Today, I present to you an excerpt (Chapters 3 & 4) from author Allison McWood's Christmas novella, Holly & Ivy: A Dysfunctional Christmas Novella (copied below with permission by the author)...

Check out this fabulous vegetarian option for the holiday season...a mushroom gravy recipe from author and publisher, Justine Alley Dowsett!

Let's welcome back young children's author Rosie Amazing! Today, she reads an excerpt from her picture book, Snowy Peter...

Welcome to Day 3! Today, I've got a poem for you from children's author Tonya Cartmell...presenting Without you at Christmas...

For many, Christmas is a time of joy, lights, love, family, and faith. We cuddle up and watch movies while drinking hot chocolate. Our homes are filled with the smell of baking cookies made from recipes that only come out once a year. We host dinners and parties with our friends and family.  Some of us loudly sing Christmas carols without caring who hears. 

This year, I’ve been reminded that for some people, Christmas can bring sadness, loneliness, and memories of what has been lost.  

I originally had other ideas for this blog post but my heart wanted to share these thoughts.  If you are missing someone this Christmas and struggling to find joy, I hope you know you are not alone. 

Without you at Christmas 
by Tonya Cartmell

Christmas around me lacks lustre. 
The carols fall flat on my ears. 
No stockings hang on the mantel. 
The tree is now watered by tears. 

Christmas joy left me when you did. 
Our lives forever intertwined. 
I don’t want Christmas without you. 
I wish you were still by my side. 

Christmas has signs you are near me. 
Like feathers or dimes on the ground. 
Please whisper the words I love you. 
My sad heart longs to hear that sound. 

I don’t feel Christmas without you. 
I’m scared to remember the past. 
Your love and laughter has left me. 
Will remembering make them last?

It's December 14th, Day 2 of the 12 Days, and we've got children's author Sharon Ledwith weighing in on Jolabokaflod...

What on Earth is Jolabokaflod…
by Sharon Ledwith
 
Blame the Icelanders for this one. Upon hearing about this holiday tradition, as well as being an author, I was excited to write this article. Jolabokaflod literally translates into ‘Christmas Book Flood’. Sign me up for that deluge! It’s the Icelandic tradition celebrated on Christmas Eve to give and receive new books as gifts. There’s also the gifting of chocolate in this celebration, and let’s face it—who doesn’t want to receive books and chocolates for Christmas? *Holds hand up high, waving frantically* So, how did this unique tradition begin? In truth, the true origin of Jolabokaflod is unknown, but there are a few theories floating around in cyber space.
 
Theory One: It’s believed that this tradition started in the 1930s with a book club called The Reykjavik Library Foundation. Since Icelanders must deal with long dark winters, the Foundation wanted to encourage their people to read more during this time. Hence, Jolabokaflod was established as an annual event to coincide with Christmas Eve, so people could exchange new books to make their winters more bearable.
 
Theory Two: Jolabokaflod a.k.a. Christmas Book Flood began as a way to promote literacy in Iceland. There was a study done from the 1800s that found only 50% of Icelanders could read. That’s a big chunk out of a relatively small population! So, again to encourage people to learn how to read, the tradition was initiated. Hey, what a better place to bundle up in a cozy blanket by the fire with a cup of hot chocolate or mulled wine, and read a book?
 
Theory Three: During World War 2, paper was one of the few items in Iceland not rationed. This allowed for the continued publishing of books and printing of newspapers. As a result, Icelanders habitually gave books as gifts for the holiday season.  
 
In addition to these theories, Iceland has a long history of being well-read. Apparently, this started in 1786, when their first library was established. Since there were no schools, the general population had very few opportunities for education. A library opened the door for Icelanders to become self-taught, and this love of learning has continued on. Today, there are numerous lending libraries, and it’s estimated that a whopping 97% of all Icelandic households have at least one book. Fun fact: Iceland is the first country in the world to be recognized for having achieved ‘full literacy’. Wow. Take it from someone who used to be a tutor at her local literacy chapter, that’s a huge accomplishment!
 
Today, Jolabokaflod is a beloved tradition in Iceland’s culture. On Christmas Eve, families gather together to exchange new books, and spend the evening reading them. Nothing is off the table when it comes to giving books as gifts, including novels (all genres), non-fiction, cookbooks, children’s books, graphic novels, and even text books. It truly is the perfect way to celebrate the holiday season and connect with loved ones. If you’re looking to bridge this Icelandic tradition in a small way, then why not create a Jolabokaflod gift basket for an avid reader you know? All you have to do is select various books catering to the recipient’s interests, then add some cozy items such as a comfy blanket, chocolate, candles, mugs, and hot chocolate mix. Trust me, it’s the perfect holiday gift for your book-loving buddy.
 
