Favorite Holiday Memory Blog Hop: ELAINE KAYE #NewRelease

It's so much fun to participate in Elaine Kaye's Favorite Holiday Memory Blog Hop. Elaine has been here before, and so has her daughter Chrys Fey. Welcome back, Elaine.

Blog Hop Question: What is your favorite holiday memory?

My favorite memory is the Christmas I was ten. Leading up to the actual day, I was convinced we were getting a puppy. Christmas Eve, as my sibs and I were supposed to be sleeping, I heard that puppy whining. I was so excited I don't think I slept. When we were finally allowed to get up to open our gifts, I raced around the tree searching for the box with the puppy in it. My brothers were tearing into their gifts, my sister opened hers with more finesse. 

I finally opened my gift. It was not a puppy. Instead, I got a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye camera. 

credit: Wikipedia

Needless to say, I was disappointed. I'm sure my mom must have seen my reaction and that makes me sad. Looking back, that camera was an amazing gift. It started me on my life-long love of photography. I've had many cameras since, but that Hawkeye was the beginning. Better than a puppy. (Not really. 😊 )

Now let's learn about Elaine Kaye's new book.

New Picture Book Release from Elaine Kaye:

BLURB: On Christmas Eve, Gregory and Sammy get a special visitor—Santa Claus! Santa brings them on a once-in-a-lifetime adventure around the world and to the North Pole. Bundle up and come along for the ride!

General Age Range - Kids 4-8 (Story Picture Book)

Book Links:

Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Smashwords / Goodreads

PLUS, A FREEBIE!

Get Pea Soup Disaster now!

Kindle / Nook / Kobo

About the Author: Elaine Kaye is the author of A Gregory Green Adventure series. She created Gregory Green after her son, who loved her homemade pea soup.

Kaye has worked as a library assistant and teacher's assistant in elementary schools. She currently lives in Florida, but has called Michigan; Honolulu, Hawaii; and Okinawa, Japan home.

Website / Goodreads / Amazon / Instagram / Facebook

Hop around to the other blogs participating:

#WeWriWa - MISSION TO NEW EARTH: Sleeping Like a Baby

Each weekend the Weekend Writing Warriors share an 8 - 10 sentence snippet. Be sure to visit the other authors. You can find them here.

I'm sharing snippets from my science fiction romance, Mission to New Earth. Three teams are about to launch from Titan (Saturn's moon) beyond our solar system on Christmas Day. The mission: to colonize 3 new planets. The narrator, Sara Grenard, is one team's leader. This snippet begins after the celebration (last week).

Please excuse the creative punctuation, necessary to keep this within the guidelines. It's also edited some from the original.

Marsh sprawled beside me. As usual, he took up three-quarters of the bed—all relaxed, snoring loud enough to wake the dead, the hard planes of his face softened in sleep. He slept like he didn’t have a care in the world, as if he wasn’t going to be crammed into a tube tomorrow and turned into a humongous ice cube for three years.

I, on the other hand, hadn’t even closed my eyes since we turned out the lights—fear slithered through my consciousness, FEAR in capital letters. Despite all the simulations, despite the training, even though I calmly accepted our mission, I was terrified.

Too late to back out now, as if I would.

Excitement and wonder pushed down the fear. I reminded myself that out of the hundreds of thousands of applicants, I was chosen to lead our team on the adventure of a lifetime.

That the people of Earth depended on us.

Earth’s overpopulation and dwindling resources force the United Earth Space Agency to expedite exploration of new planets for a possible new home. When new crises ensue—a giant tsunami and the threat of nuclear winter—the timeline changes. Eight years of training crammed into four. Sara Grenard and her team prepare for launch, but are they ready for the one-way trip? Will the Goldilocks planet prove just right for Earth’s inhabitants? Before time runs out.

Amazon ~ Amazon UK ~ Kobo ~ iTunes ~ B&N ~ Smashwords

Be sure to check out the other WeWriWa authors. 

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year.

#WeWriWa - MISSION TO NEW EARTH: Friendly Rivalry

Each weekend the Weekend Writing Warriors share an 8 - 10 sentence snippet. Be sure to visit the other authors. You can find them here.

I'm sharing snippets from my science fiction romance, Mission to New Earth. Three teams are about to launch from Titan (Saturn's moon) beyond our solar system on Christmas Day. The mission: to colonize 3 new planets. The narrator, Sara Grenard, is one team's leader. 

Please excuse the creative punctuation, necessary to keep this within the guidelines. It's also edited some from the original.

         On the evening before our last Christmas in civilization, we celebrated with the other teams, a party that combined Earth’s December celebrations with decorations from Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Mawlid an-Nabī, Dhanu Sankranti, Bodhi Day, even Omisoka because none of us would be here for New Year’s Eve, and the secular symbols made sure those who didn’t follow a religion weren’t left out.

