Get Ready for Christmas in July!

Hi, writer friends!

Over at fantasybookgiveaways.blogspot.com, we're amping up for our Christmas in July promo event. We're opening it up to all sub-genres of romance, not just fantasy, so MORE books for everyone! Magical, just like Christmas :)

As usual, this is FREE for authors, so sign up here if you're interested.

World Hunger Fundraiser Through Christmas!!

So, those of you that saw my post on 11/11 knew this was coming. I released Black Magic and Mojitos on Smashwords for free for the first two weeks (through TG). Now comes the second phase of my end-of-year shebang - ALL proceeds through Christmas go to support Heifer International in fighting world hunger!

Heifer is a unique sustainable project that teaches people small business skills using animals so that they never go hungry again. They also require families to pass on the livestock their animal has to other families in need, so there's this great ripple effect in the impact of their programs. Visit their website to learn more.

I'm hoping to raise $500 to buy a heifer cow for a family. You can buy "shares" of an animal at much lower costs, and I've donated to this charity each year for about a decade now, but never bought a whole heifer. That'd be pretty rad, so please help me spread the word! Fun books for you + money to fight world hunger + all of us feeling good. A win-win for everyone.

You can buy Black Magic and Mojitos for 99 cents on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords. After Christmas, I'll post an update on how things went!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I spent the week in Asheville, NC (a few pics below). How was your TG? As usual, I'm SO grateful for this lovely writing community, and very excited for a rockin' holiday season! 

 

 

Editing Galore at the End of the World

We're all still alive! And I'm so very happy, because I've got some major editing to do. Some of you who saw my guest post over at The Unpublished Writer's Guide to Survival know that I entered Pitch Wars, right on the tail of Write Club. I actually entered on a whim, just a bit before the contest window closed. It works kind of like The Voice on TV, where a group of agented mentors picks mentees and they prepare together for an agent panel at the end of January. Well, I applied to the lovely Heidi Schulz and she chose me!! Holy crap, right?

Heidi read through the whole manuscript of Everdream and provided a super kick-ass critique, and now I'm editing my happy little writerly buns off! It's good timing, too, because I have the next eleven days off work. So, the world keeps spinning, I keep editing, and I'll jump into the new year with a much stronger book.

That said, I probably won't post here for a couple weeks. I do pop on Twitter once every day or two though, so you can catch me there. I hope everyone has a beautiful, magical, completely rad Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or Solstice and/or New Year and anything else you celebrate at this time of year!! I love all my writer friends and I can't wait to hear what everyone is working on in 2013. And just for funsies, here's a picture of Mr. Fox helping me wrap presents:

Be Jolly By Golly Blogfest!

Happy holidays writer friends! I hope you have all had a good week. Mine has been a very busy week of holiday parties and many dashings about trying to get all of my shopping done.  Not quite finished, but hopefully I will be soon. 

So, this is my first blogfest! I am super excited. Thanks Jen and Melissa for the great idea. All of the participants were asked to provide a Christmas recipe and also pics of their Christmas tree. Check out Jen and Melissa's blogs to see the other cool participants!

I searched for some Christmas drink recipes, and couldn't find any that I really liked, though I did find some ridiculously awesome names.  Can I interest anyone in a Christmas Elf's Revenge, Sex Under the Christmas Tree, or Christmas Nipple?  I decided I wanted a red drink (of course) and I like fruity martini type things, and then I got really pie-in-the-sky and wondered if there was some cool drink out there named for writers.  Well, I didn't find one, so I made one up.  Here it is:

The Writer's Christmas Stress Reliever

Ingredients:

- 2 ounces Absolut Vanilla

- 2 ounces cherry syrup
- 2 ounces pomegranate juice

- Spritz of lime
- Fresh raspberries to garnish


Directions:


- Mix all liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice
- Shake
- Pour into a fabulous martini glass
- Throw a bunch of raspberries in
- Drink and relax

Now, here are pics of my Christmas tree.  I must confess that these were from last year, but my camera has been on the fritz and I haven't taken pics yet this year. Thus, my beautiful Tangerine kitty is in this picture. He died earlier this year so we will miss him this Christmas. Mocha the very cooperative pony is also starring in my pics.

So, I also went a little OC on Google images last night because I wanted to find more cool pics to include. But, what's Christmas if things don't get a little over the top? To me, Christmas is about the magic. Not only is the whole Santa thing terrific and fantastical, but it's the one time of year when everyone really comes together and tries harder to get along and think of other people.  The whole season is infused with specialness. So, my pics are all about the wonder of the holidays. Starting with castles, naturally.

**Photos removed since peeps have been getting sued for posting photos on blogs**

 

I will not post again til after Christmas, but I will be visiting everyone's blogs!! Have a lovely and awesome holiday, blog friends! Drink lots of eggnog! Eat lots of yummy food! Give and gets lots of presents! Be thankful you can do all these things! Feel the magic!