Making Merry - and Making Plans

How do you celebrate this festive time of year?

We all have traditions - many of which involve food (feasting), family and friends. I always look forward to Christmas Day, which we celebrate with my side of the family. We have turkey with all the trimmings = the hostess makes the turkey but other parts of the feast come from guests. (I'm taking the pie this year.) There are gifts, of course, too, but the company is really the best part.

On the other side of our family, our tradition has changed in recent years, and this too is part of the magic of tradition. We think it has to be always the same, but actually, there's room for modification and variation. Mr. Math's mom used to make a roast goose dinner on Christmas Eve and we all went there. She was a fabulous cook and it was so delicious that none of us dared to try to cook the meal instead. Since she passed away, and Mr. Math's father shortly thereafter, we modified the tradition. I've been hosting a dinner for both sides of the family early in December (usually the weekend of first Advent) when everyone's calendar has a little more open space. I did roast goose the first year, but now understand why my MIL found the geese stressful to make. They are hard to predict, which makes it hard to time everything else to be done when they are. Last year, we had roast duck instead, and this year, we had prime rib. I think I'll go back to the duck again next year. They're more like goose, but easy peasy - which helps when you have the chaos of company!

Traditions can also be added to our celebrations. We used to have a neighbor from Scandinavia who burned a torch all night long on the solstice. Mr. Math thought this was wonderful, and it was neat to see the flame against the night. We now have a garden torch which Mr. Math lights on the night of the solstice (but we don't leave it burning all night long, just so long as we're watching it). This year, we had torrential rains on the solstice, so the torch had to stay in the garage, but there will be next year. (I lit some candles in the house instead to call back the sun.)

A bit part of this time of year for me is reviewing the last year and planning for the year ahead. I usually do that on the solstice. I've updated my work schedule and my publication list, and there's a post on that scheduled on my blog for January 4.

Of course, a part of this festive season is sending greetings and good wishes to friends and associates, many of whom are distant. We don't send or receive as many physical cards as was once the case, but I still send some - and we do receive wonderful email wishes, too. It's the sentiment that counts!

One of my writing traditions is to publish a new book in the week between Christmas and New Year. This year, it's a new boxed set of my Prometheus Project urban fantasy romance series, which features fallen angel heroes on a quest to save humanity. They voluntarily shed their wings for the greater cause, fully intending to reclaim them once their quest is complete, but love (and determined heroines) change their mind each time. I love these books, and the contrast between a gritty dystopian future and the promise of love, and am excited to offer all four complete novels in a boxed set. Currently, The Prometheus Project Boxed Set is available only at iBooks and Kobo. It will deliver on December 29.

Another of my seasonal traditions as a writer is to thank my readers with a book sale at this time of year. The Crusader's Bride, which is the first book in my current medieval romance series the Champions of Saint Euphemia, is on sale now at iBooks and Kobo for just 99 cents. It'll be on sale at the other portals next week. The Champions of Saint Euphemia is a linked series I've wanted to write for a while. Each book is a medieval romance, but the series follows the journey of a company of knights (some Templars and some former-Templars) from Jerusalem to Europe as they deliver a sacred relic to the Temple in Paris. Someone wants the treasure and is willing to kill for it. These stories are entangled, with each hero and heroine adding to the overall story. The Crusader's Bride begins the quest, as Gaston leaves the order to claim his inheritance in France and finds himself in need of a bride. He picks Ysmaine, and gets far more in a wife than he ever expected.

It's a good time to begin the series, too. The second book, The Crusader's Heart, was published in October, and book #3, The Crusader's Kiss, will be published in January. Book #4, The Crusader's Vow, will finish up the originally planned series in April - but there's been a fifth book added. The Crusader's Handfast is being published in monthly installments, and the first one was published on December 15. Part Two comes out on January 15. The complete book will be available in July, in both print and digital editions. Also (!), The Crusader's Bride will be available in an audiobook in January. You can listen to a sample from that audiobook, narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds, right here.

Talking about audiobooks brings us to another way I'm thanking readers this month. I'm participating in a promotion with over 50 authors called #XmasAudio. Many of us are giving away an audiobook per day for the month of December. Right now, my featured audio title is The Snow White Bride, which is a medieval Scottish romance set at Christmas. All you have to do for a chance to win is comment on this post on my blog. You can also search for other #XmasAudio giveaways with the hashtag, on Facebook and Twitter.

How do you celebrate this festive season?

I hope your month is merry and filled with good friends, good books and good cheer. See you in 2016!

Canadian Sense of Humour

Do you think that Canadians have a specific sense of humour?

I read an online article last week and it got me to thinking about this. (I'll share the link at the end.) The article is a compilation of comments by Canadians on Tumblr, in which they're "pulling other people's legs" as my mom would say. I'm wondering whether this kind of joke is one that we do particularly well, or that maybe is more common here.

There certainly are a lot of comedians who came from the Great White North (which is in itself a Canadian joke about Canada). Here's the Wiki list of Canadian comedians and it's a long one.

