My Favorite Christmas Memory

Growing up, we always celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve. My parents didn't like getting up early, and they didn't want all the pictures to be of us in our pajamas! Actually, it worked out well so we could visit our grandparents on Christmas Day.

So, my mom used to dress me and my sister up in pretty Christmas dresses, bundle us up, and my dad would take us out for a Christmas Eve walk down our street to look for Santa. While he took us out, my mom would scurry around and take out all the presents and lay them out underneath the tree. When we got back she say, "You just missed him!"

At the sight of all the presents under the tree, we wouldn't care! Some presents would be addressed from "mom and dad", and some, the really special ones, would be from "Santa."

I actually felt lucky that Santa always visited our house first, and then some people had to wait all the way until morning to get their presents. He was much better than the mail man, who always came to our street at the end of the day.

As we got older, I kind of caught on to their tactics, but I kept playing along for my younger sister's benefit, and also because I still had fun on that nightly Santa walk.

What's your favorite Christmas tradition or memory?

Happy 4th of July!

Credit for Picture

This weekend I hope to:

*go to the movies

*go see fireworks

*bring my WIP (Colonization) from 20k to 23k

How about you? Any plans for the 4th?

Happy Father's Day

Credit for image.

My dad met my mom in college and they got married after they graduated, bought a house, and had four kids. He worked as a Manager in a manufacturing company until he was laid off, and then as a dispatcher for a trucking company for many years before going into sales. Now he's the happiest I've ever seen him working in the garden center at Home Depot.

I'd like to thank my dad for:

1. Taking me to all my flute lessons and sitting through my boring orchestra concerts!

2. Reading my first fantasy novel and letting me know that guy characters would be a good thing to add.

3. Working all of those overtime hours to make sure me and my sister had enough My Little Ponies at Christmas.

4. Teaching me to say thank you and be kind to others.

5. Helping me put events in my life in perspective. (He majored in business and philosophy.)

6. For teaching me a great work ethic.


What would you like to thank your dad for?

Happy Memorial Day!

I hope everyone has a safe, fun, and relaxing Memorial Day. Does anyone have a relative that has served in a war?

The Things I Admire in my Mom

Meet my ultimate critique partner and my beta reader: my mom. She's not afraid to tell me if she doesn't like something about my writing, and she always makes it better in the end.

This is my mom at one of my concerts. My dad is on the left, and my sister (who is going to be a mom) and her husband are on the right.

Things I admire about my mom:

1. Her love for her children
My mom has always wanted to be a mom. That is her purpose in life and she loves it! She always put us four kids above her own career, and stayed home to be with all four of us growing up.

2. Her positive outlook on life.
She always cheers me up after I talk to her on the phone. She makes me realize how much I have instead of how much I want to have.

3. Her love of birthday parties.
We celebrate everyone's birthday in my family with a ginormous party where the whole family gathers and eats and opens presents.

4. Her artwork.
My mom majored in Art at Plymouth State University and she drew the map for me for my epic fantasy, The Voices of Ire.


5. Her warm and caring nature
She loves to hug and is always there for me. She's never afraid to tell all of us children how much she loves us and how much she misses us being around.

Happy Mother's Day Everyone!

What do you admire about your mom?

Happy New Year!

I want to hear everyone's New Year's resolutions!

I've come up with some of mine:

1. learn to cook more interesting/healthy vegetarian dishes. (And I'm starting off today with garlic ginger tofu and Fire and Ice Pasta-two recipes I found on Allrecipes.com. Desert will be honey baked apples with fresh cranberries.)

2. Keep submitting to agents. It's so easy to stick to my ebook companies and write for them, but I should always reach higher, even if the rejections sting.

3. Read and review more books. I'd like to build up my book review blog. So if anyone out there wants me to review their book, please leave a comment below.

4. Try to get better at small talk! I like to stick to the point, but that doesn't always go over well. I need to find a way to talk to people about nothing in particular and keep conversation without bringing up fiery topics.

Now, what are yours???

Wal-Mart was Crazy!

Oh my goodness, I just returned from Wal-Mart and it was a MAD HOUSE! I'd done all my christmas shopping way before Christmas and then today I realized that I'd forgotten to buy something for my sister's dog, Faye. The entire parking lot was full, never mind the strange car parade of people wearing santa hats and shouting out Merry Christmas blocking the way in and out. Frosty stood on the back of a pick up truck, and all the people surrouding the Santa ringing a bell clogged the front of the store... And this all happened before I even went in.

People raced with shopping carts, I was almost hit twice, and all the fuzzy socks were gone. Entire displays were empty, and the cashiers were not in a good mood. But they did have dog bones, nice ones in fact. Phew!

Anyways, my short story, Darken, is out in the "Winter Solstice" Fantasy and Sci Fi Edition of Emerald Tales.




Their next theme is Carnival, if anyone is interested in writing a story for them. I'm going to pass on this theme because I have a whole series of carnival stories coming out with Gypsy Shadow Publishing, and I think I'd go crazy if I had to write one more.

Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

This is my dog, Jedi with his new candy cane dog treats. He's pretty excited about the holidays because I'm home more to take him outside and spend time with him. He's a wire haired miniature doxen (There are three kinds: smooth, long, and wire) and that's why he has whiskers! Named after the "Jedi Knights", he's an excellent guard dog. ( Until people see how big he really is). But, oh well.

I'm excited about the holidays because I've bought so many special presents for my family and I can't wait to see their faces when they open them! We're doing a Christmas sing a long and are going to have the traditional Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. (Vegetarian, of course) My brother is getting married to his long time girlfriend from high school on New Years Eve!!! They are having a small ceremony in their barn with poinsettas and birch bark as decorations.

I'm also excited to get a bunch of books that I've requested including:

The Boneshaker

Me and Mr. Darcy

Under the Dome

What did you ask for this holdiay???

Halloween

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays! I love spooky movies and dressing up in costumes. Just for fun, I'd like to hear everyone's most embarrassing/cutest/silliest costumes that you wore growing up. My favorite costume, by far, was a princess, least favorite: witch. As for most embarrassing, I'd have to say the lion jumper suit that my mom made for me and my sister one year. Maybe it was cute, but I'd never post that picture on here!