Ahh...I love the smell of alliteration in the morning!
I have much to tell you and much to do, so let's get cracking. First of all, I wanted to mention straight off the bat that in my last blog I flapped my gums about the edits to my article in the RT Spotlight without knowing all the facts. Now that I understand everything much more clearly I have come to realize Romantic Times Magazine didn't even touch my article before it went live. The bad butchering job was someone else's fault completely. For that, I owe them a huge apology and lots of air kisses. Mwah! Mwah! They were super cool about it, though, and let me send a revised article in of my own editing. It will show up on the website as bonus content for those who subscribe.
Good news!!! Elijah was bumped to an early ship date! December 18th is now our official release date! Look at that! You just had 2 weeks cut off your wait time!! Aren't we thrilled? I am!!
I have so much to do and so little time to do it. Yule looms and I have a big family. I did most of the hard work already :) And this year, I am getting a PS3 for Christmas :)
Save me from Thanksgiving. I love my family, but as eager as I am to see them, I am just as delighted when it ends. Phew. And you know you feel the same. Don't look at me like that! :P
I have Elijah ARCs! Just a few, but a few is enough. I thought I would celebrate the day by giving one away. All you have to do is comment in response to this blog...except you have to tell me one of the funniest family holiday stories you have. (Or nightmarish if that floats your boat) It can be any holiday...I won't discriminate.
I am so happy to see so much activity returning to the forums on my website. I take total responsibility for it falling off in the first place. There were too many things happening back to back and it ended up being a design for quiet and boriiiing forums. I hope we can continue to fix that together.
Anyway...I have to go shopping now!
hugs and kitties,
Jacki
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26 comments:
Grats on the updated release for Elijah. I can't wait to get him.
Thanksgiving memory - A week prior to this holiday a few years ago, I lost my grandmother. When she was alive, the family would always go over to her house and have a wonderful dinner. Now we go to my sister's house (or at least I used to when I lived there).
Christmas memory - My stomach decided that it wanted to be sick and my mom and I spent the night of Christmas in the freezing cold emergency room, with me hooked up to an IV for about 5 hours.
Those are the only two memories that come to mind at the moment. *smile*
well my story is for Thanksgiving my baby that just turned 18 was born on that day. Imagine someone who is almost 9 months pregnant sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner and my mother in law said well you let us get to the table so if you go into labor you'll just have to wait to go to the hospital. My sister leaned over and whispered in my ear that she dared me to act like my water broke. I said your mom would have a fit. But I was nice. when I did finally go into labor about 4 hrs later my dad was at the video store when my stepmom called him and told him. The video store lady told me the following week that he was going out the door and he came back and in and threw the movies on the counter and said I've got to go we're having a baby lol. We won't mention that he drove 90 per hour across the mountain hehe. If mom hadn't slowed him down he'd have beaten us to the hospital.
Jacki,
Just when I send you a Christmas card, insisting I'll have Gideon done before Elijah, ya ramp up the release of Elijah. Muahahaha ohhhh the pressure!
Here's a funny Santa story. My brothers were very young, one was still a toddler, the other was 5. My dad is a firefighter and one of the rather, err, robust captains always dressed at Santa and went around visiting kids. He made a stop at our house, complete with helper, a guy who's mentally handicapped.
Well, there were also a few other kids running around the house waiting for Santa, so when he showed up, everyone got in line to see him and get their presents.
My youngest brother puked on him, another kid wet his pants all over the other side of his suit and my brother started crying so hard (which set all the other small kids crying, of course) Santa's helper fainted and hit his head on the wall.
Santa won't be vising anymore. LOL! That was in the mid 80s. Maybe he has a short memory, because I have a LONG list this year and want all the cool toys!
WooHoo! That's terrific news about the new release date for Elijah! And, it's the day before my 20th wedding anniversary!
For my funny memory, it's actually a 4th of July story. I was just a young girl, probably about 12-13 years old. We were camping out in the mountains with my cousins and aunts/uncles. There was a river next to the camping area with grapevines that you could swing out over the water on. My dad, ever the clown, was getting ready to swing out and yelled at everyone (not just family mind you), to "Watch Me!" and then proceeded to swing out and jump in the river. The problem was, his swimming trunks hit the water before he did...he'd recently lost some weight and they were a bit...ummm...baggy. Needless to say, I (and everyone else) saw more of my dad than we ever wanted to. :) To this day, any time someone says Watch Me, I can't help laughing. It's made for some fun times explaining why I laugh. Anyone who knows my dad really loves that story.
