Title: WRAPPED WITH A BOW
Tag: The Crazy Lady Authors
Present A Blizzard of Books - 9 Holiday Stories as Unique as a Snowflake.
Blurb: Come warm your toes by
our fire, relax, and indulge yourself with this box set of amazing tales. In
the spirit of the season, the Crazy Ladies present this gift of heartfelt
stories that will make you laugh, cry, and give thanks for the many blessings
in your life. From our heart to yours, we wish you a very Merry Christmas.
Stories:
Aubree Lane — The Kissing Ball
Cherime MacFarlane — A White Cat
For Christmas
RE Hargrave — Sugar &
Spice
Teri Riggs — True Love Never
Dies
Ella Medler — Frozen Heart
Mychele E. Gwynn — Sophie’s
Wish
Jennifer Bryan Yarbrough —
Christmas for Faith
Samantha Jacobey — Christmas
Candy
Holly Barbo — The Crystal
Snowflake
Add to Goodreads:
https://goo.gl/VEMP7y
The Kissing Ball
Aubree Lane
Bio:
Aubree Lane lives in the beautiful foothills
of Northern California with her husband, two wonderful sons, and a super
special peek-a-poo named Tanner.
Blurb:
Sparks fly when the non-profit One in
One-Fifty and Melissa Ellison team up to create mistletoe magic for the town’s
Christmas dance. The hanging spheres of kissable kindness kickoff holiday
happiness and ornamental optimism, but all is not what it seems. An evil elf
lurks in the shadows, conspiring to prey on those most vulnerable. Will Melissa
find the miracle she needs to protect the ones she’s grown to love and respect?
*
A White Cat For Christmas
Cherime MacFarlane
Bio:
Born in New Orleans, I am proud to call
myself an Alaskan. I have lived here for 38 years, I have seen -40 degrees,
hauled water, made bear bacon and still live in a cabin. I have used a
fishwheel to catch salmon coming up the Copper River. I have cut firewood on
shares and worked as a cocktail waitress during pipeline days in a small lodge
on the Richardson Highway. I was my second husband's chief mechanic's helper
and roadie.
My second husband, a Scot from Glasgow, was
the love of my life. When I write Scots dialect, I personally experienced
hearing it from my in-laws. When my husband got on the phone to Scotland, after
5 seconds I could barely understand a word.
We moved to Wasilla to get warm. It barely
drops past -25 degrees here in the winter. I became a paralegal and worked for
over 26 years for the same firm. Thousands of documents I have written have
been before various judges all over the state.
Alaska is my home. I never thought I would
love it so much I’d never want to leave. The beauty of Alaska is a draw I
cannot resist. I love the people and the history. I have been captured by a
place I came to under duress. Life does play some interesting tricks on one. I
lost my first husband to alcohol. My second husband, the love of my life, died
as a result of disease. We were not apart more than 24 hours for 20 plus years.
I never wanted to be anywhere but with him. He was a man to run the river with
and was my biggest fan.
Blurb:
Mike has a very good reason to be careful.
His business leaves him open to threats and possibly violence. He is suspicious
of the woman hanging around the old dilapidated garage near the road. What is
she doing on his property?
Angie saw the little kitten on the way to
work. The poor little thing is living under the old shed. She wants to rescue
it before the temperature drops so low it freezes to death. The big man is
intimidating, but the kitten needs help, and she’ll take on the irate homeowner
if she has too.
*
Sugar & Spice
RE Hargrave
Bio:
R.E. Hargrave lives on the outskirts of
Dallas, TX where she prides herself on being a domestic engineer. Married to
her high school sweetheart, together they are raising three children from
elementary age to college age. She is an avid reader, a sometimes quilter and
now, a writer. Other hobbies include gardening and a love of a music.
A native 'mutt,' Hargrave has lived in New
Hampshire, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Alabama, Texas, and California. She is
fond of setting her stories on location in South Carolina and Texas, but its
anybody's guess as to what the genre will be!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/REHargrave
Twitter: https://twitter.com/REHargrave
Amazon: http://amzn.to/1R9Ua8r
Blurb:
Lacey Harrison has been dealt an unexpected
hand in life: being a single mom. With her father's help and that of the
residents at Royal Hills Nursing Home, she thrives and goes on to become a
successful baker. She is content with her life but knows that she and her
daughter Candy are missing something. Will things change for the better when Trent
Childress moves into town and adds some spice to her sugar?
*
True Love Never Dies
Teri Riggs
Bio:
Teri Riggs was destined to be a writer. As a small girl she didn’t read bedtime
stories, she made up her own. Who needed
Little Red Riding Hood or The Three Little Pigs when there were so many great
tales bouncing around in her head? When
she grew up and became a mother to three little girls, she continued the
tradition of making up bedtime stories.
On the occasions she chose to tell conventional fairytales, Teri usually
gave them a bit of tweaking here and there or added a new ending. Her girls loved it.
