Christmas Reading and Fun Jokes to Share by Vickie McDonough

Christmas is in the air, everywhere! My tree is up, and I have much of my Christmas shopping done. It's too soon to start my holiday baking. What's a person to do? How about reading a good Christmas story.

A Christmas Romance Collection

Vickie McDonough, et al

Just 99 cents/Free on KU

Get in the mood for Christmas with six heart-warming holiday romances from best-selling, award-winning authors!

The Fruitcake Scandal by Vickie McDonough

Pastor Clayton Parsons waited a year to bring his fiancée, Karen, to his new church post. They plan a Christmas wedding, but in the meantime, Karen helps the church ladies with various projects, including a bake sale. But revealing her fruitcake recipe could spell disaster for her future with Clay

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A Joyful Christmas

Vickie McDonough, et al

A Christmas Collection to Warm the Heart
Grab a warm cup of tea and watch as romance is kindled and joy is restored to broken lives during six bygone era Christmas celebrations.

An Irish Bride for Christmas by Vickie McDonough
When Jackson Lancaster’s brother and wife die, he takes his three-year-old niece home. But a meddling busy-body makes the judge give her custody “because an unmarried man shouldn’t raise a little girl.” Now Jackson has until Christmas to find a bride or lose his niece forever. Larkin Doyle is grateful her employer took in the orphan and believes Jackson abandoned his niece. When her heart says otherwise, will romance blossom? 

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The Prodigal's Shotgun Wedding

Vickie McDonough

A prodigal’s hope for a happy homecoming is derailed.

Clay left home after his brother’s death—a death for which he was responsible. After years away he’s finally returning, hoping for reconciliation with his father. But when the stagecoach he’s riding in wrecks and he is injured, he finds himself in a fight for survival.

Jolie is fleeing a nightmare situation. She desperately hopes becoming a mail-order bride doesn’t land her in a worse place. When the stage crashes and she spends the night alone with a wounded man, she wonders if her intended will still want her. If he doesn’t, what will she do? She has no money and nowhere to go.

Click here to purchase - Free on KU

We had a fun time sharing Thanksgiving jokes after our big meal. Here are some Christmas jokes you can share with your family.

Why did Santa's helper see the doctor?
Because he had a low "elf" esteem!

What do you call Father Christmas when he's at the beach?
Sandy Clause!

Did Rudolph go to school?
No. He was Elf-taught!

What song do you sing at a snowman's birthday party?
Freeze a jolly good fellow!

Why are Christmas trees so bad at sewing?
They always drop their needles!

Healing With Love by Christine Bush

Life is not without its ups and downs.

Sometimes, people ask me why I write sweet romance.  “ Why not write stories that are more graphic?  More violent or horrific? With more explicit sex?”  Or.. “Why is there always a happy ending in your books?”

I think the key is the fact that I believe in hope.  No, life is not always peaches and cream.  For most of us, in many phases of life, our days can be filled with problems and challenges, pain and worry.  And yet, there’s hope.  And our stories often give rewarding examples of that.

Though our characters are fictional, the problems their conflicts demonstrate are very human and real. Our readers can identify with the struggles. So when their strengths outweigh those hurdles, and love prevails, it can be both exhilarating and inspiring.  I love that.  Many times, reading a deep and moving story has lightened my burdens, and recharged my batteries.  And I’ve heard from readers reporting the same reaction.

In our world today, one issue that is touching many lives is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  Many times  resulting from war stresses and experiences, our courageous returning soldiers are struggling to regain a normal life.  The disorder can vary from slight anxiety and triggers, to overwhelming sensory reactions to sounds, smells, sights, and memories.  Depression, sleep disorders, nightmares, and personality changes, are only a few of the ways it’s hard to cope. 

But it’s not only war that causes this disorder.  Other traumas, losses, victimization, accidents, natural disasters, and long term abuse can also result in these symptoms. Holidays can be an especially hard time for those who suffer PTSD, as well as for the people who love them.

While the trauma can happen in the flash of a minute, the recovery from it is a long, slow process.  But recovery and healing can happen.  And love sure helps.

