Happy Christmas! All the books in the TOTEM series are 99c until January 1st!

Merry Christmas from my house to yours!

Enjoy the fun and festive times with your friends and family.

As a big thank you to all my wonderful readers, I have put all the books in my thrilling urban fantasy series, TOTEM, on sale for 99c.

Dark Dawning

Silent Whispers

Cloak of Snow

Shattered Spirit

Ghost Cat

Deep Current

Shadows Fall

Descending Moon

True Shifter

The series is always free to read on Kindle Unlimited.

Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

FROM MY HOUSE TO YOURS.

And in honor of my new paranormal romance series coming next year, here's an Inuit toast: "May you have warmth in your igloo, oil in your lamp, and peace in your heart."

My gift to you - Team Santa

TEAM SANTA

By Christine Rains

"Team CA-23 is a go!”

The fat man wiggled and slithered down the chimney as if boneless. He popped out of the fireplace with a merry laugh. A puff of soot surrounded him and transformed to sparkling dust as it drifted to the floor.

Bobbo the cat started out of his nap and hissed. His gray fur stood on end and his claws dug into the couch cushion. He raced behind the sofa in a flurry of hairballs.

From the sleigh on the roof, an elf in a green cap flipped a switch for the camera. “CA-23 entry successful.”

The radio response was crisp as the new fallen snow. “Roger that, CA-23. How's he looking, Evert?”

“Doing good. No chimney damage. He's placing the presents under the tree right now.” Evert leaned back, breathing in the cold night air. The images on the screen bobbed as Santa bent and set the many gifts out for the large family of six. “I think we got this one right.”

"Let's hope. Finn's still trying to repair the roof from CA-22's mishap.”

“The mishap was letting Finn pilot anything.” Evert snorted. “But since his father has more stripes on his cane than the rest of us, he gets to do what he wants.”

Santa nabbed a sugar cookie from a plate and stuffed it in his mouth. He hummed and chewed as he started on the stockings. His beard caught the crumbs and sifted them out to appear on the empty plate.

"At least he made Finn do the repairs himself. Maybe he won't ask for his own team next year.” 

Evert chuckled. “Yeah, let him stick with cleaning up after the reindeer.”

As if he'd heard the joke, Santa's belly jiggled as he giggled and packed the treats into the last stocking. He then continued to stick stuffers into a nearby vase and potpourii dish.

"Crap.” Evert straightened and pressed a few buttons on the dashboard. With no response from Santa, he tried another set. “Hugo, we have a stuffing problem.”

Santa moved on to the chair, ripping open a pillow and filling it with gifts. 

"Dammit.” Hugo let loose a colorful string of curses. “What's he doing?”

"Just stuffed some pillows. Moving on to a potted plant.” Evert's fingers danced over the controls. 

Dirt and leaves splatted against the wallpaper.

"Have you tried telling him his job is complete? Or the adult out-of-sight escape command?”

"Both. He's not responding to either. It keeps saying his work is in progress.” Evert growled and hit a fist on the screen. “Come on, Santa. You're done!”

Santa bent and reached down to pick up something.

"The cat! He's going to stuff the cat!” Evert sent the commands again as Hugo frantically yelled over the radio.

Bobbo screeched and kicked, but the gloved hand had a firm hold of him. The other hand raised up, full of peppermints and chocolates wrapped in shiny red paper.

Evert slapped his hand on a large red button. The gleam in Santa's eyes blinked out, and he fell backward on the coffee table. The cat tore free and raced out of the room.

"Situation averted.” Evert groaned and rested his head against the screen. “CA-23 has been shut down.”

"Roger that.” Hugo sighed. “Clean up. A replacement is already on his way.”

A cold wind kicked up the snow and sent it spiraling upwards. The reindeer stomped impatiently. Evert could sympathize. When Santa had been alive, it had never been like this. Deliveries were made quickly and efficiently. No good child was ever forgotten.

"What make? Please tell me it's one of the Mistletoe line. At least the only bug they've exhibited is kissing too many surprised mothers.”

"Nope, the closet available is one of the Snowman clones.” Hugo replied, the apology clear in his tone.