So, if you’re still searching for a special way to spend the holiday season, why not give this Jolabokaflod tradition a crack or create a gift basket for the reader in your life? Even if you don’t live in Iceland, the winters in the northern hemisphere can get awfully chilly and brutal. And if you happen to live in the southern hemisphere, there’s definitely a beach book with your name on it. Wink. Wherever you live, have a happy and safe holiday season, readers! Cheers!

Here’s a glimpse of the premises of both my young adult series:
The Last Timekeepers Time Travel Adventures…
Chosen by an Atlantean Magus to be Timekeepers—legendary time travelers sworn to keep history safe from the evil Belial—five classmates are sent into the past to restore balance, and bring order back into the world, one mission at a time.
Children are the keys to our future. And now, children are the only hope for our past.
Mysterious Tales from Fairy Falls Teen Psychic Mysteries…
Imagine a teenager possessing a psychic ability and struggling to cope with its freakish power. There’s no hope for a normal life, and no one who understands. Now, imagine being uprooted and forced to live in a small tourist town where nothing much ever happens. It’s bores-ville from the get-go. Until mysterious things start to happen.
Welcome to Fairy Falls. Expect the unexpected.
The Last Timekeepers Time Travel Adventure Series:
The Last Timekeepers and the Noble Slave, Book #3
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The Last Timekeepers and the Dark Secret, Book #2 Buy Links:
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The Last Timekeepers and the Arch of Atlantis, Book #1 Buy Links:
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Legend of the Timekeepers, prequel Buy Links:
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Mysterious Tales from Fairy Falls Teen Psychic Mystery Series:
Lost and Found, Book One Buy Links:
MIRROR WORLD PUBLISHING ׀ AMAZON ׀ BARNES & NOBLE ׀
Blackflies and Blueberries, Book Two Buy Links:
MIRROR WORLD PUBLISHING ׀ AMAZON ׀ BARNES & NOBLE ׀

Welcome back to more stories...this time related to the holiday season in December (sometimes a little less spooky...but ghost stories are still a Christmas-approved thing)!

Today we'll start with the author we ended with on my 13 Horrifically Silly Days of Halloween Bonus Day of the Dead blog...Steve Bernardi, and his story Realm of Gaiyax - The History of Warowin.

Realm of Gaiyax - The History of Warowin
by Steve Bernardi

Warowin is a Gaiyaxian holiday which takes place during the winter months in the beginning of the calendar year. Also spelled ‘War-o’-Win’, it is short for ‘the warmth of winter’, referencing a shared belief that the darkest and coldest months of the year can be the warmest and brightest through love, joy, and fellowship with your fellow peoples. The tradition was started by Elves, Dwarves, and Humans, but spread to most other races over time.
 
Typical Warowin traditions vary depending on the culture, but typical festivities include week-long festivals, hearty feasts which can span days, the exchanging of gifts, and the telling of stories, often in big groups secluded in remote and chilly locales. The Orcs of Ardennor stage fighting tournaments all across the continent in tribute to those they have lost in the past year. Pushalai erupts into a frenzy of invention, as its Rock and Forest Gnomes compete to innovate the perfect gift. The Trolls of Trudokar, normally adverse to festive events, select a single one of their riding dragons to dress in finery and travel across the southern pole delivering supplies to Trolls in remote areas.
 
Which brings us to the origin of the holiday. The centerpiece of Warowin is a figure named Jultmoten, a powerful red Dragon that lives on Gaiyax's northern pole. Every year on Warowin Eve, Jultmoten uses his powerful magics to deliver gifts, food, and riches to the good-aligned souls of the world. With the moniker ‘the Saintly Serpent’, Jultmoten is beloved the world over, but this was not always the case.
 
Like most Greater Dragons, Jultmoten’s egg hatched on an island in the arctic circle, where his kind are known to spawn. Unlike his fellow hatchlings, who typically leave after a few years, Jultmoten stayed, preferring the terrain to any potential alternative. While this was fine for a while, with the young drake subsisting on marine life and polar bears, spawning season came again. The new Dragon parents were threatened by a mature male living so close to their eggs, and so conspired to chase Jultmoten out, nearly killing him in the process.
 
Barred from the only home he had ever known or wanted, the spurned and scorned Jultmoten travelled the world as a nomad. To bury his pain and the dejection he felt, the Dragon took to tormenting weaker races and smaller beings. He gained a reputation as a scorcher of forests and hoarder of treasure, with his larger-than-average claws becoming synonymous with destruction. After a long life of tyranny, Jultmoten ascended to an Arch Dragon and gained great magical powers. Giving himself the breath weapon of a winter storm, the prodigal son of the north finally came home.
 
