Thanks for coming!

Thank you to everyone who stopped by for our holiday office party! It was a fun month for us, and we hope for you, too.

Coming up in January is our Growl pax, featuring five werewolf stories brought to you by Carolina Valdez, Vivien Dean, Sean Michael, Darcy Abriel, and A.J. Llewellyn & D.J. Manly. Hope to see you there!

Tomorrow Is the Big Day by Christiane France

Tomorrow is the BIG DAY and that means our party is all but over.

I love the Christmas season. The stories, the traditions, the shopping, the baking, and the anticipation. But most of all I love that magical moment around ten o’clock on Christmas Eve when I open my window and hear nothing but, absolute silence. I live in the center of a town that boasts close to half a million citizens so the moment lasts only a few seconds. Just long enough to remember a few special things like the phone call I made to my mom that first Christmas Eve after we came to Canada. It was my first time away from home so we spent most of the time crying. It also reminds me my mom and dad were married on Christmas Eve. It was a while before I was born, but I know the bride wore a cream satin dress and carried a bouquet of bronze chrysanthemums. The groom wore a navy suit, and the choir sang the carol, It Came Upon A Midnight Clear. The way my mom described it to me, I’ve never been able to imagine anything more beautiful or more romantic than that simple candlelight ceremony in our old village church. 

This is the church of St. Mary le Moor where my parents were married: 

And this is The Old Ship—the local pub where my dad would go to fetch cold beer on a hot summer night after we’d finished haymaking. 

I wish everyone at Amber Quill and all our readers the very happiest of holidays, and I look forward to reading all the new Paxes we have planned for 2014…such as five stories balanced ON THE EDGE OF DANGER, five nail-biters on the subject of GHOSTS/HAUNTINGS, and five furry tails involving CAT SHIFTERS.

And now for a tiny bit of personal promo. I love the two main characters in this story. They were so meant for one another from the moment their eyes first met and their hearts began to beat a little faster…

 One Perfect Night 

by Christiane France 

ISBN-13: 978-1-61124-502-8 (Electronic) 

http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/OnePerfectNight.html

Paul knew Nico was special the moment they exchanged that first glance at Termini station in Rome late one hot summer afternoon. And when it was announced their train had been cancelled and travel suspended until further notice, they explored their feelings over dinner and spent one perfect night of passion in a nearby hotel. 

Early next morning, when Nico found a flight cancellation and took off, all Paul knew was his first name. 

Two years later, Paul hasn’t forgotten Nico, and now when they meet again at another train station in London, the chemistry is still there. Nico believes Fate brought them together, and is ready to close his eyes and jump into a relationship. Paul, however, believes they need to be sensible, to first check the water and then take it one step at a time. Which man’s strategy will prevail? 

NOTE: This story is part of the London Calling series. (This title is also part of the ALL ABOARD AmberPax Collection.)

Cool mysteries and hot romance - http://www.chrisgrover.ca

Latest release: A HAPPY CHRISTMAS ENDING (London Calling series)
Coming soon: IT’S COMPLICATED
https://www.facebook.com/chris.grover.71
http://twitter.com/chrisgrover2
http://christianefrance.blogspot.ca/

So This Is Christmas by A.J. Llewellyn

They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot…
From "Big Yellow Taxi" by Joni Mitchell

The first year I moved to Los Angeles from my home in Sydney, Australia, I was a film student with stars in my eyes. I loved old movies, loved old Hollywood. In 1983, Los Angeles was a different time and place. A lot of the old Hollywood buildings were being torn down. The destruction had been going on for a long time by then but within the span of a few weeks, both the iconic Schwab's Drugstore and The Brown Derby, were set to be demolished.

My best friend Louise and I went to lunch at Schwab's on its last day. Oh how magnificent it was with its wooden, private telephone booths. The huge black phones took dimes. A couple of years later, calls went up to a quarter, but I digress.

We ordered salads, which I have to say were awful. Mine was a fruit salad, and everything was canned, except for the scoop of cottage cheese, which tasted sour. I guess on the drugstore's last day they didn't want to be bothered with fresh food items. Or had it always served sub-par food?

