Holiday Movie Time

I dug out my holiday collection movies right after Thanksgiving and looked for new ones. Not to mention watching them on TV.

I’m such a sucker for the holidays. :}

Movies for this time of year are such fun, because you can choose from animation, romantic comedy, humor, and drama. Scrooge isn’t just in the past any longer, families blending the holiday, couples discovering each other, animated characters that give Christmas a whole new meaning. Jack Skellington wanting to be Santa Claus. Tim Allen getting the job without an interview. Vince Vaughn is actually Santa’s brother. Who knew?

Barbara Stanwyck pretending to be a homemaker when she can’t even boil water, but still manages to snare cute Dennis Morgan at Christmas.

The Kranks deciding to skip Christmas so they can take a cruise, but discovering what really mattered that time of the year.

So many versions of A Christmas Carol including Mr. Magoo as Scrooge, Kermit the Frog as Bob Cratchett, even Mickey Mouse doing his thing.

And every year it seems I add to my favorites.

So many to name, but I’ll give you a few that I always watch. Christmas in Connecticut with Barbara Stanwyck, Holiday Affair with Robert Mitchum, It Happened on Fifth Avenue which is a cute little comedy, Miracle on 34th Street, It’s A Wonderful Life, White Christmas, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, the three Santa Clause, Fred Claus, Four Christmases, Christmas with the Kranks, any version of A Christmas Carol, Shrek The Halls, and Madagascar Penguin holiday cartoons.

What movies do you enjoy this time of year?

Linda

Holiday Magick

It's listing to the right."
"It's straight."
"You call that straight? I called it old man crooked." Jazz shot Krebs a look that said 'fix it or else!'
Her housemate blew out an exasperated breath as he stepped back a few paces and studied the tree. She was right. It was leaning a little too far to the right.
"I'll have to secure the damn thing to the wall," he muttered. "You had to have a ten-foot tree, didn't you?"
"The room cries out for a large tree." She held her arms out to encompass the huge living room that was bright with twinkle lights threaded through green garlands decorated with red velvet bows. Holiday music played in the background.
Krebs grunted as he struggled with the heavy tree. He shot a glare toward the man lounging on the couch. "You could help, you know. Vampire strength. Pick the tree up as if it was a toothpick and all that."
"This is your tradition, not mine." Nick grinned. "Besides, I'm enjoying the show you and Jazz are giving me as you argue about decorations and a tall tree." But he took pity on the human and went over to help steady the tree. "Perhaps someone will add her magick to the tree." He lifted an eyebrow at Jazz.
"What would you guys do without me?" She held her hands out. "Getting close to the date. Want the tree to be long. So stand up straight and stand up strong. Because I said so, damn it!" To go with the holiday spirit her magick left her fingertips in red and green sparkles, traveling to the tree and wrapping it in power. The tree immediately stopped listing to the right. "And no holes in the wall," she told Krebs.
"That works for me. Think you can do the lights too?"
"Putting lights up is guy work! I put up the ornaments and icicles." She held up a silvery strand of tinsel.
Krebs gritted his teeth as Jazz directed the placement of the strands of lights. "I thought this was guy work."
"It is, but you still need to know where they go." She handed him the star tree topper.
"What did you do before you had me to boss around?" Krebs asked.
"I had a three-foot tabletop tree, but this is so much better." Jazz sorted through the ornaments until she found the one she wanted and carefully placed it on a branch.
Fluff and Puff slid into the room, chattering away to themselves. They headed for the red basket filled with candy canes and grabbed one, growling and snapping at each other as they fought over the peppermint treat until it broke in half. Each retreated to an opposite corner to enjoy their booty while keeping an eye on the other to make sure it wasn't taken away from them.
"No, the angel has to go up there." Jazz pointed up and up and up.
Krebs sighed. "I'll get the ladder."
"I can take care of that." Nick levitated to the branch Jazz indicated and carefully hung the ornament.
Between Jazz's direction, Krebs and Nick doing her bidding the tree was decorated from top to bottom.
"Any reason why you couldn't do the witchy thing and just send the ornaments onto the tree?" Krebs asked.
"Sure, but it's not as much fun as making sure they're where they belong. I do great work." She beamed as she studied the tree.
Nick and Krebs exchanged a look. "Who does great work?" They asked in unison.
"I was the brains, you were the brawn." She waved off their words. "It's a beautiful tree."
With the drapes open, the tree was perfectly framed in the huge bay window that faced the street. With icicle lights decorating the house, twinkle lights blanketing the shrubs and lighted lollipops and candy canes along the cement walkway, the house was a holiday confection.
"Let's go outside and see the full effect!" Jazz grabbed the men by the hand and pulled them outside. They stood on the sidewalk to admire the final effect.
"Even prettier than last year," she pronounced.
"I have to admit you do good work." Krebs hugged her.
"Jazz has always loved the holidays," Nick said.
"Especially presents." She looked from one to the other.
"You know the rules. We wait until the morning of December 25 and not one minute sooner. It's cold out here. I'll make Irish coffee," he offered, heading for the front door. "You can drink that, right, Nick?"
"Thankfully, I can." He slipped an arm around Jazz's waist as they walked up the walkway.
"Gross!" Krebs stared at Fluff, or maybe it was Puff. "They ate peppermint and that came out of them?"
Jazz held her nose as she waved her hand through the noxious air that seemed to get worse by the minute. "I should have remembered that peppermint doesn't agree with them."
"I guess we'll be drinking our Irish coffee in the kitchen." Krebs led the way.