I watched my team, as well as the other two, eighteen of us who were to embark on an epic journey—the laughter was a little too loud, the gaiety forced, not aided by alcohol that we couldn’t have—we mingled, chatted about irrelevant topics, but none of us broached the crises on Earth, or our responsibility to save the people.

Yuri and Kaito cornered me near a viewport.

“What do you think, Sara-san?” Kaito’s black eyes twinkled, “Does your team have the Right Stuff?”

I chuckled, “You bet—and yours?”

“But of course.”

Yuri’s belly laugh made me smile, “Neither of you have as great a team as I. We will reach our new home first, even if Sara has a head start.”

“Whoa, my planet is farthest away.”

“Yours is closest, Yuri,” Kaito said, “It is only fair you go last.”

“That means we will get there first,” Yuri smirked.

Earth’s overpopulation and dwindling resources force the United Earth Space Agency to expedite exploration of new planets for a possible new home. When new crises ensue—a giant tsunami and the threat of nuclear winter—the timeline changes. Eight years of training crammed into four. Sara Grenard and her team prepare for launch, but are they ready for the one-way trip? Will the Goldilocks planet prove just right for Earth’s inhabitants? Before time runs out.

Amazon ~ Amazon UK ~ Kobo ~ iTunes ~ B&N ~ Smashwords

Be sure to check out the other WeWriWa authors. 

Wishing you all a very happy Christmas and holiday season.

#WeWriWa - MISSION TO NEW EARTH: Are They Ready? #sfr

The Weekend Writing Warriors share an 8 - 10 sentence snippet. Be sure to visit the other authors. You can find them here.

I'm changing gears for the next couple of weeks by sharing snippets from my science fiction romance, Mission to New Earth. Three teams are about to launch from Titan (Saturn's moon) beyond our solar system on Christmas Day. The mission: to colonize 3 new planets. The narrator, Sara Grenard, is one team's leader. 

Please excuse the creative punctuation, necessary to keep this within the guidelines. It's also edited some from the original.

We were about to leave on an adventure of a lifetime. Giddiness raced through me and with it the ever-present trepidation. Were we prepared for all eventualities? What if—

I had to stop speculating on the dangers of our mission.

Speeding down the corridor, I passed holiday decorations. The festive trimmings brightened the gray walls. I hoped the modules deposited on Serenity had a better paint job. Serenity—our hope for the future of our new planet. After screwing up Earth, humankind had the chance to do it right this time.

Earth’s overpopulation and dwindling resources force the United Earth Space Agency to expedite exploration of new planets for a possible new home. When new crises ensue—a giant tsunami and the threat of nuclear winter—the timeline changes. Eight years of training crammed into four. Sara Grenard and her team prepare for launch, but are they ready for the one-way trip? Will the Goldilocks planet prove just right for Earth’s inhabitants? Before time runs out.

Amazon ~ Amazon UK ~ Kobo ~ iTunes ~ B&N ~ Smashwords

Be sure to check out the other WeWriWa authors. 

Merry Christmas!

For the first time in over twenty years, my whole family is celebrating Christmas together. I am so blessed.

Thank you, dear readers, for all your support this year. I hope you and your family have a great Christmas. 

Tomorrow, my annual holiday short story will be up on The Roses of Prose. If you've read my Alex O'Hara novels, you'll recognize the locale and some of the characters.

https://rosesofprose.blogspot.com/2017/12/a-miracle-in-far-haven-by-diane-burton.html

I hope you enjoy the story.

Star Wars, Christmas Program, & Friends

The title of this post was our weekend. Busy and fun. We met friends for lunch on Saturday, finally getting together in over a year. I can’t believe it’s been so long. The good/bad aspect of retirement is we have time. Time to travel, to play with/visit grandchildren, to write, to do all kinds of things. We would agree that “we have to get together” then not set a date. I’m ashamed that I didn’t. My vow for 2018 is not to neglect my friends.

Our granddaughter (10-year-old) is a dancer. Saying she loves to dance is an understatement. Her enthusiasm is evidenced by her big smiles as she dances on stage. This weekend was the holiday program by her dance studio. In years past, they performed “The Nutcracker.” This year they combined dance numbers with little skits. We saw another side of our g’daughter. An actress. In one scene, she scolded some children. She explained later that she was channeling her mother scolding her brother. Very effective. Proud grandmother here.

Yesterday, we saw Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi. Nothing is more fun than watching a movie with fans—daughter, son-in-law, g’daughter, and grandson (almost 8). Did you know that fan is a shortened word for fanatic? Oh, yeah. We are a family of Star Wars fans. I’d heard raves about this episode. Even if it had met with disgruntled reviews like Episode VII, I still would have gone and enjoyed. Without spoilers, I'll say this movie had several surprises, cliffhanging scenes, and great lightsaber fights interspersed with humorous one-liners. The most poignant, though, was seeing Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) and knowing she was gone.