I think we live with this kind of quick humor all the time. My husband, for example, does a great deadpan delivery. He'll say something completely preposterous but do it so seriously that the other person often believes him. The Queen Bee - the dog we lost two years ago - was a standard poodle. Poodles are an old breed but he took the stories to a new level. One night, we had guests for dinner and one of them commented on how the QB turned in tight circles before lying down. All dogs do this, of course, but Mr. Math rolled with it.

"It was a survival mechanism developed by the Wild Poodles of the Serengeti," he said solemnly. "By bedding down in the tall grasses of the savannah, they could hide from predators at night."

"Really?" said our guest. "I had no idea."

"Oh yes, the Wild Poodles of the Serengeti were the origin of the breed."

"There must have been a lot of predators there, though. What about lions?"

"Oh, the Wild Poodles had a symbiotic relationship with the lions. They guarded the lions while they ate, and in return, the lions left the bones to the Wild Poodles. They preferred the marrow, and their tongues were shaped perfectly to extract it from the bones, which the lions didn't do as well."

"Really?"

"Of course, French explorers noted this behaviour and it was from their drawings of the Wild Poodles of the Serengeti consuming marrow that French silversmiths originally derived the marrow spoon. The shape is perfect for its task, and in fact, their bringing Wild Poodles to France - where ultimately they evolved into the poodles we know today - could be directly attributed to the French admiration of their ability to extract marrow. Do we have a marrow spoon?"

He would have gone on like this for as long as possible, but I didn't have a marrow spoon, (much less a bone with marrow) to compare with the dog's tongue, and our guest finally caught on.

I'm not "the funny one" but I've often had to remove these kinds of exchanges from my books, because my American editors didn't understand them. That's happened hundred of times, but here's one example for which I still have documentation. This is a passage from Ember's Kiss, my edight Dragonfire novel. Kira (a friend) and Brandon (the hero and a surfer) are talking about the Banzai Pipeline, a beach with a specific wave form in Hawaii. It's tough to surf the Pipe, but Brandon is good at it. This is the originally delivered manuscript.

Here's what happened in the edits. If you've ever used Track Changes in Word, this will look familiar. Track Changes allows multiple people to work on a document, each using a different colour. In this case, the copy editor (CE) is using red, and the author (AU - that's me!) is using red. The CE highlighted the last line in the excerpt shown above, and here's the comment:

I could have fought for this, but by this point in time - my last New York edited book - I was tired of these exchanges. And the fact is that if the CE didn't get it, probably a lot of American readers wouldn't have gotten it either. Still, I liked the line. I have the rights back to this book and when I republish it, that line will be in the final book.

Why talk about humour this month? Of course, I have a devious reason for it! (Ha!) My Coxwell Series of four contemporary romances and romantic comedies in now available in a digital boxed set. You can get Third Time Lucky, Double Trouble, One More Time and All or Nothing in one file for a special price - only at iBooks and Kobo. I price my boxed sets of series so that if you buy them all at once, you get one free. There's also an excerpt in the back of this boxed set for Simply Irresistible, the first book in a new series of contemporary romances and romantic comedies coming next June. (There's an excerpt on my website, too - just follow the link.) This time, there'll be no one to comment on my Canadian jokes!

And here, as promised, is the link to the article that started me on this train of thought: 19 Times Canadians Mercilessly Trolled The Rest of the World on Tumblr

Enjoy! Then tell me whether YOU think Canadians have a specific sense of humour. I'll give away a trade paperback copy of Double Trouble one person who comments. Good luck!

Local Booksignings and Reader Events

One thing I love to do are reader events and booksignings, so I'm excited to be participating in two signings that are coming up in November. There's also an awesome reader event coming up in May 2016—that's a ways out, but you'll want to book your spot for that one now.

First will be Words, a book festival in London Ontario that includes a booksigning event. I'll be on a panel with Zoe York and Carolyn Arnold about Self-Publishing for Genre Fiction Writers at 11 AM on November 7, then be signing from 10 - 4. The event will be held at Covent Garden Market in downtown London, Ontario.

I usually offer show specials when I do a booksigning like this - if you buy linked books, you get a discount. When you buy a bundle, you also get a tote bag to carry the books home!

If you plan to attend and want to ensure you get specific titles from me, I have a pre-order form right here. You can pay in advance, or just know how much cash to bring. (I don't take credit cards.)

Next up will be Bookapalooza in Whitby Ontario on November 21. This promises to be a fun event—partly because I know a lot of other authors who will be in attendance!—and a good day. I have my fingers crossed that there won't be any snow that day!

Once again, I have a pre-order form online, and you can find it right here.

Finally, there's Eve's Romancing the Capital reader event, which will be next May in Ottawa. Eve has added some workshops on Thursday afternoon, and I'll be teaching one, as well as participating in a panel discussion about publishing.

There are a lot of fun events for readers on Friday and Saturday (including my event Knights Vs. Dragons, and a panel discussion called Dragons are a Girl's Best Friend, which I'm looking forward to) plus author/reader speed-dating AND a booksigning on Saturday.

Check your calendar and book yourself in to this event, which will be a great time. I'll have a pre-order form for books closer to the date.

I couldn't talk about events without inviting the boys!

At the shows, it'll be easy to find me—because the boys travel with me.

I hope to see you at one or all of these events!