Standing in for Santa

 

Standing in for Santa

Samantha headed for the checkout line. This was going to be great - her Secret Santa recipient was going to totally love these gifts! She had found an awesome eyeshadow palette with sparkly colors in every shade of the rainbow, some really pretty earrings that had crystals dripping down like raindrops, and fuzzy socks with aloe soaked right into them. Sam almost wished she was buying for herself, because these were right up her own alley!

A splash of blue on an end-cap display caught her attention and she paused. Oh, these were nice - advent calendars with little chocolates in the windows, one to open for every day until Christmas. 

“But, the Secret Santa program doesn’t start until Dec. 6. If you give it to her the first day, she’ll have to eat six pieces of chocolate in one day.” 

The little voice in her head sounded suspiciously like Carol, the rail-thin teacher in room one. She had probably never eaten a whole pint of ice cream in one sitting like Sam had. Six pieces of chocolate in one day was no problem, but Sam wouldn’t tell her that.

The rules said the program didn’t start until the sixth, but who was it going to hurt if Sam gave the calendar early? She counted up the presents in her arms. She was supposed to give four small presents, one each day of the week, and end with a fifth present at the party when everyone revealed who they had been Santa to. If she started with the calendar, gave it a week early, but somehow let it be known that the rest of the presents would follow the rules…

Which present would she give at the final reveal, then? The earrings? The image of her recipient flashed in front of her, her smile wide and a macaroni necklace around her neck, her hair pulled back in a ponytail. The t-shirt she wore had a silly giraffe on it. The toddlers in her class loved her. 

Shoot, these earrings wouldn’t do. Really, neither would the palette of eyeshadows. Samantha chewed on her lip, thinking. She wished she knew this teacher a little better. It was easier to pick out presents for people she knew well. Hang on….Sam felt an idea simmering. 

She returned the other items she had picked up and then grabbed three calendars. She would deliver one calendar a week early, with a note to explain the next gift would come on Tuesday when everyone else was getting their second gifts. The other two calendars would go on the mantle in the living room, where she would be able to watch Shannon and Meghan, her two foster children, enjoy the countdown, too. Now, to get the rest of the presents. 

A smile spread across Samantha’s face. She sort of wished she really was Santa Claus, surprising people with gifts was so much fun!  

I hope you all remember to take a breath and enjoy the preparations for your holiday celebrations!

Where in the world...?

 Wow, it's been a hot minute (or ten) since I've paid any mind to this blog! I'm all done with the claims that I'll be a better blogger, I'll be more disciplined, I'll post regularly...I won't. (If you would like to hear from me regularly, I invite you warmly to sign up at piperdow.com for my newsletter, which I typically send out twice a month.) But I will still post periodically when I've got something fun to share, like today. The Christian Indie Writers' Podcast ladies have posted a challenge to use the following sentence as a sprinting prompt. Where in the world is Jenifer Carll-Tong? Here it is, 15  17 minutes of un-edited fun. Enjoy!

(Cat was going to be in the story but I didn't get to his part, lol!)

Jamie pushed the hangers further along the garment rack listlessly, passing a casual eye over the dresses while trying to keep her ear attuned to the voices murmuring around her. She paused as her hand fell on a cream colored frock with tiny pink flowers, but no, that neckline would never do. How was it even still staying on the hanger? She slid the hanger and fingered the aqua gown behind it, but Jenifer's character would never have a reason to wear a dress this fine, so she passed that along, too. 

Fretfully, she stepped back and sent a searching glance through the crowd. Where in the world was Jenifer Carll-Tong, anyway? Jamie was sure she had sent the text about the playhouse opening its doors for the last time as soon as she saw the notice stuck to the bulletin board next to the door at the convenience store when she stopped in to pick up that bottle of pop yesterday. 

This was just up Jenifer's alley, so to speak, and Jamie knew Jenifer would be kicking herself if she missed out on the opportunity to grab some of these costumes. Heck, some of these would make great images for covers for Jamie's stories, not just Jenifer's. In fact... Jamie returned to the garment rack with determination. She could think of a perfect story to go with that aqua gown. She grabbed it up, then added the cream frock just for giggles and grins. She could probably get Rhonda to sew some lace or something in that neckline to make it more appropriate.

"Hey, Jamie! I've been looking all over for you! I thought, when you texted me yesterday about the costumes being for sale, that I might be able to find something from that play they did last year about the guy who froze to death in Alaska, but someone must have already gotten all those props. They would have looked great as props on the table for images for my next book." Tina wandered over with her arms filled with velour fabric.