After her daughters had the nerve to actually
grow up and leave home, Teri discovered she had a passion for writing and
jumped right in. It came as no surprise
she chose to write mysteries and happily-ever-after’s since that’s the genres
she loves to read.
Teri lives in Marietta, Georgia with her
husband, one of her daughters and two dogs that seem to think they rule the
world. And some days Teri thinks maybe
they do.
Teri still frequently tells herself stories
as she falls asleep. The only difference
now is she wakes up the next morning and turns her bedtime stories into books.
Stay in touch with Teri:
Website: http://teri-riggs.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TeriLRiggs
Blurb:
Samantha has mourned the tragic Christmas Eve
death of her husband for three years. During that time, she’s moved to a home
in the small town of Heaven’s Beach, has made plenty of new friends, and owns
the local art gallery. She should be happy. Instead, she misses Nate, the love
of her life, to the point of distraction. To make matters worse, her mind seems
to be playing tricks on her lately and she begins to see images that can’t
possibly be real.
With the help of her friends and mother-in-law,
Sami has finally decided it’s time to pull her life together once and for all.
But is it ever truly possible to move on?
Or is it a fact that True Love Never Dies?
*
Frozen Heart
Ella Medler
Bio:
Ella Medler is a U.K. author and editor. She
writes fiction in many genres in a seemingly vain attempt to slow down her
overactive brain enough to write non-fiction on subjects she knows a thing or
two about. She also does not believe in the starchy use of English and ignores
the type of rule that doesn’t allow for a sentence to be finished in a
preposition. Her books are action-driven, and well-developed characters are her
forte. Loves: freedom. Hates: her inner censor.
She lurks around here: http://www.amazon.com/Ella-Medler/e/B007FVQTFW/
And here: https://ellamedler.wordpress.com/
And in many other questionable places.
Blurb:
Quiet and listless, the glass heart sat
hidden under layers of unremarkable clutter, its secret safe. The human hands
had touched it often through the strata of debris, but until now, had never
uncovered it fully. At last, the yellow duster cut through the grime, and the
heart began to shift. It would most likely have frozen over again, up on its
high shelf, if the cat’s careless pouncing hadn’t made if fall into a box full
of tinsel. This is how the history of time and place began to change – with the
story of the frozen heart.
*
Sophie’s Wish
Michele E. Gwynn
Bio:
Michele E. Gwynn spent eight years writing as
a freelance journalist for newspaper, magazines, and contributed to sites
online such as Yahoo Voices, Open Salon, FashionErotica.com, AlwayzTherro.com,
and Examiner.com to name a few. Still, she always loved a good story and after
an attempt at screenwriting for the debut of Project Greenlight in 2000, she
decided that fiction was what she really loved creating so her fingers began to
type. She is now a published author (briefly under the umbrella of Beau Coup
Publishing before going Indie) of three series; the Kriminal Erotic Series (a
crime/detective series with steam), the Angelic Hosts Series (a spiritual
action/adventure suspense/mystery with a twist of romance), and the Harvest
Trilogy (a horror/sci-fi series inspired by a true event). She has authored a
stand-alone contemporary romance, Waiting a Lifetime, which is currently an
official selection for nomination in The Romance Reviews Readers Choice Awards
Winter 2015, and will be publishing her very first dark paranormal romance,
Darkest Communion, Halloween 2015. She has a lot of literary irons in the fire
planned for 2016 to include the first novel in her new series, The Ghosts of
Cardiff, (a supernatural murder mystery series), and a collaboration with a
fellow author as well which is still under wraps so "Sssh!"
Blurb:
A child of destiny, Sophie
Fairchild’s origins were a mystery to her parents, Nanette and Charles. Unable
to conceive on their own, Nanette had prayed to God every day at the Basilica
of the Sacred Heart of Montmartre located on the Rue du Chevalier-de-Barre in
Paris that He would bless her and her husband with a child. Found on their
doorstep one winter morning tucked away in a wicker basket, surrounded by two
fat cats and several doves, Sophie was the answer to their prayers. Five years
later, the Fairchild’s find themselves once again wondering from where and whom
Sophie came. After bringing home countless animals from stray cats to injured
birds, she has now befriended a homeless girl with no family of her own. Dogged
by tragedy, the young girl experiences heartbreaking loss. Stalked by darkness,
she enters the Basilica seeking change to buy bread, but ‘borrowing’ from the
donation box turns disastrous. Sophie watches as a child with sticky fingers
runs out of the church as if the very devil himself was in hot pursuit.
Concerned, she takes off after her, finding her hiding in a dark alley. Still,
Sophie knows she has nothing to fear, and once again, she brings home a
homeless stray determined to help, unaware that darkness follows. With
Christmas fast approaching, Sophie seeks a way to give her new friend, Cecilia,
a very special gift…with the help of an angel or three. But will she be safe
from the prophesy that her kind act has put into play?