Jultmoten started by bathing his old spawning ground in cold and snow, wiping out a whole generation of Dragons and creating an island of ice. Out of the island he formed a terrifying fortress, solidifying himself as an emperor of the north. His fellow Dragons were forced out, needing to spawn further south in Elarden, the land of the Elves, and in Dorovan, territory of Dwarves. Already somewhat acquainted with one another, the two races entered into an alliance against Jultmoten to prevent irreparable damage to their ecosystems. After a war that spanned a decade, Jultmoten cast an unbreakable blood curse on the two races. Any child sired by Elf and Dwarf, a symbol of their coalition, would be instantaneously transported to Jultmoten’s polar abode. Despondent and forlorn after such a blow, both races subsided and accepted defeat.
 
The greatest act of hubris Jultmoten ever committed was what proved to be his downfall. There exists in Gaiyax a type of creature called a Cerapter. Unicorns are horses who have been touched by Fey magic. A Pegasus is a celestial being which takes the shape of a winged horse. On very rare occasions, the two may create offspring, which resembles a Pegasus with the horn of a Unicorn. This intermingling of unique and powerful magics, which would never cross otherwise, makes a Cerapter an extraordinarily rare and powerful creature.
 
Jultmoten was adept at hunting them.
 
Wanting a trophy that simultaneously represented his power, kingly stature, and total disregard for the wonders of the natural world, Jultmoten tracked down a Cerapter and froze it solid, trapping it in a state between life and death. When another powerful Dragon by the name of Dadivan visited his court, Jultmoten was furious at their apathy towards this legendary acquisition. In response, he set out to find as many Cerapters as he could, eventually settling on not two, not three, but eight of them, each encased in ice and arranged in a ring in his courtyard.
 
While silent, the spirits and magic of the Cerapters lingered, and they conspired against their captor to stage the perfect revenge. Combining their power, the eight Cerpaters froze Jultmoten’s dark heart, and he fell into a deep sleep for many years. While unconscious, the scarlet tyrant was forced to reflect on his actions and persona through an endless barrage of dreams of penance. Memory of the dreams faded once he awoke, but the profound effect they had remained: Jultmoten’s neutral evil alignment had been permanently changed to one of lawful good.
 
Jultmoten spent a considerable amount of time incapacitated by the immense guilt and despair he felt over his actions. After concluding that he could not freeze himself, nor end his own life due to lacking the resolve, Jultmoten developed a hasty plan of repentance. He would fly over all the continents of Gaiyax and gradually release his treasure hoard, sending it careening down to the peoples below. He repeated this process for several weeks until his accumulated wealth was nearly depleted. Heroes and villains alike were made by the legendary magic items picked up by peasants, and dynasties were both funded and ended by the gold.
 
As the Dragon went to work, a curious thing happened. While there were those who still remembered the stories of their forebears about Jultmoten’s madness, many who had forgotten viewed the downpour of gold, gems, and enchanted objects as the actions of a saintly creature. Theories were imagined and shared by the various peoples of Gaiyax, but Jultmoten began to worry about what would happen when his riches dried up.
 
On that fateful day, Jultmoten collapsed in the courtyard of his fortress and wept in frustration. The descendants of Elves and Dwarves, since dubbed ‘Polar Elves’, regarded their master strangely. Like their cousins to the south they too had heard the stories, but these were a generation born since Jultmoten had been asleep. This was not a cruel and unfeeling monster, but a genuinely remorseful being. Cautiously they approached the Dragon, who had assumed the smaller form of a portly Half-Elf clad in red, and asked if they could help.
 
When Jultmoten explained that he had no more treasures to give the peoples of the world, the Elves suggested that they could make a new hoard to distribute. It would pale in comparison to what came before, but their people were capable of making unique and interesting magic items, as well as toys and games, and items that would make peoples lives easier. Jultmoten thanked the spritely gathering profusely and helped them get to work.
 
The next trip Jultmoten takes south is even more successful, with people appreciating the variety and whimsy of the gifts he brings. The venture exhausts Jultmoten, but he returns to the North Pole to the triumphant reverie of his court. His guilt still not fully abated, he wishes to free the Elves from the blood curse he placed on them centuries ago. Jultmoten spends the next week engaged in excruciating physical, mental, and spiritual labor, even putting his own life at risk, but try as he might, the bonds of dark magic are too strong. Polar Elves will continue to be sent north upon their birth until the end of time. As Jultmoten is nursed back to health by magnanimous followers, his efforts do not go unnoticed by powerful forces.
 
The next few months are marked by an odd occurrence, and a first for Jultmoten’s citadel: the arrival of mail. Through the trek of countless familiars and the casting of various magic spells, not to mention the tenacity of a few dedicated postal workers, hundreds of letters from all across the globe arrive, each one addressed to Jultmoten. Humbled by the requests for tools and food and toys, Jultmoten and the Elves set out to fulfil each one.
 