Jamie tried to hide her surprise. Had she texted Tina, instead of Jen? "What are you going to do with all that cloth, then?"

"Oh, I'm going to make curtains for my glamper," Tina's grin was enthusiastic.

Holiday sprinting

 

This is a 15-minute sprint done from the prompt "A holiday surprise" posed by the Christian Indie Writers' Podcast. As per usual, I allowed the prompt to kick-start my brain, but veered away from actually incorporating it in my segment of story. Ah, well, I hope you might enjoy this anyway!

Sam inspected the ornaments on the Christmas tree, enjoying the hand-crafted items. She smiled at a piece of twisted glass hanging from an old bit of twine near the top of the tree, wondering at the story behind it. No one would hang something so old and worn on their tree without it having a story behind it.

David stepped into the room carefully balancing two filled mugs topped with piles of whipped cream. He'd even gone so far as to stick candy canes into the mugs. Sam reached out for her cup, smiling with appreciation. 

"This is lovely!" 

"I invited you out for a drink," he said, lifting his mug in the air in mock salute. "I didn't plan on the road to town being closed, but we can make do."

Sam's tongue darted out to lick the whipped cream off the top of her lip as she swallowed her first sip. "This is more than just making do," she smiled. "I'd almost suggest you engineered that downed tree to be able to pull this off."

David's lifted eyebrow and roguish grin played along. "You caught me out!" He gestured to the tree behind her. "Did you see, I put your ornament on?"

Sam nodded and turned her attention back to the quaintly decorated tree. The ornament she had given him, a small angel made from seashells and bits of dried flowers, hung next to a cardboard house decorated like a gingerbread house. "What's this ornament?" She pointed to the twisted glass.

She turned in time to see a self-deprecating smile on his face. "That used to be a trumpet," he announced, adopting an air of solemnity. "When I was a boy, I pretended to be blowing the trumpet and accidentally bit the end off. My mother insisted we had to keep it. A few years ago the other end broke off when it was put away, so it doesn't look much like a trumpet anymore, but I put it up for her."

(As a little behind the scenes storytelling, I used my husband as the basis for this scene. We still hang his twisted bit of glass on the top of our tree - it's almost 60 years old and no longer looks much like a trumpet, but every year we tell the stories behind the ornaments we hang while we are trimming our tree. This will be the first year without his mother here to comment on it. 💔 )

Review list of books mentioned in 2020 newsletters

Merry Christmas!

In case you missed any of the newsletters sent out this year, I wanted to do a recap of the books I mentioned with links to check them out. Note that you will want to verify that the books are still available at the prices/giveaways as they were when I first put the notification in the newsletter. 

In no particular order, these books received mentions in 2020:

 This is a biblical fiction short story I wrote a number of years ago. Nothing like my Fighting in Shadows series, but available to you for free if you are interested. I hope you enjoy it!

 J F Rogers has all three books of her Ariboslia series available on Amazon in a boxed set!

Meet 17-year-old Fallon in book one, Astray: A mysterious amulet leads Fallon to everything she’s ever wanted… and possibly her death. Book two is Adrift: Fallon returns to Ariboslia to save lives. But the creatures she wants to save want her dead. Book three is Aloft: Fallon and Morrigan face off for the ultimate battle… in their minds.

If you enjoy visiting alternate worlds that feature fast-paced adventure, supernatural creatures, compelling characters, and exciting plot twists, come to Ariboslia. You’ll love J. F. Rogers’s page-turning Christian fantasy series.

 I picked up this book and wanted to give it a shout out - if you enjoy the X-Men, or other "I have super-hero powers I didn't know I had and have to learn how to use them somehow" stories, you might enjoy this book. There is a reverse harem story-line, but the book is clean and I think would be considered "slow burn," in that there are just a few kisses exchanged -- at least in the first book. It's available in KU, too!

 If you are looking for a dystopian read that has nothing to do with viruses or zombies, check out the Jethro Parables by Justin Fillmore, available in ebook or paperback from Amazon. "Jethro must navigate a world where family just means another mouth to feed, and survival depends upon the whims of those who'd trade a life for a trickle of water. " 

 Author Anca Antoci's debut novel, Forget Me Not, offers fantasy fans a new look at some familiar horror creatures, including fairies, hellhounds, demons, and shapeshifters, and a plot that layers in the action and adventure. Forget Me Not is the first of a trilogy set in Alaska. This book is also available on Kindle Unlimited.