Louise and I stared at the soda fountain and its stools, famous for being the place where Lana Turner was discovered. My illusions were shattered that day to learn that this was not true. It was Hollywood lore.

I've had a lot of illusions shattered here over the years, but sometimes, small miracles occur.

My first Christmas here was the worst I ever had. I had no money and my roommates and I scraped enough funds together to buy vegetables. We had potatoes and turnips. And a single carrot. The turnip bake was so awful I still can't look at turnips to this day!

However, we were together, sort of, and had hopes for the future. The next day I scored a part-time job driving hearses for the now-defunct Graveline Tours. I could have a little extra money to supplement my income working nights in a video store (memba them?) and my film school education.

My job entailed my driving around town showing people where the dead stars were buried. Sometimes I got to branch out, especially when they asked for special requests. I often drove people to the steps, the only remaining piece of the famed Trocadero club, at 8610 Sunset Boulevard. The steps are still there on the side of Chin Chin's Chinese restaurant.

I often think of all the celebrities who took those stairs to dine and dance…sigh.

Hollywood's history is frequently whimsical - the fairy bridges Walt Disney started in east LA but never finished, for example - but more often tragic. I had a client who knew where many of the dead stars had died. He had a thing about silent screen star, Florence Lawrence, who is known as "The World's First Movie Star" though I had never heard of her before. She committed suicide eating ant paste in 1938. 

Ant paste! 

We drove to the address he gave me, 532 Westbourne Drive in West Hollywood. The little green cottage still looks the same today, but I do wonder about the life expectancy of the neighborhood's ants…

The same client also had a passion to find The Aftonian, a 1920s apartment building in which silent screen star Marie Prevost drank herself to death. The story back then was that her dachshund, left alone with her dead body began to chew her limbs. I've since seen photos that prove it (eew!) but today the idea is disputed. 

The building is still there at 6231 Afton Place. I find it ironic that its new owners are marketing the recently refurbished dogs as "Paradise" considering that the Hollywood I love, which really was a paradise, is gone.

One of my favorite places to take my clients back in the early 80s was a bank in the same stretch of Sunset Boulevard as Schwab's. Lytton Savings & Loan (now defunct) had a mini replica of the majestic and ethereal Garden of Allah, built by the silent screen star Nazimova. For those of us who've seen the gardens in photos (still available online) the replica was a godsend. We got a taste of how it looked, how it was. Hollywood's playground.

The bank, which stood on the old site of the gardens is now a Chase Bank and Schwab's is a McDonalds. But most of the massive lot on the southwest corner of Sunset and Crescent Heights is a parking lot.

Joni Mitchell lamented this sort of development in her wonderful song, "Big Yellow Taxi."

I wonder what she thinks about the destruction that began on December 19 on the former North Hollywood home of Marilyn Monroe. I talked to the wrecking crew as I took a snap of the little cottage posted above and none of them knew the place's history.

Nor did they care.

I met the former owner, Mrs. Affatata some years ago and she had a yellowed newspaper clipping that showed a photo of a young and gorgeous Marilyn outside the guest cottage. Marilyn lived there in 1947 during her time as an RKO starlet.

Mrs. Affatata remembered her former tenant as being giggly and often forgot to pay the rent, but, "She was nice. So nice."

Once again, they're taking down paradise and putting up a generic apartment block.

Way to go Hollywood!

I feel this year as Christmas approaches that I am coming full circle since my first Christmas here in LA. This year, I have family and friends, a wonderful life, and I am still building castles in the air.

This year, this Christmas, whatever you dream is, begin it. Do it. Don't let anyone pave over your idea of paradise. I think the fragility of dreams and wishes needs hope, now more than ever. I wish you all a very happy Christmas and very festive holiday season. I wish you love, happiness and big, beautiful accomplishments in 2014.

Aloha oe (With love),

A.J.

Midwinter Solstice and the Pagan Roots of Christmas by Deirdre O'Dare

Yes, long before the birth of the Holy Child some two millennia ago, there were midwinter festivals and celebrations in much of the northern hemisphere! We may regard those prehistoric predecessors of ours as primitive and think of them as childlike or lacking in intelligence and discernment. Be that as it may, they lived close to nature and the vagaries of the world and its climate. They were also keen observers. Since their livelihood depended on managing their activities in accordance with the cycle of the seasons they paid close attention to the travels of the celestial bodies they could see.

