Favorite Holiday Traditions ~ @AuthorKristina Knight

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope you're surrounded by friends, family, and great food today!

One of my favorite Thanksgiving traditions is decorating for the holidays. I know there are two very firm camps on this: those who decorate after Thanksgiving, and those who decorate before. I'm firmly in the Before Thanksgiving Decorators camp, not because I don't like Thanksgiving (I do like it. A lot!), but because Christmas decorations make me happy. The music makes me happy, the color makes me happy, and being happy makes me thankful...and being thankful is what Thanksgiving is all about, right?

So, every year, usually the day before Thanksgiving, we drag out the decorations and have ourselves

a pre-Thanksgiving decorating party. This year, we got everything out the Saturday before because the day before was packed with activities (bebe had swimming, RadioMan had a lunch, I had an afternoon meeting). So I've been enjoying the lights and the music for a few days now, and I have to say that I absolutely am loving it. I'm also bingeing on a few of my favorite Hallmark Holiday Movies.

This year, I have even more to be thankful for: my next Harlequin Superromance is releasing in just a few days!

I'm super excited for this book, it's my first 'official' Christmas-themed book, and it's my fifth Slippery Rock title...and it's my 7th Harlequin Superromance...but it's also bittersweet, because this is my last Superromance title. I'm still so sad that Harlequin has decided to close this line of rich, deep, thoughtful books, but I'm also feeling blessed that I've been able to write these books for the past three years. It has seriously been one of the best times in my life - I've learned a LOT from my editors, and I think I'm a better writer after it all. And Christmas won't be my last book - I've got more coming for you guys, and I can't wait to share that news!

For now, here's a little bit about Christmas in a Small Town:

Running out on her wedding was the best decision ever!

A cheating fiancé sends Camden Harris fleeing to her grandparents’ home in Missouri. When her ex follows, determined to win her back, Camden makes a deal with neighbor Levi Walters: they’ll pretend to be in love and she’ll support his plan to buy her grandparents’ land.

The boy from her childhood has grown up into an impressive man. His charm, good looks and sweet gestures make it difficult for Camden to remember this is fake. And Levi’s kisses only confuse her more.

Buy Christmas in a Small Town: Amazon  B&N  iBooks  Kobo  Harlequin/paperback  Harlequin/e-copy

Christina Hollis: Storytelling Like It's Deep And Crisp And Even...

By Gryffindor, via Wikimedia commons

Most of the time, I have a terrible memory. I mean, really bad. Only last Monday I rang OH at work in a panic, thinking I'd thrown my purse in the boot of his car for the drive to church the day before. It was only after he'd answered his phone I remembered we'd gone in our daughter's car. Oops.

 There's one curious thing about recall in general, and my own memory in particular that's always puzzled me. I'm in the Slackers Club now, and we start playing Christmas carols sometime in November, but that wasn't always the case. I was brought up in the strict Methodist tradition of nothing but contemplation from the first Sunday in Advent, followed by a quick burst of carols squeezed between Christmas Eve and Twelfth Night. Despite this, I can sing along with virtually every known Christmas carol that comes on the radio or TV.  My party piece is Good King Wenceslas. I know every single word off by heart, despite never singing it more than once or twice a year. Why, when I can't remember what vehicle I sat in yesterday?

By Kris De Curtis, via Wikimedia

It's because the most memorable carols have a conventional narrative arc. There's a beginning, a middle and an end. Things happen, and people are changed. You aren't simply reciting verses that have been formed around abstract spiritual concepts of love. You're telling a story one step at a time, in the tradition of the earliest peoples who gathered around a fire. Carols are often sung to melodies written by those two local heroes, Trad and Anon, too, which makes them much more user-friendly than many High Church tunes. That's the case for Good King Wenceslas, whose words have been fitted to the tune of a lively spring folk dance. The whole package combines a cheerful tune and regular rhyme scheme in a story of generosity towards those people who have little or nothing. It's a wonderful exercise in giving, teamed with a great lesson in dramatic tension. At a time when the excesses of Black Friday are still fresh in everybody's minds, it's the perfect sentiment for the season.

At this point it's traditional to include a pack shot of the blogger's current novel. As the cover of His Majesty's Secret Passion features a hunky, semi-naked guy, it hardly seems right to display him beside talk of Christmas carols.