 For readers who appreciate dynamic good vs. evil stories, Carla Thorne has Creator, the first in her new Warrior Saints series, available for pre-order today, with a launch date of April 17. Click on the cover to go to the Amazon page to preorder. Not sure if it's for you? Click here to get an exclusive sneak peek of the first few chapters of the book and join her newsletter. The second book, Destroyer, will be out soon!

 If you haven't read your fill of Urban fantasy lately, take a look at L.L.McNeil's Kouzlo Saga 4-book bundle, free to read on Kindle Unlimited or available to purchase, and immerse yourself in the world of phantom Seila and the Kouzlos working to protect London from demons. I think you'll enjoy it!

 For a quick introduction to Timothy Bateson's Shadows over Seattle world, check out this free short story, Under A Hunter's Moon. If you like shifters, be sure to give this one a try!

 Andy, the gypsy's son, has the gift of sight that his mother only pretends to have. Will it help him to win in love? Check out The Gypsy's Son to find out.

 A different shifting story!

I started this story in the afternoon, and was to the half-way point when I had to put it down because my eyes were struggling to stay open any longer. This isn't a werewolf tale, but if you enjoy shifters and adventure, give this one a try!

 Try a new author

Author Austin Baillio's series, the Crystalline Kingdom, pits creatures of light against forces of dark in a world born from the conflict between good and evil. He is offering this short origin story free to readers to entice you into his world.

 

 Sanctuary

This is the YA dystopian story of Mara, who lives inside the dome of Sanctuary. Her technical skills make her the misfit in the man-made paradise, but a perfect explorer to send beyond the barrier. What does she find in the world beyond? Get this free novella to find out for yourself!

 This story of Jace, Kyrin, and Kaden takes place in a fantasy world filled with mythical races and a clash of good and evil. Persecution, faith, loyalty, resistance - they're all here in a clean story that will suck you in and hold you to the last page. Available on Amazon for sale or free to read with your Kindle Unlimited subscription. 

 She's offered the promise of everything she's ever wanted. But is it worth the cost?

Izzy Runar longs to be part of the Order of the Guardians. But, as the daughter of a Core worker, her chances are slim to none. A forbidden vision of the future, however, tells her more may be at stake than her own aspirations.

Visions of the Guardians, is a free young adult dystopian short story.

 Brothers will clash. Faeries will fall. 

Arius must lead the faeries of the Haven and protect them from the evil designs of the dark faeries who seek their destruction. But when he runs into a dark faerie who claims to be his brother, everything could change - or it could be the beginning of a dangerous rivalry.

This story just published in September! Free when you sign up for author's newsletter.

 Some sacrifices cost more than death...

Thirty years ago, dark magicians unleashed power on the earth fueled by demons. Magicians ended up on top of the food chain.

Becca survives these dangerous times by relying on her wits, her fists, and the limited goodwill of her boss, a local crime lord. 

On the hunt for her missing sister, Becca must decide what she’s willing to sacrifice to save her sister.

On Amazon and Kindle Unlimited

That's a lot of books!

I wish for you a Merry Christmas, the Peace that passes understanding even in a year with a pandemic, and a Happier and Healthier New Year.

What's up with all these newsletters?

I am a reader. 

I think that statement is probably true of a lot of writers - we start to write because we enjoy reading so much. Either we just have stories inside of us begging to be told, or we have tried to find stories that we want to read, but cannot, so decide to write them. A lot of us write for both reasons, and perhaps more as well.

I'll tell you soon about how I decided to take the independent publishing path, but this week I am focusing on one thing that Indie Publishing requires if an author wants to get any traction - marketing. Specifically, newsletters.

There are a lot more successful authors who can tell you the whys and wheres of putting out a newsletter, some of whom I follow and hope to learn from. This blog post will illuminate my experience, both as a reader and as a writer, with newsletters.

As I stated, I am a reader. As such, I am as down as the next limited-income reader with getting free books to read. Even better are when I can find lists that offer free books in the genre and rating-level (fantasy, clean, pg-13 or less) I prefer! Chances are that you have come across the kind of promotion I mean, especially if you get my newsletter, because I include them. You browse the offerings and find books that look appealing, sign up for the author's newsletter, and receive the ebook for free. You are free to continue to receive the newsletters or unsubscribe, and the ebook remains yours. 

I have signed up for a lot of newsletters. Like a lot of readers, I haven't even read all of the books I currently have downloaded, and yet I still look for more. That can end up being a crap-ton of newsletters! I use these newsletters as a form of research. What do other authors do that I like, and may want to copy? What do other authors do that I hate, and will make sure I don't do?