In my new novella, “Christmas Laurel”, Laurel is a retired veteran with PTSD.  With her dog, “Duck”, a retired bomb dog, who also served in Afganistan, she travels to a remote cabin in North’s Carolina’s Smoky Mountains to avoid any signs of Christmas.  The whole season triggers her worst reactions, and she just doesn’t want to deal with it as she continues to work on healing.

But Christmas has a way of changing hearts, along with the handsome mountain man who lives in a nearby cabin, and has ghosts of his own he’s had to face.

I wrote this story of hope and healing and love because it’s an important topic.  Life can be very, very hard.  It can break our hearts.  It can knock us off balance.  But there is hope.  We can heal, and go on to live our lives in a bright, redefined way.  We can find love in life again.  If you or someone you love is suffering this holiday season, I wish you healing and hope.

Christine Bush is the award winning author of many books and novellas of sweet romance and light mystery. She also writes Middle Grade Fiction. When she isn’t writing, she can be found working with clients as a Marriage and Family Therapist in private practice, or teaching Psychology at a local college.  She lives with her family and two crazy cats in northeastern Pennsylvania, and loves to hear from readers and aspiring writers  www.ChristineBush.com or

on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/christineabush

Her latest novella, “Christmas Laurel”, is available as an ebook and in print at:

http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Laurel-Christine-Bush-ebook/dp/B0170OB4FI/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1446323156&sr=1-1&keywords=christine+bush+christmas+laurel

Does Size Matter by Christine Bush

(Grinning) I’m probably not going to talk about what you thought I was going to talk about. 

Does size matter? Does the size of your manuscript matter?  It used to be a crucial point in the planning and selling of a manuscript.  And in some arenas, of course, it still is.

With my books that were published in hard cover format, there were actually physical limitations with the number of pages that could be stitched together, and bound into each edition.  In the paperback and trade markets, it can be a matter of the cost of paper, ink, and the weight of shipping.  Truly, these points have little if anything to do with our stories.  Or our readers.

But some lines, especially in the romance field, are categorized as “short contemporary or short historical”, or long.  Some categories are expected to be “longer” or “bigger books”.  These delineations have to do with reader appeal, some people have always preferred “long or short” for their reads.

Ebooks have opened another option, and I see that option gaining strength.  Novellas (or shorter books, usually described as being between 20,000 and 40,000 words) are becoming more and more popular.  In ebook format, there aren’t lower end limits to the number of pages it takes to “print a book”.  Novellas  can be a quick read, a great demand for the super busy reader who has smaller chunks of time to devote to a story. 

I began writing novellas a few years ago, especially around the holidays.  Readers keep requesting more.  There is something about the shorter read that is appealing to today’s romance customers.  It’s a challenge sometimes to get the character depth and emotion into fewer pages, and usually we must forego much in the way of subplots.  But an emotional, meaningful story can be crafted, and I’m finding it a lot of fun.

Today, bundling is becoming more and more common.  I just had the wonderful opportunity of adding a Christmas novella to  “Sweet Christmas Kisses 2”, an anthology containing 19 sweet romance novellas.  It’s a long lasting Christmas present that can be purchased with one click.  Adding novellas together (either several from one author, or several authors combining their work) makes a nice sized book, yet with divisions that fit that “short” criteria desired by busy readers.

Different strokes for different folks.  How about you?  Readers, are you enjoying novellas? Why or why not? And fellow writers, are you writing them? 

What DOES size have to do with it?

Christine Bush is the award winning author of many books and novellas of sweet romance and light mystery. She also writes Middle Grade Fiction. When she isn’t writing, she can be found working with clients as a Marriage and Family Therapist in private practice, or teaching Psychology at a local college.  She lives with her family and two crazy cats in northeastern Pennsylvania, and loves to hear from readers and aspiring writers.   WWW.ChristineBush.com

Her latest book is a novella called “Christmas Laurel”, which is part of the “Sweet Christmas Kisses 2” anthology.  You can find it at: Amazon, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, Google

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