Pick me! Pick Me! ::jumping up and down::
Thanksgiving - The first year that I was living on my own (or the second, it's all a blur) my parents decided to go away for the weekend instead of 'doing' Thanksgiving. Now, I do understand I wasn't living there anymore etc. etc. etc. but it was still teary/hurtful. Like they threw me away ::g:: Now (many years later) I still have to fight the brat who says that THEY didn't think Thanksgiving was important, why do I have to make an effort to go. LOL We never really grow up when it comes to our parents!
Peggy
Hhhmmmm, funny or scary???
Oh, I know.... my "first" Thanksgiving that I had to actually cook for the family. Yes, I was one of "those". I didn't know that they put the nice little baggie inside the turkey with all the ickies in it! Imagine the laughter, and crap, I got when they went to carve the turkey and discovered THAT little surprise!!
UGH!!! And on that note, I hope all had a great one!!
These are great guys!
Funny you mention Fourth of July. A few years back, my grandmother (Nanny) died and the funeral was on the fourth of July. Nothing funny about that on the surface, but let me set a stage. You see, growing up there were two smart-asses in my family. Dad and my sister Las. (She was seriously cut right out of his ass!) They were the two most relentless teasers on the planet. I was their favorite victim (or so it felt). I dreaded ever giving them anything that could be feul for mockery. They had long memories and loved repeating my most embarrassing stories to others...especially large rooms of others.
So, we are coming home from Long Island where the service had been. We stop for something to eat before braving the bridges and the 2.5 hour hike upstate. Now, I had recently been diagnosed with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) and had learned not to eat out far from home. But we had a ton of family with us (and with my heritage they are the 'Eat! Eat! It won't kill you to have a little something!" types. :) So I ate. Somewhere between the Tappan Zee and the Throgs Neck bridge, I felt the first hint of trouble. I asked my Dad to find a place for me to 'go'.
Can I tell you how hard it is to find an open ANYWHERE on the Fourth of July betweet the Tap and the Throggs Neck? Within a half hour I was in agony, desperate and fearful I would feul the dynamic duos teasing fires for the rest of my life.
Then, like a beacon of brilliance, I saw a Mexican Restaurant. I yelled, "Mexican's don't celebrate the Fourth do they?"
Sure enough, this place didn't. I bolted into the place and was halted by the host. Imagine me saying "Oh I'm meeting...there they are!!" and waving to total strangers as if I knew them. He let me by and I stopped at the people's table to pass some inane compliment on the woman's dress then raced into the bathroom.
Meanwhile, outside, my Dad and sister, who had remained supportive and composed all this time, finally burst into jokes, laughter and teasing. (IE: They were waiting to see everyone run out of the restaurant screaming.)
But they both we silent and innocent as angels when I got back. My sister knew how sensitive I was and made sure they behaved. It was later when I could finally relax that we got a giggle over it together. This Thanksgiving, sure enough, the story came out to a room full of people. But as I age, I realize I don't mind so much being teased. It's one of those things uniquely loving in my family.
As a fellow IBS sufferer, I can understand your pain! ALL of it!
As I'm sure you could tell from my earlier post, my dad is pretty much like yours so I can also relate to that.
You're right though, as we get older, we can roll with the flow better. Plus we have a few of our own stories to share, don't we? *G*
Woohoo! 3 weeks until Elijah!! I have a few stories that stick out from passed holidays.
4th of July- I was 18 I think and we were at my aunt's house cooking out. She had this huge tree in her yard, with a rabbit's nest in it. My little cousins were all running around playing and an idea popped into my head. I gathered all the little ones around, gave them "spears"(sticks) and had them running around the yard yelling "Kill the Wabbit, Kill the Wabbit"!! A few of the adults found it funny, my aunt asked me to leave...after she stopped laughing!
Thanksgiving- Same aunt's house, my cousin, being the culinary dare devil that she is, decided to fix a duck. Well, I gathered those same little cousins around and told them to go into the kitchen and ask their mother why she was cooking Donald Duck. She told them that it was not Donald Duck and told them not to listen to me. Without any prompting from me, one of the other children asked if it isn't DOnald, than is it Daffy?! Well despite my protests that I had nothing to do with the Daffy crack, I still got the blame for it. lol
Christmas- This one happened when I was living in Cali. We had my godson for the holiday, it was his first Christmas with us, he was 4 I think. Needless to say we went all out and bought this child a ton of stuff. In trying to keep up the Santa image, we waited until the 24th to wrap all the presents. Totally forgetting that JD is a night owl, he kept trying to peek around the corner to see what we were doing. I told him that if he didn't get into bed, Santa wasn't bring his presents. Well JD, being the smartass that he is, looked me in the eye and said that if Santa was bringing his presents, then what were we wrapping at the table? All of us were at a loss as to what to tell him. He looked at all of us in turn, said "uh huh" and went back to bed. That child is entirely too smart for his own good!