They learned that the sun, the most visible and significant one, came and went over the course of a year and built monuments to track the motions.. To appease this critical giver of light and heat, they developed mythologies to personify this great light and worshipped the sun as a deity. Midwinter marked the point at which the sun stopped moving farther to the south and again began to return to heat and light the northern half of the world for the coming of spring—time to plant, nurture the young livestock and perhaps forge into the wilderness to hunt and gather. 

The ancient ones developed elaborate rituals to mark the main turning points of the year’s cycle, of which the midwinter solstice was a key one. Customs grew up around this particular festival which have come down to us to this very day from ancestors among the Germanic, Latin and Celtic peoples of Europe.

As historian Will Durant said in his tome The Story of Civilization, "Christianity did not destroy paganism; it adopted it.” The Greek mind, dying, came to a transmigrated life in the theology and liturgy of the Church...the Greek mysteries passed down into the impressive mystery of the Mass. Other Pagan cultures contributed to the syncretistic result. From Egypt came the idea of a divine trinity...from Egypt the adoration of the Mother and Child...from Phrygia the worship of the Great Mother....The Mithraic ritual so closely resembled the eucharistic sacrifice of the Mass that Christian fathers charged the Devil with inventing these similarities to mislead frail minds. Christianity was the last great creation of the ancient pagan world"

In short, many prior religious worshiped the sun in one persona or another: Mithras, Sol, Lugh etc. I suspect the early Christian leaders decided it would be a lot easier to take over pagan festivals and gradually “Christianize” them than to try to stamp them out and create new ones on other dates. It’s a very short stretch from the usual solstice date of December 21 to the Christmas date of December 25! There is little scientific or historical basis to claim that December 25 was the actual date of Christ’s birth but I won’t go into that! But I will mention it was several hundred years before Christmas was made official by the church leaders of the time.

Here are a few samples of some of the customs and rituals that migrated into our modern observance:  

--In ancient Babylon, the feast of the Son of Isis (Goddess of Nature) was celebrated on December 25. Raucous partying, gluttonous eating and drinking, and gift-giving were traditions of this feast.

--In Rome, the Winter Solstice was celebrated many years before the birth of Christ. The Romans called their winter holiday Saturnalia, honoring Saturn, the God of Agriculture. It wss in ancient Rome that the tradition of the Mummers was born. The Mummers were groups of costumed singers and dancers who traveled from house to house entertaining folks and probably expecting alms and treats! From this, the Christmas tradition of caroling was born. (“Here we come a wassailing…”)

--In northern Europe, many other traditions that we now consider part of Christian worship were begun long before the participants had ever heard of Christ. The mostly Germanic pagans of northern Europe celebrated their own winter solstice, known as Yule. Yule was symbolic of the pagan Sun God, Mithras, being born, and was observed on the shortest day of the year. It was customary to light a candle to encourage Mithras, and the sun, to reappear next year. Huge Yule logs were burned in honor of the sun. The word Yule itself means "wheel," the wheel being a pagan symbol for the sun and also for the cycle of the seasons through the year. Mistletoe was considered a sacred plant, and the custom of kissing under the mistletoe began as a fertility ritual. Holly berries were thought to be a food of the gods. The tree is the one symbol that unites almost all the northern European winter solstices. Live evergreen trees were often brought into homes during the harsh winters as a reminder to inhabitants that soon their crops would grow again. Evergreen boughs were carried as totems of good luck and often present at weddings, representing fertility. The Druids (Celtic) used trees as religious symbols, holding their sacred ceremonies in groves, often of evergreens and oaks, which frequently support mistletoe.