Holiday Treats

The holidays are all about color, music, lights, laughter, family, and friends. But wait a minute! That’s not all. There’s something wonderful to bind it all together.

Good food and fun treats.

Everyone knows I love to bake and there were been years I’d felt as if I spent days in the kitchen. Still, the end results were always worth it and I shared with friends.

I have my usual recipes and I try a couple new ones every year. Some remain in my recipe files and some don’t.

Is there anything better than walking into a house that smells like a bakery? Cinnamon, cloves, ginger, chocolate, cream cheese, peppermint. Whatever gives you that warm and fuzzy feeling?

The following are a few of ones I enjoy making this time of year.

One cookie that’s fun to make. Buttery cookies rolled in cinnamon sugar that come out rich and chewy. And it makes the kitchen smell so good while baking them.


Snickerdoodles


1 1/2 cups sugar 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup margarine, softened 1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla 2 tbsp sugar
2 eggs 2 tsp cinnamon
1 3/4 cups flour 1 tsp cream of tartar


400 oven
In large bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups sugar and margarine until light and fluffy. Blend in vanilla and eggs. Blend flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt into creamed mixture. Combine 2 tbsp sugar and cinnamon. Shape dough into 1 inch balls, roll balls in sugar-cinnamon mixture. Place 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. bake at 400 for 8-10 min or until set.

chocolate snickerdoodles -- 1/2 cup cocoa can be substituted for 1/2 cup flour. Bake at 400 for 6-9 min.


These cookies are sooooo good! Time-consuming to make, but the end results are worth it. Yes, you could make them to share, but after you eat a few, you won’t want to.


Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies


Filling -- 1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup powdered sugar

Cookie -- 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup margarine, softened
8-oz. pkg cream cheese, softened
reserve 2 oz. for frosting
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking powder

Frosting -- 1 cup sifted powdered sugar
2 tbsp. cocoa
1-2 tbsp milk
reserved 2 oz. cream cheese

Combine peanut butter and powdered sugar, blend until smooth. Chill while mixing cookie dough.

Cream brown sugar, sugar, margarine and 6 oz cream cheese until light and fluffy. Blend in egg and vanilla. Blend flour, cocoa and baking powder into creamed mixture. Shape dough into 1 inch balls, place 2 in. apart on cookie sheets. With thumb, make imprint in center of each cookie. Fill with 1 tsp filling. Bring dough around filling to completely cover. Bake at 350 for 9-12 minutes. Cool.

