A Holiday For Each Season

by Diana Mccollum

Diana is a paranormal and fantasy author. For a free story sign up for her newsletter on her website.

Ah, the seasons! There are so many different kinds of seasons. There are weather, growing, personal, life etc. seasons. And many have been touched upon here on this blog.

 

I’m going to share some of my favorite holidays that come with each season.  

 

Favorite Holidays

 

The first season, winter, from December 21^st  to March 20^th my favorite holiday is New Years! Not because so many get dressed up, and go to parties for the countdown to midnight, but for a time of reflection, and a time of setting new goals for myself. It’s a new beginning! Twelve whole months to achieve my goals. Sometimes those goals may change along the way, and that’s okay. I have my road map, I feel confident, and hopeful.

 

The second season, spring, March 21^st till June 20^th my favorite holiday is Easter. Another time of renewal. Easter has always been a time of family gatherings. Although, we live far away from our family, this year we will be celebrating with them. I have such fond memories of the kids and grandkids hunting for eggs. When my kids were little I hid their Easter baskets, I always made red-beet eggs, a family tradition, and of course all the messy fun dying Easter eggs. And the promise of daffodils peaking up out of the ground to announce Spring is on the way!

 

The third season, summer, June 21^st till September 22^nd my favorite holiday would have to be July 4^th! The tradition of celebrating America makes me so proud. We are a nation of mixed nationalities, a pot of different cultures and traditions. My ancestors were from Ireland, Germany, Scotland, France to name a few. They came to a new land with hopes and dreams. They fought for our rights and freedoms. Every July 4^th I love to watch the parades, hear the music and feel the pride of being American.

 

The fourth season, fall September 23 till December 20^th my favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. Another holiday for reflection. It’s a time to give thanks for all the goodness in my life. Things that mean the most to me like family, friends, and Zoom!

 

Whatever your favorite holidays are I hope you enjoy each and every one of them this year. After the pandemic year of 2020, and with the vaccine on the horizon, 2021 is shaping up to be a great year!

 

Do you have a favorite holiday?

Keep Me Reading…Please

By Robin Weaver

Being a writer, and especially being a critique partner, tends to make “escape reading” pretty tough. Subconsciously, the trained author instinctively seeks out character flaws, lack of motivation, point-of-view shifts, etc. etc. etc.  So, to escape my inner editor and truly escape, I need something interesting. And please, pretty please, make interesting last more than five pages.  The word’s gotten out that the author must capture the reader’s attention in the first five pages, but what seems to have gotten lost in mutation, is… if the story starts to drag after page six, I’m still going to toss the book in the trashcan—be it a real or digital rubbish bin.

It goes without saying that really interesting characters with realistic goals and difficult problems to solve are the basis for any good novel. That said, a quirky story that transports me out of my normal world will make me forget I ever owned an editor hat. Think Forrest Gump. He didn’t exactly have a goal, and his motivations were at best, hazy, but the POV is extremely clear.

While it’s probably true there are a limited number of novel plots, the standard story-line doesn’t preclude “completely different approaches.” And by completely different I don’t mean blue aliens who can shift into skunks and find stinky portals to alternate forests with purple trees—that’s been done and redone in some fashion since War of the Worlds.I’m talking different like Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler.  This is a novel about reading a novel, only the reader (aka, you) keeps getting interrupted by other novels. The story begins after a printer’s error where you return to the bookstore to select another book… May sound confusing, but the tale kept me reading.

Another kind of different is The Insides, by Jeremy P. Bushnell.  The books blurb instantly transports you into the unusual:

Ollie Krueger is a punk magician-turned-butcher who dreams of returning home to the husband and son she lost. Maja is a psychic mercenary hired to track down a very special knife that happens to be in the possession of Ollie's rival and co-worker. As the intrigue ramps up, it becomes clear that the story's minor players are willing to put any number of lives at risk for one magical artifact.

I’ll be the first to admit, not everyone has my limited attention span. And even with my need for the different and the bizarre, there’s still a place for the classic boy-meets-girl love story … Even if she’s blue and he’s red and they can’t be together because the shape-shifting skunk has blocked the mailbox portal.

We are truly blessed to live in a world where so many books are available in so many different types of media. So whatever keeps your reading, find it and keep reading.

Happy Fourth of July!

Robin

Short Stories Make Western Duets by Paty Jager

Not only is the reading public liking short stories but I've found I enjoy writing short stories. When I first started writing, I struggled to get enough words for the historical westerns I wrote. The first two had a lot of unnecessary scenes because I was trying to make them long enough. Eventually I learned about Goals, Motivation, and Conflict. Once those entered the equation, my books started filling out and becoming the proper length for novels.

Then along come Judith and Sarah asking me to be part of this group blog and eventually the Free Reads blog. The first couple of Free Reads I wrote for the blog went over the required word limit and I had to put the rest of the story on my own blog. Now, I'm better at coming up with and writing a short story.

And then what do I do? I am now adding/lengthening the Free Reads I've written for the Genre-ista blog and ones that I had as free reads on my blog or website and packaging them as Western Duets. Volume One came out earlier in the year with Shanghaied Heart and Last Stand for Love. 

Last week I released Volume Two: Heart of Gold and Fireworks and Fancies. Heart of Gold is a Valentine Story I started on the Genrista's free read blog and finished on my blog. It has been enhanced from the original story.  Fireworks and Fancies was a free read through Wild Rose Press and is a short story about a secondary character in my book Doctor in Petticoats.  The story was lengthened and more emotion was added. The original had to be a certain lenght. Now that I don't have any length restrictions, I can add in elements that were left out before due to the requirements.

Here is the blurb and cover for Western Duets- Volume Two

A novella with two short historical western romance stories

Heart of Gold

A mysterious valentine and a missing child bring school marm Jenny Wolcott and Sheriff Evan Carey together, however a father hell-bent on teaching the town and his young son a lesson threatens to keep them apart—forever.

Fireworks and Fancies

As a Judge’s daughter, Celeste Tarkiel is politically savvy, and more than slightly impressed with Representative Jeremiah Folsum. She’d tell him so, too, if he ever quit avoiding her.

The way Celeste flirts rankles Jeremiah. Yet, her keen mind and beauty holds his interest—perhaps too deeply. Especially, when he learns another man is prepared to ask for her hand in marriage.

Buy links: Kindle    Windtree Press  Nook  Kobo 

Award winning author Paty Jager is a member of national and local writing organizations. She not only writes the western lifestyle she lives it. With fifteen novels and several short stories published, she continues to have characters cavorting in her head . 

You can learn more about Paty at her blog; www.patyjager.blogspot.com  her website; http://www.patyjager.net or on Facebook; https://www.facebook.com/#!/paty.jager , Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1005334.Paty_Jager  and twitter;  @patyjag.