Christmas Favorites

Christmas is only two weeks away. The stores are all decorated, radio stations are playing Christmas songs and there are lots of Christmas movies on TV. Some are cute, some funny, some sad, some uplifting. There’s no doubt that it’s a busy and an emotional time of year. It’s also the time of year when, in addition to my regular diet of mystery/suspense novels, I make time to re-read some of my Christmas favorites. I’ve listed a few for those of you who haven’t read them or who are looking for gift ideas.

The Gift by Danielle Steele will bring a tear to your eye and it will also warm your heart. Danielle is famous for writing romance novels but this slim, little book is a departure from her regular genre. If I have to pick a favorite, this is it.

The Angel Doll and the sequel, A Gift of Angels, by Jerry Bledsoe are two more wonderful books. The Angel Doll is set in a North Carolina manufacturing town in the 1950’s. It’s the story of a young boy helping his friend search for a doll to give his sister, who is stricken with polio, for Christmas. To quote the book jacket, “Along the way they learn much about sadness and heartbreak, but most important, they learn about the transformative power of love.”

The Christmas Shoes and the sequel, The Christmas Blessing, by Donna VanLiere are good reads too. In The Christmas Shoes, Robert, an attorney, is so caught up in his quest for success that he’s missing out on the important things in life. A chance meeting with a young boy on Christmas Eve teaches him an important lesson.

Christmas on Jane Street by Billy Romp with Wanda Urbanska is another on my list. This one is all about family and how one person can make a difference in family dynamics and even in the world.

What are your Christmas favorites?

Learning the Hard Way

 

Why is it that we have to learn so many things in life the hard way? It seems that, so often, we have to make mistakes and go through a lot of anguish and frustration before we get it right. Even worse, sometimes we forget what we’ve learned the hard way and we make the same mistake again. Unfortunately, that’s happened to me a time or two.

Which is why I created my “Things to Always Remember (so I don’t make the same mistakes again)” book. Seriously. It’s a small, hard bound book the size of a diary. In it, I list mistakes I’ve made and don’t want to repeat. Here are a some excerpts from my little book:

·   Never use oven cleaner on anything but the oven. Not on the top of the stove, nowhere else! (I know, that’s what it says on the can.) Nevertheless . . . .

·   Always try on jeans before you buy them. (Saves you standing in a long return line.)

·   Never let anyone work on your computer except a professional or someone you are sure knows what he’s doing. (And don’t take anyone’s word for that; have proof.)

·   Do not paint anything with oil-based paint unless you absolutely have to. (I think this speaks for itself.)

·   Do not take your entire novel to a writers’ conference unless an agent or editor has asked you to do so. (You’ll lug it around all day - for nothing! If someone wants to read it, you can email it to them; that doesn’t weigh anything.)  

·   When making a recipe with potatoes, do not peel them ahead of time and put them in the refrigerator, thinking they’ll stay nice and fresh. (They turn gray.)

·   When you’re putting several strands of lights on your Christmas tree, be sure you’ll end up with prongs to plug in the outlet. (Otherwise, you’ll have to take them all off and start over.)

·   To paint a ceiling, use a regular roller with a long handle, not one with a drip pan. (It nicks the ceiling.) But, maybe that’s just me.

There’s an interesting story behind each one of these entries. I laughed as I typed them, recalling each incident, but I didn’t laugh when they happened. I’m sure, as time goes by, I’ll have more to put in my little book. I try not to make mistakes, especially ones that will cost me time and/or money. But I don’t feel too bad about learning some things the hard way because I’ve never yet heard anyone say, “I learned it the easy way.”

   

Requesting your opinion

This is one version of the synopsis I wrote for my first mystery/suspense novel, Mixed Messages. Of course, I had to omit the last two paragraphs which reveal the ending. (I’d like you to read my novel when it’s published.) Please read the following and tell me what you think.

ANN KERN is so caught up in her family’s  problems that, at first, she pays little attention to the news reports that a killer is strangling women in her neighborhood.

Ann loves the old Victorian in upper Westwood where she, her husband, DAVID, and their two children, DANIELLE and DAVEY, live in the first floor apartment. Their landlady, OLIVIA BERGER, an elderly woman confined to a wheelchair who believes in the supernatural, and her son, LAWRENCE, who is infatuated with Ann, live in the upstairs apartment.

Ann’s primary concern is her marriage. David is drinking heavily, gambling and staying out all night. His behavior toward her is becoming more and more erratic; one minute, he’s the kind, loving man she married and, the next minute, he’s cold and cruel.

When her meddlesome mother-in-law, LOUISE KERN, the cleaning woman and organist at their church, recommends Ann for the position as church secretary to FATHER ANDREW, she accepts the job, hoping if she contributes financially to her marriage, it will lessen the pressure on David and he won’t “need” to drink so much. (Ann doesn’t know that her father was responsible for the car crash over twenty years ago, which killed both of Ann’s parents and four other young women, one of whom was the priest’s sister.)

Ann tells Father Andrew about David’s drinking and the problems in their marriage, intimating that she might have to leave her husband. Instead of consoling her as she expected, the priest points a finger at her and shouts, “Divorce is not an option!” He refers her to DR. SUSAN THATCHER for counseling. At her first session, Ann tells the psychologist, “I feel like I’m living in a world of mixed messages.”

Olivia’s psychic, TINA BUTREAUX, a charlatan with her own agenda, warns Ann that she is in danger but Ann dismisses the warning. However, when she receives several ominous biblical quotes, instead of the usual love poems from Lawrence, and a series of strange and frightening events take place, including her discovery of a handmade tombstone with her name on it in the cemetery adjacent to the church, she is terrified that she will be the Westwood Strangler’s next victim.

Did this make you want to read the book? If not, why?

Gratitude

The first American Thanksgiving took place in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621, when the pilgrims, thankful for their bountiful harvest in the new land and their Indian friends, gathered together to praise God and to express their gratitude. Since then, Thanksgiving has traditionally been a day to celebrate all the things for which we are grateful. One day, out of three hundred sixty-five days in a year, when many families sit around their dining room tables, hold hands and tell, one at a time, what they’re grateful for. Which is wonderful but. . . .

What about the other three hundred sixty-four days? We’re all busy living our lives; we can easily get so caught up in work, writing and/or other responsibilities that we take things and people for granted. We forget to stop to appreciate all that we have and to be thankful for our many blessings. We need to remember that each day is a gift, a present.

Do we get up in the morning, thankful to be alive? Are we determined to make the most of each day or do we slog through life, bitter and complaining? Do we notice all the little things that go wrong in our day or do we focus on the ones that go right? There’s so much beauty in the world. Do we take time to appreciate and enjoy nature? Do we tell the important people in our lives how much they mean to us? Do we stop to give thanks (and credit) to others who encourage and support us?

I think of gratitude as an attitude we should strive to possess and express every day, not just on Thanksgiving. In our complicated world, often, the simplest words can have the greatest meaning. The following lines, from a poem I learned as a child, sum it up. “Thank you for the world so sweet. Thank you for the food we eat. Thank you for the birds that sing. Thank you, God, for everything.”