*
Christmas for Faith
Jennifer Bryan Yarbrough
Bio:
Jennifer Bryan Yarbrough is the author of the
Porter Kingston Series. Lost and Found is her first published novel in this
series. Other books in the series are Found By Love (Book 2), Found at Last
(Book 3) and her recently released book, Eden's Kiss (Book 4).
Jennifer also writes under the name J B
Yarbrough for teens. You can check out her short story under that name, The
Tree House, on Amazon.com.
Jennifer currently resides in Oklahoma where
she was born and raised and lives with her husband and 3 children. When she
isn't writing she is spending time with her family or reading and finding new
authors to love.
Blurb:
Christmas... That one word brings so many
different emotions to the surface for Faith, and none of them good. After her
boss forces her to take a holiday vacation, she spirals down into terrible
loneliness.
Having no friends or family in her life,
Faith finds herself spending most of her time at the local diner. It's there
that she meets her first friend; Prudence, a loud and opinionated waitress who
turns out to be the mother figure Faith always dreamed of having.
When Prudence's single, gorgeous nephew,
Alek, appears out of the blue, Faith starts to question why she has always chosen
to be alone. Alek tries his best to show Faith the life that she has been
missing out on, and decides to show her the true meaning of Christmas. His
charm forces her to let down her guard, to have a little faith, and to trust
him, but in the process, she begins to question everything about herself. Can
Faith trust a man she barely knows not to hurt her as her own family has done?
Will love heal her lonely heart, and will there finally be a happy Christmas
for Faith?
*
The Crystal Snowflake
Holly Barbo
Bio:
Holly's world is shaped by her love of
family, the beauty of the natural world and an irrepressible creative drive.
She has always been curious and sees life through questions. These four
characteristics color her writing voice and her stories frequently evolve from
her asking “What if....?” Her tales tend to have non-urban settings with nature
contributing to the plot, building discordant themes inside a seemingly
peaceful refrain.
Holly weaves alternative worlds with threads
from today.
Find more of Holly’s books here:
http://www.amazon.com/Holly-Barbo/e/B0082ZGU7M
Blurb:
When Chayse’s friend is murdered before he
can get protective custody, she and her department in Homeland Security are
thrust into a race to stop a destructive cyber worm from wiping out all bank
and stock market records during Christmas break. The good news: there's an
inoculating code which will stop the worm. The bad news: it's hidden in a
special crystal concealed in the sculpted walls of a beautiful ice hotel in the
Lapland region of Sweden and the terrorists are searching for it too. As the
snow flurries of November freeze into December, each side rushes to find the
crystal with entirely different goals. Will the Christmas holiday bring
destruction for the Western financial systems?
*
Christmas Candy
Samantha Jacobey
Bio:
Anyone who knows me could tell you, I am a
friendly kind of person, never met a stranger and take up conversations
anywhere at any time. I work hard, and my mind never seems to shut down, as I
wake up often in the middle of the night with ideas pouring out and demanding
to be dealt with. Of course that means much of my books were written in the
middle of the night.
I grew up and still live in the great state
of Texas where everything is bigger, where we have warm weather and a central
location. I love my state, my town, and my family, which includes my four sons,
my significant other, and many friends as well.
I have thoroughly enjoyed writing this story
and hope that you will love reading it just as much. And of course, there will
be many more adventures to come.
You can follow Samantha Jacobey at:
Website: www.SamJacobey.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SamJacobey
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SamJacobey
Pinterest:
http://www.pinterest.com/samanthajacobey/
Blurb:
Life isn’t always sweet, even for girls called Candy.
Candice Parker’s life has never been easy. Plagued by losses and setbacks, each day is a struggle for the petite brunette and her young son. When fireman Gary enters her world, he is one mistake she refuses to make; but after tragedy strikes, she may not have a choice.
Gerald Ford has never been what anyone would call settled. Always keeping things simple, he lived a fast and furious lifestyle, with no intentions of slowing down. However, when he inherits his family’s ancestral mansion on his thirtieth birthday, he considers the possibility that it’s time for a change. Could this complicated young woman be his Christmas Candy?
Buy Links:
Amazon
US: http://amzn.to/1IuIZHs
Amazon UK: http://goo.gl/kop9yz
Amazon AU: http://goo.gl/D7UhVf
Amazon CA: http://goo.gl/u8Qe4W
Unusual Christmas Traditions
Around the World
#3
In
Japan, KFC equals Christmas
Just like how
Christmas turkey is a must on Christmas, for the Japanese it’s the Colonel’s
Chicken. Since the beginning of this marketing campaign four decades ago, KFC
has been associated with Christmas in the minds of the Japanese for
generations, a tradition passed on from parent to child in spite of its
commercialized beginnings. More than 240,000 barrels of chicken will be sold
during Christmas, five to ten times its normal monthly sales.
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