Hallow-Thanks-Mas

I was in our local WalMart the other day and wouldn't you know they're already stocked for Christmas? And Halloween, and Thanksgiving. I'm one of those "one holiday at a time" kind of people.

With that being said, I've been working on a "Hallmark-type" story that I want to share for Christmas, so I suppose I've been skipping holidays myself. I'm pleased to announce the story is queued up and ready to go. More details in my next newsletter (are you subscribed?). There's a fun little reference in the story to marzipan pigs, which confection I saw at the Christkindlmarkt one year. Of course, they also had marzipan angels and reindeer, but pigs? Too fun to ignore. 

More in keeping with THIS holiday, while I've been out and about I've seen numerous decorations for Halloween, which I have been documenting on my Instagram page (do you follow me there?) I went to the doctor's office last week to get my flu shot and even THEY were decorated, including "Welcome My Pretties" and "Laboratory" signs on their lab. They also had a witch's hat and shawl positioned over one of the chairs.

Which (witch?) reminds me, my new novel will be coming soon! {wink wink}

It's that time of year

Welcome to December.

Christmas is coming early for me this year, so I've been getting into the spirit by listening to Christmas carols and watching Christmas movies. Generally, I only get the "second-rate" Hallmark channels, the also-ran movies that are less interesting and trite and poorly acted... I've been very disappointed in most of those, but Hallmark, in it's holiday spirit, unblocks their channel for a couple of weeks every year at Christmas, so I've actually been seeing their "Gold" movies, and I have to say I've enjoyed the ones I've seen.

Christmas cookie baking day isn't for another week, but I'm already thumbing through my recipes looking for which ones I want to make, and I've decided to share my favorites - my goal is one a day on Facebook and on Twitter until Christmas, so if you need ideas, check it out. Or you can check out all my favorites on Pinterest.

A | BN | iB | K

But wait. There's more! I have a release date for Epitaph 4, THE ARCHITECT - January 2. This is Kathleen's story, and I had a ton of fun writing her. It is available for pre-order, so feel free to go ahead and buy it so you don't forget, and tell all your friends! Links to your favorite outlets are beneath the cover.

It's that time of year ...

Yes, it's closing in on Christmas. Yes, I've loaded up my listening devices with Christmas music (I change the playlists after), and yes, I've been watching Christmas movies. I know, I'm annoying. A lot of this is facilitated by the fact that I've been ill, so I've been holed up with nothing else to do. You know how it goes. Winter breeds germs, family gatherings mean sharing them (no worries, I'm nearly better, now). I have yet to bring out the decorations.

One of the things that has been amazing me this year is that my dear husband has been giving me complete control over the remote. The man who HATES Christmas movies (and we've seen some lulus). I keep asking him if he's okay, or if he thinks I'm dying, or why he's watching this drivel with me. The man who, when the family plays Christmas trivia and I know all the answers asks, "Why do you know that?" (not "how" mind you, but "why"). So yes, I've been taking the opportunity to see "new" movies, but the quality has dropped so low, that I can hardly watch them, let alone subject the saint of a man who suffers through them beside me.

Or maybe it's because he doesn't want to watch my old standbys. I have a collection of DVDs that are "my favorites" that I've seen a million times (only a slight exaggeration). He's not one to watch a movie a second time. "I've already seen it." Which brings me to the question du jour. Do you have a favorite Christmas movie?