"Great.” Evert grumbled and slid out of his comfortable seat. “He better finish our route before he melts. Team CA-23 leaving the sleigh for clean-up.”

END

Friday Five for December 18, 2015

1. I had a bump in my writing this week because a nasty headache told me to nap Wednesday afternoon. I'm about 4000 words away from finishing  my novella. I'm going to try to NaNo sprint today and finish it before my son's Christmas break starts.

2. Christmas break is where I'll be headed, too, for the next two weeks. We stay at home, but I'm planning lots of fun family and friend activities including going to an indoor waterpark and the exotic cat rescue center. I have a couple of posts coming next week. One of them a flash fiction story gift to you from me!

3. I'm over halfway done watching Daredevil on Netflix. LOVE it. Dark and intriguing and the villain! I really like what they did with Wilson Fisk (Kingpin). That is the sort of story I want to write... and have HBO or AMC or Netflix make into a show!

4. My son is bringing candy canes in today for school to give out to his class. Yesterday, I asked him if he would like to make a craft out of it and dress up the canes like reindeer. He gave me this look that was ten years too old for him and said, "I'm in elementary school now, mama. We like candy canes without the costumes."

5. However you're spending this holiday season, enjoy! Have a very merry Christmas and I'll see you in 2016. It's going to be an amazing year.

Friday Five for December 11, 2015

1. It's been another great writing week. I finished one novella and started on another. Yes, it might seem like I'm writing super fast, but these stories are already finished in my head. They're not that long. If I can get 2000 words in a day, I can finish this last one before the end of next week.

2. All my regular TV shows are on hiatus. Now I can finally finish watching Daredevil on Netflix and all those films I've wanted to see on DVD. Any recommendations of a new movie I should watch?

3. My son built a gingerbread house this week. Every year for the past five years, we've done this, and every year more icing goes into his mouth than on the house!

4. I've been doing some cleaning on my Twitter account lately. If you have an account, how often do you update the profile and unfollow tweeps who are inactive, spamming, or aren't following you?

5. The cats have settled in and learned my schedule. Since sitting on the keyboard or my lap isn't an option while I'm writing, one shelf on my desk has become the cat corner. I had to empty most of the stuff out of there except the secret candy stash box (which is empty) and the sonic screwdriver (even kitties dream of meeting the Doctor). We're all cozy and happy. We'll see what the cats think when we get a Christmas tree! Have a wonderful weekend.

Wicked Wednesday - writing for the holidays

(A Krampus monster from the local Krampus parade)

I don't just mean writing for Christmas holidays. I'm talking about any holiday. Groundhog Day to Easter to Halloween.

That specific time of year rolls around and writers get inspired to write about it. Write when the inspiration hits. Holidays bring up a lot of powerful emotions and memories. There is a ton of inspiration strolling around, too, like the Krampus. Use it to your advantage.

Yet there is one problem with writing a holiday themed story on that holiday: it will be too late to publish it for that time of year once you're done.

The way I've dealt with that problem is to push my muse ahead six months holiday-wise. I've already written a couple of Valentine's Day stories and one Easter piece. I'll start in on some summer stories next month.

This way, I have holiday themed stories set to send out to various venues with plenty of time to rise up in the slush piles and be seen by editors with still a few months to spare before the holiday itself. I send Christmas stories out in June and July. Publishers usually get loads of those ones.

And yes, I do get inspired to write seasonal tales during those particular times of year. It just means I have to sit on them a little longer before submitting. As I said, write when the inspiration hits, but submit with enough time for an editor to get to your story and comfortably fit you in their schedule.

Have you ever written a holiday themed story?

Holiday Snapshots - week two

If you didn't see last week, I'm doing a series of holiday photos every Saturday this month. I thought about decorating my blog, but I still haven't gotten to decorating my house. The cards have to go out first and then I need to get my shopping done. It's that time of year!

In grade three, I was Suzy Snowflake for our school's Christmas festival play.

I really, really hated it.

I was a tomboy and I never wore pink. I think the music teacher choose me to punish me for some reason!

My two favorite people in the world on Christmas morning 2010.

I love this picture.