn’t start until the depression (1930’s).

Back to the trees origins.

And last but not least is an obscure legend that associates the Christmas tree as being a derivation of the Paradise trees used in the ‘mystery plays’ or ‘Paradise plays’. Dating from the 11th Century, these plays depicted the story of Adam and Eve, their sin and their banishment from Paradise. The tree was the only prop on the stage and it was decorated with apples–ie the fruit of sin, but the tree stood for life (Peter refers to the Jesus being crucified on a tree). However, the church forbad these plays during the 15th century. But the people would not be denied and on December 24th (the feast of Adam and Eve), they would set up their own trees in their houses and decorate it with apples (sin) and homemade wafers (life). Read More

Now, I’m off to buy my Christmas tree!

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A Witness to Pearl Harbor

Posted on December 7, 2011 by Linda Andrews

My great uncle was there the day Pearl Harbor was bombed. This is his story in his own words.

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Mistletoe, kissing and Christmas

Posted on December 5, 2011 by Linda Andrews

Have you ever wondered how some holiday traditions got started? I know starting out that many will date back to Europe and most will have their roots deep in ancient beliefs.

The association between mistletoe and Christmas is no exception. And just like many things in America, the practice draws upon many cultures.

First there were the Greeks. Who believed in the mystical powers of mistletoe. You see, all across Europe, the oak was worshiped and mistletoe grew on the oak. Better yet, when the might oak dropped its leaves, the mistletoe clinging to it remained green. Thus it was assumed it had absorbed some of the oak’s power. This power was lost if it touched the ground. But it was assumed to cure many diseases, cure fertility.

Fast forward to the Celts, who would cut mistletoe on both the summer and winter solstice. The mistletoe clinging to the oak was the most sought after but I guess any would do in a pinch. Again, there was a belief in fertility as well as other medicinal benefits. Furthermore, mistletoe was so venerated that if soldiers encountered it in the woods, they would stop their fighting.

Over time, mistletoe’s magic properties extended to protection against witchcraft, evil and fire.

But where did the kissing come in?

We find a glimmer of the answer in the Norse cultures. Frigga (Goddess of Love) so loved her son Balder (God of the Summer Sun). According legend, Loki tricked the God of winter into killing Balder with an arrow made of mistletoe. Frigga was able to bring him back but that her tears became the white berries on the mistletoe and that she kisses everyone who passes underneath in honor of her joy.

Originally the custom seemed to have been that when a kiss was exchanged under the mistletoe, a berry had to be plucked from the sprig. And when the berries ran out, so too did the kissing. Apparently, the tradition is dying out and I’ve never hung mistletoe during the holidays, but maybe I’ll pick up a bag this year.

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The Book and Cook Blog Hop Tour: Grandma’s Cookies

Posted on December 3, 2011 by Linda Andrews

I’m participating in the Book and Cook Blog Hop Tour.

I tend to eat so many of these sugar cookies that I only make them at Christmas time. Enjoy!

Grandma’s Cookies

2 cups Vegetable shortening
3 cups sugar
2 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon nutmeg
8 cups flour
2 cups buttermilk

Mix all ingredients together. Drop from spoon onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes.

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Book Lovers Buffet

Posted on December 2, 2011 by Linda Andrews

I’m participating in a 99 cent ebook sale with a bunch of other authors. Some of their books are below. NOTE: The Baby Race isn’t part of the sale.

Lutus is a hunter and leader, slowly watching his people die. Shah-een is a plant gatherer, hoping to reseed her dying world. Each offers the other a solution to their problems, but others’ self-interest might destroy everyone.

The Catch is a short story that packs a lot of punch. With the talent of a master, Ms Lee crams a lot of world building in a small space. Both Lutus and Shah-een are caring sentients that are fighting to save their families. But they’re not using weapons, they’re using compassion and cooperation–a truly unique twist indeed.

If you’re looking for a quick break, I’d recommend The Catch!

A year ago, Gellen gambled on a man to get her what she’s always wanted. Now, she finds herself hunted by the very man and about to be sold. Her only hope lies with those she betrayed last year. Perran Roan is hiding his true mission behind friendship and he’s about to meet the woman who’s fascinated him for the last year–Gellen. Can he allow her to be used as bait and when all is said, who will have been lured into a trap?

The Lure is the second short story in the series and once again Ms. Lee’s world building skills sparkle (and so do some of her characters). Both characters are well developed and there are several unexpected twists.

If you’re looking for a way to spend a pleasant lunch hour, The Lure is sure to hook you.

Thanks to her wandering parents, Claire Jenkins never knew a permanent home. Now that her parents are dead, she’s determined to make sure her half-sister doesn’t endure the same fate. But her bid for custody may be short-lived unless she marries the grandson of the town’s most powerful matriarch. Abused and neglected as a child, Race Reed rehabilitates mistreated animals and places them in loving homes. That dream is coming to an end if he can’t make his mortgage. His grandmother offers him a monetary windfall if he marries and has a son before his cousins.

But what starts out as a marriage of convenience quickly becomes complicated.

Will they remain safe in their cage of protectiveness or take a chance on love?

The Baby Race is a poignant retelling of a classic theme. Ms Hendricks does a wonderful job of slowly unveiling Race’s scars and deepest desires. Trusting and naive, Claire is an excellent foil for Race’s darker past. While the heat between the two is sometimes scorching, it is the little moments of caring and respect that make The Baby Race a true romance that will last through the ages.

amazon

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The Story Fairy is Scheduled to Return

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Linda Andrews

As November draws to a close, so does my reading time. I still have a few books left to read before I begin writing, but already I can feel the gears shifting in my head from being a reader to being a writer. While I enjoy each book, there’s a part of my brain analyzing it and picking it apart.

I hate that.

I just want to read, like I did before I started writing. So I stomp the thought down and then I begin to wonder if I’m sabotaging my own writing. That one day, my creative self with have a tiff and no longer talk to me.

That someone will capture my story fairy while he’s on vacation, clip his wings and stuff in him a cage so that he’ll feed them stories and ignore me. Kinda obvious that I have a rather big imagination, isn’t it?

I know enough about my story fairy to know that he won’t desert me and that’s he’s clever enough to slip through any trap another writer might set.

But still, I’ve taken a month off of writing and two off of creating (Edits for one month) so I am concerned that I’ve lost my mojo. And then I feel it. That strum of fingers across the folds in my brain and the sparks of glitter marking the birth of characters. You see, I’ve submitted a thought to my story fairy. I want one short story and one long story that are related and already he is back at work, or at least checking his email.

And while, my story fairy and I have a hard time thinking small and simple, there’s a shimmer in my gut that says, this time we’re going on an outstanding adventure.

8 more days.

Christmas will come early this year!

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