Repetition allows for analysis, and one thing proven by this subsequent trip was that such a means of operating would soon become untenable. The Elves worked themselves to exhaustion completing every solicitation, and Jultmoten was likewise drained by his globe-spanning delivery. When he finally returned home, actually believing he could let himself rest, there was another mound of letters waiting for him. While the repentant reptile would have gladly faced oblivion to complete the task, he feared what the added exertion would do to the Elves he had grown to care for.
 
As if answering his prayers, a mystical voice began speaking to Jultmoten, and told him there was a way to do what he intended. In order to prove himself worthy of such power, however, he would need to complete a series of fantastic labors, setting right the natural order of the world.
 
His first task was to provide a place in the North for his fellow Dragons to spawn again. The population of Elves living in the citadel was too large to displace, so the matter had no easy solution. Using his considerable strength and magical ability, Jultmoten took hold of several small islands in the northern sea and pulled them together, forming the island of Nordragar and declaring it formally under his protection.

This holiday season, bring the joy of cacti and self-esteem to your children—give them my award-winning picture book, “Libby the Lobivia Jajoiana”! Get the paperback for $3.00 off!
🌵🌺
Buy the print edition anytime before December 31st from https://www.mirrorworldpublishing.com?cc=HOLIDAY23 & Amazon (and other third party sites) to take advantage of the special.
🎄☃️🎅🏻
Libby is a lonely cactus plant who has trouble believing in herself. However, when lovely, confident Violet moves in next to her on the windowsill, Libby learns that the things that make her different also make her special.

This holiday season, bring the joy of Burmese cats and wild imaginings to your children—in English, or in French—give them my award-winning picture book, “Beverlee Beaz the Brown Burmese”!
Get the paperback version for $3.00 off on Amazon, the Mirror World Publishing site (use discount code HOLIDAY23), and other third party sites...
And the eBook version is discounted to only $2.99 on Amazon!
🐱🦄
Buy the print editions anytime before December 31st from https://www.mirrorworldpublishing.com?cc=HOLIDAY23 & Amazon to take advantage of the special.
🎄☃️
Or you can purchase the eBook, also anytime before the new year for only $2.99: https://www.amazon.ca/Beverlee-Brown-Burmese-Regan-Macaulay-ebook/dp/B09MVB94LS/ref=sr_1_1?crid=M698UYBNH1CV&keywords=Beverlee+Beaz+the+Brown+Burmese&qid=1700446033&s=books&sprefix=beverlee+beaz+the+brown+burmese%2Cstripbooks%2C81&sr=1-1
**
And once again En Français: https://www.amazon.ca/Beverlee-chatte-Birmanie-Burmese-French-ebook/dp/B09MV9ZN4K/ref=sr_1_1?crid=CU2HRL1DCOQ3&keywords=Beverlee+la+chatte&qid=1700446130&s=books&sprefix=beverlee+la+chatte%2Cstripbooks%2C77&sr=1-1
🎅🏻🐾Beverlee Beaz, the brown Burmese, longs for adventure and has the powerful imagination to make it happen. On a lovely, but otherwise ordinary day, she seeks excitement among the forests and fields surrounding her home. The ordinary suddenly becomes extraordinary in the eyes of this wildly creative little brown cat. Follow Beverlee on her adventure through the forest, over the hills... and into the world of her imagination!

This holiday season, bring the joy of dragons and wellness to your children—give them my award-winning picture book, “Sloth the Lazy Dragon”! 
Get the paperback version for $3.00 off on Amazon, the Mirror World Publishing site (use discount code HOLIDAY23), and other third party sites...
And the eBook version is discounted to only $2.99 on Amazon!
🐲🍏
Buy the print edition anytime before December 31st from https://www.mirrorworldpublishing.com?cc=HOLIDAY23 & Amazon to take advantage of the special.
🎄☃️
Or you can purchase the eBook, also anytime before the new year for only $2.99: https://www.amazon.ca/Sloth-Lazy-Dragon-Regan-Macaulay-ebook/dp/B09MVB4Y7Q/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=R9X8GO3N9LUV&keywords=Sloth+the+Lazy+Dragon&qid=1700445499&s=books&sprefix=sloth+the+lazy+dragon%2Cstripbooks%2C87&sr=1-2-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1
🎅🏻🐉
Sloth the Lazy Dragon lives in a mountain atop his hoard of gold and jewels. He believes he has all that a dragon could possibly want, until he meets a brave dwarf named Radish who offers to help him lose weight. With Radish's guidance, Sloth finds himself eating healthier and getting plenty of exercise. In time, Sloth gains the freedom that his new healthy lifestyle brings, which he discovers is more valuable to him than all the treasure in the world.