Mix frosting ingredients together and spread over cooled cookie.

Mine usually come out larger than they say. And I seem to only make them at Christmas time since they're so addicting! They've become addicting to my friends and family too!


These candies aren’t just for holidays. If you like Snickers bars you’ll love these.


Choconut Caramel Bars


2 pkg milk chocolate chips
4 tbsp shortening
2 14-oz pkg caramels
4 tbsp water Choconut
2 cups peanuts, chopped

Melt 1 pkg choc. chips and 2 tbsp shortening-takes about a minute or so in microwave. Stir until smooth. Pour into 9x13 foil lined pan. Refrigerate until firm. Melt caramels and water-about 2 to 4 min. in microwave. Stir until smooth then fold in the peanuts. Pour mixture over the cooled chocolate, spread evenly, and refrigerate until firm. Top with remaining chocolate and refrigerate until it’s set.

Halve recipe if using 8 in. square pan, but do you really want to do that?

I discovered this recipe several years ago and it was an instant hit. If you love dreamsicles you will love this fudge.


Marbled Orange Fudge


1 1/2 tsp plus 3/4 cup butter—divided (it also works just fine with margarine)
3 cups sugar
3/4 cup whipping cream
1 pkg vanilla or white chips
1 jar marshmallow creme
3 tsp orange extract
orange food coloring

Grease 13x9 pan with 1 1/2 tsp butter. Combine sugar, cream and remaining butter. Cook and stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Bring to a boil, cook and stir for 4 min. Remove from heat, stir in chips and marshmallow creme until smooth. Remove 1 cup, set aside. Add orange extract and coloring to remaining mixture. Stir until blended. Pour into pan. Drop reserved marshmallow mix by tablespoonfuls over top. Cut through mixture with a knife to swirl. Cover and refrigerate until set. Cut into squares.

I’ve tried other flavors and while they taste great I always return to the orange/vanilla combo. You can try chocolate and mint, chocolate & coconut and put coconut in the coconut part, lime extract and vanilla, peppermint, maybe even cinnamon!

The holidays are all about the senses, so with this we have smell and taste. How great is that?

Linda

E-Book Monday -- Guest Blogger Jeffrey A. Carver

Please welcome today's guest blogger Jeffrey A. Carver!

I enjoy reading science fiction and so fun to have him here!

What's a science fiction writer doing in a place like this? he asks himself, looking around warily. Book lovers, from the appearance of the joint. Romance, okay. Seems friendly enough. They must be okay. They like books, and they asked me to come.

Well, hi—I'm Jeff. Jeffrey A. Carver, they call me on the book covers. The reason Linda and I know each other—though we've never met in person—is that we're both doing the same thing: bringing our out-of-print books back to life, self publishing them as ebooks. Self-repubbing, I call it. Ebooks are something I've been involved in for years, but this part is new to me.

My first ebook-reprints were released years ago through an outfit called E-reads, founded by my agent Richard Curtis. E-reads was on the cutting edge, so cutting that there really wasn't much audience for the product yet. I wasn't a fan of ebooks myself, to be honest—not until I started creating my own ebook reprints for free giveaway, and found that I love ebooks. Here's how that happened:

I've been working for years on an SF series called The Chaos Chronicles, published by Tor Books. The first three volumes, starting with Neptune Crossing, came out to a good reception. But, for a variety of reasons, there was a gap of a decade between those first three and Book Four, Sunborn. You want to guess the availability status of the first three by that point? Right. Coming out with a fourth novel in a series, when the first three were out of print, seemed like a recipe for disaster to me. So I decided to release those first three myself, for free download from my website. I did, and they did—download the books, that is—by the tens of thousands, over two years. I was building my audience, and many of them said thank-you with Paypal donations, and some said thank-you by going on to buy my other ebooks. Not in vast numbers, but enough to be encouraging. What it didn't do was drive paper sales. Those were in the doldrums, and stayed there.