Some authors treat their newsletter as a marketing tool - which, to be fair, it is. However, if all I see when I open the email is a bunch of promotions and books to buy, or a pitch to buy the author's other books, then I may stick around for another email to see if it changes but chances are I'm hitting the unsubscribe button.

I get enough flyers in the mailbox, and I pitch those directly in the bin to start the woodstove with. If I had a way to stop getting so many of those, I would. I don't need to start that many fires. In my email, I do have a way to stop receiving what I don't want. I unsub.

A newsletter needs to be engaging. There should be something in there that makes me want to open it. They also need to be aware of my time. (okay, newsletters are not sentient. Their authors, though, should be.) Michael's Arts and Crafts store convinced me to sign up for their coupons. I'll admit, I would want to open those, if I'm going to be heading to the store. I did NOT want to open the five emails they sent me a week. Unsub.

My favorite newsletters are entertaining. Not necessarily dishing personal details about the author, but at least enough to give me a connection. Share a bit of yourself with me, I'll share a bit of myself, either with comments, a reply email, or at the very least, my time. 

I'm still learning. My newsletters are not perfect. In fact, earlier this month I sent one out without a link to the book I was showing and had to send a corrected version, hoping readers would open that to click to the book instead of getting mad and unsubscribing.

Here are two case studies I've recently done.

Author A, whose name appears at the top of the genre on Amazon and has hundreds of reviews, agreed to mention my book to her readers in exchange for the same from me. Hooray! Plus, I joined her list. I received her newsletter. She has a lovely banner at the top identifying her brand. She jumped in with chatty smatterings of what is going on in her writing and otherwise life, including a couple of photos. All great! I was enjoying this! 

Then she had a separator, and graphic images of three promotions and the cover of my book. No introductions, no explanations of what we would find if we clicked, no words. Just the hyperlinked images. Her newsletter just ended. It felt like someone had engaged in a conversation with me and then turned and walked away without comment before the conversation had naturally ended. (Another word for that is Rude.)

I'm sure you know my reaction. Unsub.

Author B, whom I had not heard of before even though she has written a couple of series, got me to sign up to receive her free book. I almost didn't click on it, because I don't love the artwork on the cover - it's just not my style. 

Because this is a positive review, I'll reveal that the author's name is L. S. O'Dea. Her newsletters have me eagerly checking my inbox. Each newsletter has a theme that she briefly discusses and includes references for (feeling different than others, animals adopting other animals, animal superpowers) For example, the first one was about not fitting in - it had a snip of conversation with her mom, quoted statistics with reference links, had funny pics she tied into reading her book. Then she put in a couple of paragraphs from one of the books that had to do with not fitting in.

In all of the newsletters I've received, she has more images than I've read is good to include, but they are fantastic. I've even gotten used to the weird art she has for her covers. (This is just my opinion, probably other people wouldn't find it weird at all. You know, if they like weird art.)

At the bottom of each of her newsletters, she has links and images (Again!) of each of the books in the series and then another series, plus a link to sign up for her FB page. This must be the onboarding sequence still, because there are no book promotions or swaps or other stuff in any of these; they are all about her books so far. 

I admit I still haven't read the book, other than a few paragraphs in the newsletter. But, I have read and reread each of these newsletters, so she has definitely got my engagement! And I know her book will be one I turn to sooner, rather than later, based on my enjoyment of her newsletters. If you would like to sign up for her newsletters, go to her website. (lsodea.com.)

TLDR: I'm not interested in receiving sales flyers with no personal engagement, so I will not be sending those type of newsletters out. I have thoroughly enjoyed these themed newsletters with entertaining and informative tid-bits in them, tied into the author's series. Enough of the author's humor and style show in the newsletter to engage me. I plan to redo my onboarding sequence to increase the entertainment value and hope to increase engagement. I want conversations, people!

So tell me, if you are a reader, what newsletters do you enjoy, and why? If you are an author, what do you include in your newsletters? 

Lobster eggs!

The past two weeks I have not had many words put onto paper, because I've been focused on our harvest.

My family has been in the cranberry business for nearly 30 years. We started by inheriting a couple of cranberry bogs - that's the name for the land area where the cranberries are grown. The bog is lower than the surrounding land and encircled by a moat-like ditch to make flooding the bogs with water possible at harvest time.