If you'd like to see King Leo of Kharova in all his glory,  just hit the like button here on my author page, and you'll be able to find out all about him, between now and the release date of His Majesty's Secret Passion.

Christina Hollis writes both contemporary and historical fiction–when she isn't cooking, gardening or beekeeping. Her books have been translated into more than a dozen different languages, and she’s sold nearly three million books worldwide. You can catch up with her at http://www.christinahollis.blogspot.com,on Twitter and Facebook, and see a full list of her published books at http://www.christinahollis.com Her next release, His Majesty's Secret Passion, will be released in early 2015. 

Holiday Traditions that Feed the Romance Soul

One of the holiday traditions we started years ago with my mom was watching White Christmas on Christmas Eve. A favorite for all of us girls, this movie has it all.  Comedy, romance, and compassion. We've watched it so many times, all of us have the songs and most of the dialogue memorized. I swear, it's one of the places I learned effective romantic story structure. 

As the years progressed, we couldn't fit everything we wanted to do into our time together on Christmas Eve and the movie tradition had to be changed.  This will be our third Christmas without Mom, but because we've shifted our extended family get together to the Saturday before Christmas, I get to reinstate our older tradition of watching the movie on Christmas Eve with my family.  I'm delighted and so are my daughters.  (Not so sure about their husbands! LOL)

For me, the holidays and romance are a natural match.  This time of year, I wait eagerly to see what the publishers are going to offer as food for my love of hot holiday romance.  Here's what's on my list, I'd love to know what's on yours!

A Bravo Christmas Wedding by Christine Rimmer has two of my favorite story elements (three if you count Christmas), a princess and a cowboy.  Christine writes an intense, sexy story that is sure to be a new holiday favorite for me.

Rocky Mountain Miracle by Christine Feehan - No Christmas will ever be the same after Cole and Maia meet on a snowy western ranch… Find out why in #1 New York Times bestselling author Christine Feehan’s romantic holiday e-novella! Okay, can you hear the total fangirl squee from here that one of my ultimate faves has a Christmas story out???

Some fabulous holiday romance classics are repackaged in On the Naughty List by Lori Foster, Carly Phillips, Sugar Jamison & Beth Ciotta.

I love single author anthologies.  Add in a holiday romance theme and I'm going to read it.  That's the case with Nancy Warren's Sugarplum Trio.

A wonderful and engaging historical by Anthea Lawson, Mistress of Melody should not be absent from your holiday reading pile!

What would a romance list be without at least one Harlequin Presents? Christmas in Da Conti's Bed by the awesome and hugely talented Sharon Kendrick is sure to please.

Ready to give a new author a try?  Read either of these charming stories by a couple of my friends you may not have read before: Three Christmas Ghosts: A Regency Christmas Carol by Lydia M. Sheridan and Bahama Christmas by Lavada Dee.

If all this lovely holiday romance leaves room for any more reading, you may want to try my Corporate Information Systems Duo - out today!

Change the Game: In a high-stakes game of love, attraction, and desire, two people playing for all the wrong reasons are about to discover how delicious it can be when plans go deliciously awry and love is all that matters. Alex Trahern may be bent on revenge, but Isabel is set on getting her man.

(NB: Re-edited with previously deleted scenes now included.  Digital re-release of Come Up and See Me Sometime originally published in print only 2005 by Kensington Books)

Win the Game: It's another high-stakes game of love, attraction, and desire, but the players have a past and the stakes couldn't be higher. It's not just their hearts on the line, but secrets and the family neither ever thought to have with the other. Marcus Danvers is a man with a plan and that plan is to win, whatever it takes.
(NB: Re-edited digital re-release of Goodness Had Nothing to Do With It originally published in print only 2005 by Kensington Books)

Hugs, happy holidays and happy reading!

Lucy

Lucy Monroe - Author

With more than 7 million copies of her books in print worldwide, award winning and USA Today bestseller Lucy Monroe has published over 60 books and had her stories translated for sale all over the world. While she writes multiple subgenres of romance, all of her books are sexy, deeply emotional and adhere to the concept that love will conquer all. A passionate devotee of romance, she adores sharing her love for the genre with her readers.

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