So a few months ago, I decided to shift gears. Pull back on the freebies (not to none, but to less) and put the novels into the Kindle store and Smashwords for a few bucks each. That's what I've done, and in the process became part of a cross-genre collection of authors called Backlist eBooks, and related communities of traditionally published writers, all taking on the great experiment of self-repubbing their backlists. Right now, I have these three books: Neptune Crossing, Strange Attractors, and The Infinite Sea, out under my own imprint, Starstream Publications. I added new afterwords, reflecting a bit on the evolution of the series and what it was like to write the books.

In case you're wondering what the books are about, here are a few brief squibs:

Neptune Crossing Kindle Smashwords
When John Bandicut encounters an alien intelligence on Neptune's moon Triton, his life changes irrevocably. Urged by the alien quarx now sharing his mind, he accepts an audacious mission—to steal a ship and hurtle across the solar system in a desperate bid for Earth's survival.

Strange Attractors Kindle Smashwords
For John Bandicut, Earth is but a memory. Stranded outside the galaxy in a vast structure peopled by a thousand races, Bandicut finds unexpected friends—only to be caught up in a cascade of irresistible forces. Confronting an entity known as the boojum, Bandicut discovers that the Shipworld itself is in peril, and only he can intervene.

The Infinite Sea Kindle Smashwords
Flung to an alien ocean world, John Bandicut and his companions find themselves plunged into the deepsea realm of the Neri. What will they find in the Neri's failing undersea city, or in the terrifying object of the deep abyss? Book 3 of The Chaos Chronicles continues the hard-SF saga inspired by chaos theory—with an all-new Afterword by the Nebula-nominated author of Eternity's End.

You're all romance people here, right? The answer is yes, there is romance out among the stars, even when you're a lone human in the company of aliens.

Soon I hope to have one more book up: Eternity's End, part of my Star Rigger universe. That one was a Nebula Award finalist. I'm working with a cover designer, and when it's finished I want to go back and redo the covers for the Chaos books. Here's what Eternity's End looks like in its print edition:

This is all still a great experiment for me. Stay tuned, and we'll all see what happens. If you'd like to see my free samples, and even download a free copy of my TV tie-in, Battlestar Galactica: the Miniseries, please visit my downloads page. To see a complete listing of all my ebooks, visit my ebooks page or my Amazon Author page.

And by all means, drop in anytime at my blog, Pushing a Snake Up a Hill.

Say, is there any coffee around here?

—Jeffrey A. Carver

The Holiday Hunt Is On!

Yes, another scavenger hunt going on! And I've offered up some hexy goodies and books.

Just go to Night Owl Reviews to find out what's offered.

http://www.nightowlreviews.com/nor/Pages/WinterWonderlandDetails.aspx

The Halloween Hunt was a blast. Good luck!

Linda

E-Book Thursdays -- Guest Author Lynn Michaels

Please welcome one of my closest friends who's also an awesome author. How many of you remember her wonderful Harlequin Temptations and Bridal romances?

Now she's bringing her books back to a new life.