--Santa Claus and gift-giving had a variety of ancient and pagan roots as well. The Norse god, Odin was the gift-bringer, and rode the wintry night skies at midnight in a chariot drawn by his magical eight-legged steed, bringing presents to the good and punishing those who were bad. In other northern realms, such as Lapland, merchants wore red fur-trimmed cloaks to protect them from the cold.  They crossed the snowy lands in sleighs, likewise delivering gifts. Those northern merchants supposedly had helpers: dwarves who lived underground and were most skilled at crafting toys! Since our newer Santa Claus has his beginning deep in the pagan mists of time, he was unable to pass the rowan and holly which the old Celts used to protect their homes from the fey.  That's why Santa opted to enter homes through the chimney!

So whether you are Christian, pagan or some other religious persuasion, you can enjoy whatever of these venerable traditions appeal to you and celebrate this dark, cold season with merriment, cheer, fires and candles, good food and drink, exchange of presents with friends and family and decorating with evergreens, holly, mistletoe, and red and green in many things from apples to velvet bows. The roots of this season and its festivities go back deep into the darkest shadows of prehistory and have been honored and kept for thousands of years.  

I actually celebrate both the Midwinter Solstice and Christmas or as I often call it, Yule. I don’t worship the sun but I am very sun-oriented or heliotropist and feel I draw my personal energy from the sun. I languish when the days are dark and winter is my least favorite season so naturally I greet the beginning of the solar path back my direction with joy! 

And I’ve been a Christmas fan since childhood –it is just fun! I may not go all out as I did when I had kids at home or tried to make it special for my two kid brothers long ago but the day will not go unmarked, I can guarantee! “Peace on earth” is certainly a wonderful promise or dream and we must hold that hope in our hearts lest we totally succumb to the shadow and bleakness of our world’s “winter” of violence, prejudice and hatred. May the sun of love, peace and kinship for all come back this way again!.

In the spirit of the season, I will be Odin’s handmaiden and offer a gift for one reader who comments either here or on my own blog, www.deirdredares.blogspot.com/ where I will post a related piece to this one for the holiday week. You can have your choice of the PAX stories that I had released this year in the download format of your choice. The selections are A Different Drummer, Dark and Stormy and Last Train to Clarkdale. Drummer is a contemporary tale with a music background, Dark is a Gothic historical and Last Train is a contemporary tale with some railroad atmosphere. Take your choice! Check them out at www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/bio_ODare.html 

Meanwhile have a joyful holiday season however and whatever you celebrate and may the coming year treat you kindly! Go in peace and harmony. And as my pagan friends say, “Blessed be.” 

Deidre O'Dare

The Difference Between Family Recipes and Folk Tales by Adrianna Dane

An odd title perhaps, but I couldn’t help making the comparison because when we talk about recipes around this time of year in many cases were talking about family traditions, which then goes hand in hand with storytelling, and moving briskly along,  into folk tales handed down generation to generation.

Which brings me to my recipe, for the sweet treat my Italian grandmother used to make, handed down from her mother who came to this country through Ellis Island from a town near Rome, Italy, back around 1892, and so on, and so on. Tales handed down, as I said.

The dish, well, it’s called “Fried Things.” Yup, that’s the title I grew up with. Fried dough strips sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar. I spent quite a bit of time trying to discover a proper name for these “fried things.” (It’s like the quiche my grandmother made at Easter, just called, “ham and egg pie,” but that’s for another time.)

I recall when I was in my teens, we stopped at an Italian grocery store in Schenectady, New York, on Saturday, and what did I see? A boxed desert that looked just like what my grandmother made. Written on the square box was the word,  “Eyuans.” At last! I’d found a name. I was so excited.

So here I am today, with a recipe I make every year, handed down through generations of my mother’s family, and as a writer who lives for research, I decided to look up once again to confirm the name of this family favorite. So here’s what I found.

There are, as with folk tales, a number of variations on a theme. Names I discovered: Fried things (yes, someone else really does use that same name and Googling the term actually worked), E Yuans, E Wands, Guanti, Wandi, Nocatelle, and, yes, fried dough.. (see, http://www.lindasitaliantable.com/tag/italian-fried-dough/). Now, a little hint here, a lot of these other recipes call for...liquor. Now, why didn’t my grandmother ever tell me about that lovely little ingredient? A little wine here, a splash of Anisette there. You decide. Yum. Now I really could have enjoyed that added embellishment.