After the movie, we went to dinner and talked and talked about the movie. G’son, who never sits still unless he’s playing with Legos, didn’t move during the movie. He barely ate any popcorn, and then only before the movie began. He sat next to me, transfixed by the action. During dinner, he bounced on the bench in his excitement to talk. I knew he’d read several Star Wars books and watched the TV shows. I didn’t realize how knowledgeable he’d become. Wow. Not sure I want to play Star Wars Trivial Pursuit against him. SIL is very observant. He mentioned things I totally missed. Not unusual for me. I focus so intently on the main action that I often miss what’s happening (or is shown) off to the sides. I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that I have to watch a movie a couple of times before I catch everything. (side note: I had to watch Inception five times before I got it all. I think.)

I love discussing movies. Books, too. One of the reasons I belong to a book group is to get others’ take on what we’ve read. It’s so much fun to delve into the reason behind a scene or subtle hints with others.

The holidays are upon us. No surprise there. Our grandkids had a snow day last week, the day we were babysitting Toddler Girl. The three cousins helped decorate. (With releasing Romance Rekindled, I’m still so behind.) The older two had fun standing on the kitchen counters to put my nutcracker collection on top of the cabinets. TG helped by handing them up to the older ones. She was fascinated by the stackers I only put out at Christmas time. (She’s played with the plastic Star Wars set that I keep out all year.) Between the three, our house is about half decorated. TG is coming over today. Maybe she can help put ornaments on the tree. LOL Thank goodness, the tree has lights or it would look very bare. Where does the time go?

My New Release Alert (newsletter) went out last week. Did you get your copy? Be sure to sign up so you don’t miss getting it. You get a free short story when you sign up. Use the signup in the top right corner above.

Here’s the link to read the latest. http://mailchi.mp/97b6c4bfa19c/a-new-release

I hope you and your family enjoy the holidays. 

Post Christmas

I hope you all had a great weekend. My family did.. One of the great things about moving to Michigan's west coast is being close to our daughter and her family. On Saturday, we went to the children's service at their church. I love how the pastor drew in the children and made them part of the Christmas story.

Even though we live twenty minutes away, we stayed overnight so we could watch the kiddies open their gifts. I love how our daughter and her husband allow the kids to examine/play with a gift as long as they want before opening another gift. It sort of drives me crazy because I want them to hurry up and open our gifts. LOL

Christmas means so much more than gifts, as our son-in-law emphasized in his blessing at meals on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I'm so proud of what he and our daughter are teaching their children. The real meaning of Christmas--celebrating the birth of our Savior.

As many of you know, I'm a contributor to The Roses of Prose blog. Each December, we present serialized short stories. My story starts today with The Mistletoe Kiss. I hope you'll stop by and, if you enjoy the story, leave a comment.

Thanks for being such faithful readers.

PS My mother made the ceramic nativity set shown above. Each year, when I put it up, I think of her and all the work she put into making the set.

Happy Holidays!

Wishing everyone the happiest holiday!

Happy Hanukkah

Wishing you peace and joy.

Holidays, Vacations, and Trouble

What do holidays and vacations have in common? Among other things, rushing around ahead of time. Instead of happily anticipating a vacation, we run around making sure we have everything we need or must do ahead of time—buy miniature toiletries and new clothes, cancel the newspaper, stop the mail, etc., etc., etc.

Christmas should be a time of joy and remembrance of the reason to celebrate. Instead, we are consumed by what we have to do. We have to buy presents for our loved ones—oh, and don’t forget that gift for the office exchange. We have to bake cookies. We have to clean. We have to decorate our houses. We have to send out cards. We drive ourselves crazy trying to remember what we’ve forgotten.

Along with all that rushing around comes trouble. Several years ago, while thinking about what I still needed to do before a vacation, I didn’t see a curb, tripped, and fell to my knees on the sidewalk. Ouch. That shook me up enough to make me slow down. In anticipation of driving to our sister’s for Christmas one year, my other sister hurriedly walked her dog, slipped on ice, and broke her wrist. People have car accidents because they’re thinking about something else and not paying attention.

There’s the crux of the problem. Not paying attention. You would think that after falling (or nearly falling) I would be more careful. I am. Usually. With the first big (no, make that BIG) snow of the season, I’m cautious as I walk outside. No rushing for me. So what did I do? I tripped in my own house over something I should have put away and slammed into a curio cabinet. I didn’t fall, thank goodness, but my upper arm sports a huge bruise.