We use a reel to pick the berries. Cranberries have little air pockets in them, so when the reel scrapes the berry from the vine, the berry floats. What you see in this photo is floating cranberries being pushed toward the pump that will put them onto the truck for transport.

We sometimes have visitors during harvest, especially if we are picking a bog easily seen from the road. One year, a tourist who had never seen a cranberry harvest asked if we were harvesting lobster eggs! (I don't think he ate much seafood, either!) We all got a good chuckle at that, and it has become a favorite story for my husband to tell new visitors.

This is the reel, which has a hydraulic beater bar/reel in the front. As the bog is being flooded with enough water to make the vines and berries start to float, the reel is driven onto the bog and around in circles to knock the berries from the vines. 

Once more water has been added to the bog so that the berries float above the vines, we can start the job of getting the berries onto the truck to transport to the processing plant. We don waders to wear into the water and grab our handy "pushers" to help direct the berries toward the suction box.

To keep the berries from floating whichever way the wind would blow, we use corral boards that hook together with hinges. Some companies have "cranbarrier" which is more flexible and lighter, to corral the berries, but we use what we have. 

Berries are loaded onto the truck through a suction hose that gets staked to the bog just under the surface of the water/berries. The water and berries go up to the wash box at the top, where the berries are diverted to the waiting truck and the water and leaves and other debris go out another pipe into the trash truck, which separates the debris from the water. Water is directed back to the bog, and the debris - leaves that were knocked off, grasses, etc., is hauled to a pile and dumped out.

At the top of the wash box is this spray bar, which sprays water onto the berries and debris coming out of the bog. This causes the debris to fall through the metal rods below, and the berries to bounce down into the truck to be taken to the plant for processing.

The way our harvest is handled is similar to my idea of a Barn Raising, in that some of our friends come to help and we feed them good, hot food and try to have a few laughs. When the water is hard to come by, as it was this year, or it's very cold, or raining or snowing, it can make the work a lot easier when you can have a few laughs along the way. We are so grateful for the help of our friends! 

This picture is of myself and my husband, smiling because the sun finally came out, the crop is almost in, and I bought a new selfie-stick and made him stand with me to try it out. 😉

 

How do you schedule your days?

 

I am not a disciplined person.

I believe I have established this already, right? I said in May that I was going to post a sprint every week, and promptly disappeared. I mean, I didn't really disappear. That would be amazing, and I wouldn't be wasting time worrying about measly little things like schedules if I could be invisible! But I didn't manage to get those sprints done every week, and of the ones I did do, most of them did not make it to the blog. 

I have several projects going on, like a DIY kitchen renovation project that morphed into a take-over-the-whole-house project that has still not been completed but at least is giving us room to breath. We have cranberry bogs, and this is prime harvest season, with the added pressure of being in a drought and having to keep pushing down the anxiety of whether we will have enough water to flood the bogs to harvest them or not. I am close enough to the end of the next book that I can see most of the road to the finish line, but still far enough away that I cannot say I'll be finished in the next week or two. I'm helping to wrangle gremlins who are hybrid schooling, with the assorted meltdowns that the week on/week off schedule introduces (on top of the little-girl-world meltdowns that happen because, life). Oh, and I do have a real job, even if thanks to the pandemic my hours have been slashed to just more than occasional.

I wish I was a bullet journal person. I've tried - I have a whole stack of really cool stickers I bought to make myself a more organized and productive person. They are still in the bag I brought them home in. I think I used a page or two. I love the idea, but my brain doesn't work that way.

What my brain can manage, though, is a to-do list. (Hey, this is progress. I was an adult diagnosed with ADD before I learned how to use external tools to help myself stay on track!) When I was working a more stable schedule it was easier to stay on track and I largely didn't have to resort to the list or planner or... I don't believe in living in the past. We have to deal with what is, right? What is, for me, right now, is that I need to stay a bit more focused if I hope to accomplish things. 

So, back to the calendar with the to-do list. And something new I'm going to trial this month: I'm going to block out time for certain categories of jobs. Something like: editing before going in to the real job. Writing after the real job until gremlins come home. Finishing up the DIY projects, or cranberry harvest related chores that can be done with gremlins in tow, or corralling school projects or homework or myriad other gremlin-related things will be done after school until dinner. If there's still incomplete items left on my list, and I still have energy after supper, they may fit in there. 

So, how do you schedule your time? Are you a planner person, or do you go where the wind blows? Do you need the help of external lists, or are you able to keep it all together just in your brain? (Don't you have anything else going on in there?) {Just kidding!}