Linda

One of the toughest questions for an author to answer is “What’s your favorite of all the books you’ve written?” I’ve been known to go totally blank when asked that, but I’ll usually say, “All of them.” I don’t mean that to sound pat or off hand, it’s simply the truth.
If you asked me “Which of your books did you enjoy writing the most?” two that come instantly to mind are THE PATRIOT and AFTER-SHOCK. I had more fun writing those books than a person alone in a room with a computer should be allowed to have. I’m glad there are no laws against that.
The bad guy in both stories is a mercenary named Conan. That’s not his real name, that’s just what he’s called because he looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was only a movie actor when I wrote the books. He makes his first appearance in THE PATRIOT, and returns in AFTERSHOCK.
Like another of Arnold’s iconic characters, the Terminator, thanks to the boom in e-readers such as Kindle and Nook THE PATRIOT and AFTERSHOCK are baa-aack, this time as e-books. Both are available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Preserving books is the coolest thing about e-publishing. A book never goes out of print; there’s no spine to crack and drop pages, and you can’t lose it. Though I suppose you could lose your reader.
For authors, especially category romance authors (THE PATRIOT and AFTERSHOCK were first published by Harlequin Temptation, a cate-gory line that sadly is no more) this is beyond thrilling. Why? Because the average shelf life of a category romance is three weeks. A book that took me 6 to 9 months to write has a sales window of 21 days and then, pffft -- it’s gone, outta there, pulled off the shelf to make room for the next month’s titles. The cover is stripped and returned to the publisher for credit. The rest of the book is tossed in a dumpster.
I can’t tell you how heartbreaking that is for authors. Plus it’s frustrating for readers who really wanted the book but somehow missed it. I know because I’ve been one of those readers.
Whoever said you can’t tell a book by its cover must have seen the original covers of THE PATRIOT and AFTERSHOCK.
THE PATRIOT had the worst cover ever, my editor even said so, and AFTERSHOCK wasn’t much better. Authors have no control over covers. We get what we get, and we all hold our breath waiting to see what art department comes up with.
My good friend Judy Johnson, a very talented artist, created the e-book covers that I’m sharing with you here. I love them!
If you like suspense and adventure with your romance then THE PATRIOT and AFTERSHOCK are your kind of books. I hope you’ll buy them and enjoy them, but there’s no rush. They’ll be there waiting for you, as they say in fairy tales, forever and a day.
E-books are a win for authors and a win for readers. Hallelujah! Can I have an amen?

I hope you'll come visit me and my books.



www.lynnmichaels.us

http://www.amazon.com/Aftershock-ebook/dp/B004BA54Z6/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1291225216&sr=1-7

http://www.amazon.com/The-Patriot-ebook/dp/B004BA550A/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1291225273&sr=1-13

Christmas Countdown

It’s December!

Kids are singing how many days until Santa comes down that chimney.

Adults are penning gift lists, wish lists, and planning shopping trips with the same strategy of a military commander.

And the pantry is loaded with all the staples you need to bake all those goodies that you hope don’t add to inches to your hips and thighs.

How do you handle the holidays?

Do you shop online or hit the malls?

Do you have that list penned of who gets what or do you browse hoping an item will scream a family member or friend’s name?

Do you have those special hiding places the kids don’t know about? Or you hope they don’t know about.

I admit it. I love to gift shop. Yes, I love to shop for myself. I’m human, after all. :} But I also enjoy going out and finding just that right gift for someone. I shop both online and at the mall, although I sometimes like wandering the mall for their decorations.

Just about all of my friends are demented, so what can I say? They’re very easy to shop for. I look for fun items that I know will make them laugh. But I also love finding the fun girly items. We can’t have enough of those, can we?

Then there are the decorations. The crates holding ours is in the garage and I’m finishing putting everything up. It’s also a good time to sort out what we might not keep, even if that means always finding something new. I’ve already seen some items that I’m doing the ‘ahhh!’ moment.

I don’t do as much baking as I used to. Too dangerous to leave around the house, but I love to make a variety and share them. I’ll be putting up some recipes this month of what I tend to make this time of year.

We also have fun seeing the house decorations. A lot of fun to make a Starbucks run and drive around the neighborhoods or even walk around our own neighborhood along with seeing Santa when he drives through the neighborhoods along with a bunch of singers and their collecting for a food drive.

I’ve already warned Barney I’m getting him a jingle bell collar when I shop for his gifts from Santa Paws.

But even with all this, I have a book to write.

I’ll still manage my holiday fun.

What about you? What will December be like for you?

Linda