From the above anecdotes, you might think what a klutz. And you’d be right. I was never graceful, even in my younger days. Although I try to be more cautious, I don’t always pay attention—like the time a couple of us left book group, talking, and I missed a step and landed on my hip. Good thing I have lots of padding there.  LOL

My advice—to you and, especially to myself—is to slow down. And all those things that you have to do? The world will not come to an end if you don’t do them. Don’t stress over what you haven’t done. Relax. Enjoy the season. Don’t get so wrapped up in the rush. Be careful. Remember why we celebrate. 

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays

These last few days before Christmas can be rushed or relaxed, crazy or comfortable. However you spend them, try to enjoy the time. The picture above is of the ceramic nativity set my grandmother made back in the late 1950s. I always loved it. As kids, we had to be very careful around it. Since my mom passed away, it resides at my house. Besides a reminder of Christmas, it brings back fond memories of Christmases past.

We always put up a tree with ornaments from our childhoods--some even close to a hundred years old from Hubs' family--and others our children made when they were young. My mother-in-law started my collection of nutcrackers, and finally, in this house, I have a place to display them. Since Hubs is into HO trains, we have many train sets--ceramic, metal, glass--around the house. But none is more precious to me than Grandma's nativity set.

What are some of your favorite decorations?

Wishing you and your families blessings and happiness.

 

Saturday Sampler: THE TWELFTH DAY by Alicia Dean

USA TODAY Bestselling, National Bestselling & Award-Winning Authors!
Christmas isn't all Peace on Earth this Holiday Season in 8 Outstanding Suspense Stories of Murderers, Stalkers, Terrorists, Thieves, and Kidnappers. Criminal Christmas puts the Danger in the season of Mistletoe and Christmas Cookies. Snuggle up by the fire with our books and enjoy Christmas like never before. Over 850 pages of Danger, Mystery, Romance and Suspense! ONLY 99¢

Alicia Dean’s Novella, The Twelfth Day:

Blurb:

As a teen, party girl Sabrina Spencer was the lone survivor of a serial killer’s attack on her family. Her testimony put the killer behind bars, and she spent the following decade carving out a new life and trying to forget.

But someone hasn’t forgotten. Two weeks before Christmas, she begins receiving daily packages containing bizarre gifts and threatening messages with demented references to the Twelve Days of Christmas.

Handyman Josh Cravens is remodeling the lake house she rents each year to escape the painful reminders Christmas brings. While his dimples and blue eyes are hard to resist, he’s the exact kind of player she’s been avoiding since she outgrew her wild days. But the isolated cabin and threatening messages boost her paranoia to fever pitch.

As Christmas draws closer, she’s torn between finding comfort in Josh’s arms, and fear that he might be behind the twisted countdown to the twelfth day.

Excerpt:

Sabrina ended the call with Halley and was about to shut down the laptop when the song started. Holding her breath, she warily eyed the screen. A note appeared.

On the sixth day of Christmas…

You cheated death a decade ago, but time is running out.

She let out a scream and jumped from the chair.

Footsteps pounded. She glanced back to see Josh and Dustin standing behind her.

Josh frowned at the screen. “What’s that all about?”

She slammed the laptop shut. “Nothing.”

“You’re trembling. It’s not nothing. Tell me.”

She wrapped her arms around her body. “I-I really don’t know what it is. I’ve been getting these crazy messages.”

Josh’s frown deepened. “That’s not the first one?”

She shook her head.

“Have you called the police?”

“And tell them what? That somebody, I have no idea who, is sending me creepy messages?”

“After what happened to you, don’t you think this might be a little more than that?”

Her cheeks were numb, and she had trouble forming words. “The killer is behind bars.”

Dustin’s eyes rounded. “The killer? Is there a killer?”

Sabrina forced a reassuring smile. “No, there’s no killer. Everything is fine.”

His confused expression turned petulant. “Don’t lie to me. Are you in trouble, Sabrina?”

“I’m not lying. There’s something a little…freaky going on, but I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about.”

Josh pulled out a chair and sat at the table. “Maybe you should tell us everything.”

Sabrina sat as well and explained what had been going on since the day she arrived at the cabin.

By the time she finished, Josh’s scowl had become ferocious. “I don’t like this. Not at all.”

“I’m a high school teacher. I’m sure it’s just one of the kids playing a prank.”

“It’s not a very damn funny prank.”

She grinned without humor. “I never said it was funny.”

Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About Alicia:

Alicia Dean is a suspense and paranormal author in Edmond, Oklahoma. She wrote her first romance at age 11 (featuring a hero who looked just like Elvis Presley), and she still has the tattered, pencil-written copy. 

 *** Sign up for our Novel Notes Newsletter, a multi-author newsletter where we give away a $25 gift card each month:

https://www.facebook.com/NovelNotesAuthors

Find Alicia here:

Website: http://aliciadean.com/

Blog: http://aliciadean.com/alicias-blog/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008364070487

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/Alicia_Dean_

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/aliciamdean/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/468339.Alicia_Dean