But my family recipe is a simpler dish, likely altered through the years before leaving the homeland region of Italy. So this is the dish I thought I’d share it with you for this holiday season. The photo, accompanying this recipe came from this year’s batch currently sitting on my festive kitchen table. Enjoy!

“Fried Things”

12 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

4 teaspoons baking powder

3 tablespoons vegetable shortening (unmelted Crisco)

salt (a couple of pinches)

Flour (lots of flour - I guesstimate around 6+ cups). A cup at a time until you get a good consistency to start kneading (no, I don’t use machines, just elbow power) on a floured surface until it stops sticking to your fingers and nice and smooth.

Roll out on a floured board. (I do this in sections.) Leave on the table for a while. Do not fry right away. Cut with a pastry cutter or pizza cutter into strips. Fry a few at a time. After cooled, sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar.

Sorry, that’s what you get with a family recipe, shady on the exact amounts of anything. My first batch many, many years ago was a dismal failure. Since then I learned, family recipes consist of making, tasting, looking, enjoying. Try, try, again...don’t quit. Just like writing come to think of it. :-)

Okay, so enjoy. If this recipe doesn’t work for you, perhaps try the version at http://www.lindasitaliantable.com/tag/italian-fried-dough/. I’m off to check the grocery list to make sure I have all I need for the baked ziti on Christmas Eve (mmm, I can already smell the garlic bread and taste the hot sausage), and the strawberry omelets for Christmas morning.

Buon Natale, everybody!

Adrianna 

Happy Winter from Sean Michael

Happy whatever you celebrate! I happen to celebrate both winter and Christmas – one of my favorite holidays and my absolute favorite time of year. I could (and have) rhapsodized about the snow in the past. I’m going to spare you today and instead give you the recipe for one of my favorite Christmas treats – easy to make and yummy as well. And beneath that is a small holiday snippet featuring a pair of characters from one of my books.

Christmas Cranberry Salad

Chop 1 bag of cranberries, put in a bowl with 1 cup of sugar, cover and refrigerate overnight.

Drain it of excess liquid in the morning, add 1 small can of crushed or tidbits pineapple (also drained), and 1 cup of chopped pecans, mix together.

Whip up two cups of whipping cream until peaks form, add gently but thoroughly to cranberry mixture. Cover and put back in the fridge until you’re ready to serve.

This tastes better if it’s had all day or even overnight to sit.

Christmas snippet

I wrote a little Christmas snippet featuring the characters of Working it Out.

Affton lit the candles and set out the champagne and some lovely appetizers he'd brought home next to their big chair in the den. It was the night of the office party and he was dressed up in a sharp grey suit with a lavender shirt. Luke was still changing and if he didn't come out soon, Aft was going to go in and rescue him. 

“Do you think the blue tie, love?” Nerves were evident in Luke's voice, though he was trying to hide them.

"I think you should skip the tie -- I did." Come on, lover, come out and see what I've done.

“Oh?” Luke came out, gasping at the sight of the candles, the wine. 

He grinned. "I thought we'd have our own office party right here."

“Affton…” That was an amazing smile.

He opened his arms. "Merry early Christmas, Luke."

His lover came right to him, pushed in his arms. He took a kiss, then another. Sitting, he drew Luke down with him. "You want to start with champagne, appetizers or me?"

“You, no question.”

He beamed at Luke and took another kiss. It was going to be the best Christmas party ever.

*_*_*_*

Happy New Year! See you in 2014

Sean Michael
Smut fixes everything
www.seanmichaelwrites.com
http://twitter.com/seanmichael09
http://www.facebook.com/SeanMichaelWrites
http://sean-michael.livejournal.com/

Giveaway Winner #2

It's hard to believe Christmas is only a week away! But that means two things around here. We will have a week to go of posts from some of your favorite Amber Allure authors, and it's time to announce the winner of our second giveaway!

And the winner of a free pax collection of her choice is....Susan!

I have your email, so expect an email from us very soon!

Don't forget, we're giving away one more pax collections this month. All comments made between 12/18 and 12/24 will go into a hat next Wednesday for the chance to win!