Over the weekend, we took my almost 3 year old neice to see Santa and when we got there she starts screaming, "I am not ready yet. He is too big and scary. Maybe next year."
Hi Jacki...
I just got my RT Mag in the mail. You have a beautiful two page ad. Just thought I'd let you know. :)
~Anna
I have a wonderful memory of a Christmas a few years ago, when I decided to do something different for gifts. I didn't just want to wrap the gifts and put them under the tree; I wanted to be more creative. Rather than buy several smaller gifts for each person I had purchased one big gift for each. Since you could have figured out what each was by the appearance of the wrapped gift, I wrote a small poem for each person with hints of the gift and where in the house Santa might have hidden it and then let them search for their present. It was a ball. They not only had to discover what the present was by the hints, they then had to seek it out. I just watched as each one had fun figuring it out and then finding it and then enjoyed seeing the happiness on their face.
So, Elijah now becomes an early Christmas prezzie for ME?! WOOT!
Worst Thanskgiving- I had just given birth to twins on Oct 28, 1986. 3.5 weeks early so they were still pretty small at Thanksgiving. Normally, it would have been just the immediate family, but it was at my sister's house that year and she decided to invite like 50 people. Well, she doesn't let me know this until the evening before, and I was NOT taking my new babies to hang out in that crowd! I was so pissed at her, and she didn't think anything of it! So my husband and I ate Banquet frozen turkey and gravy that year for Thanksgiving. And to top it all off, this was the 1st Thanksgiving after our Dad died, so it REALLY irked me that she had, in effect, made sure I couldn't spend the day with the rest of the family.
But there was some payback for my thoughtless dip of a sister. One of the people (I didn't know most of them) that showed up at her house brought their kid who had the flu. Over the next week or so, everyone who was there ended up dropping like flies with it.
Yeah, I know, petty and mean of me, but I couldn't resist saying... SEE?! And you couldn't understand why I didn't want to bring my babies into that crowd of strangers?!
Family... can't live with 'em, can't kill 'em. (The paperwork is a bitch);D
Whoopie about Elijah! An Arc would be a lovely gift...lol.
Worst Christmas was in 1991. I had my daughter on the 17th of December after 36 hours of labor and a c-section. Ended up having issues with said c-section and spent Christmas in the hospital. Sucked royal.
I have a favorite Thanksgiving. 1996. All my family was there. When I say all, I mean my mom's six kids, spouses and kids. It was the last time we all got together like that. I wish to do so again, but we have a sister who for some unknown reason will not talk to any of us. Noone knows why. Kinda sad since its a time of family and being thankful.
Anyways, even if I dont win an ARC, I'm so buying the book! Good Luck!
I just started reading your books and LOVE them and was so happy to hear about Elijah's book being bumped up.
So my story...2 years ago I was in the Peace Corps serving in Bulgaria and couldn't afford to go home for Christmas so instead I decided to go to Turkey with some "friends". Well as it was after a 12 hour bus ride we get to the border at 2 am and there is a problem with my passport...they won't let me leave Bulgaria. Now my "friends" felt bad but not bad enough to stay with me and got on the bus to get to Istanbul while I cried my eyes out to some border patrol men who had no idea what I was saying. I found out from the people who ran the bus company if I had my passport and my Bulgarian id I might be able to get out of the country. So I took the 12 hr bus ride back to my small village turned around and took the bus back to Turkey so I could enjoy the holiday, oh did I mention that all the reservations were on my credit card because no one else had one. The only thing I had requested was that someone meet me at the bus station...well I get to Istanbul and no one is waiting, I instead get ripped off by a taxi driver to get to the hotel and then realize that my mp3 player was still on the bus. I then find out the desk guy doesn't want to wake up my "friend" because it was so early. I finally meltdown and he let me in the room. My "friends" spent the rest of the trip telling me how sorry they were but once we got back I never traveled with them again...so yeah that was my worst Christmas ever.
Hi Jacki...excited that Elijah is coming SOON! Can't wait!
Let's call this 1 a "Doggie's Thanksgiving"
A fun couple that I no who live in Kingston, Ontario r extremely entertaining @ every holiday. Regina & her husbands Jill, decided 2 celebrate Thanksgiving that yr @ their place & invited their dear friends & next door neighbour 2 join them. They accepted the invitation & offered 2bring Tom's, neighbour's husband, famous turkey. Regina & Jill accepted BUT on 1 condition. Tom was 2 bring his so called famous turkey over w/ ONLY an apron on! Tom of course luving a challenge, agreed! On Thanksgiving day, arriving w/ his wife on his side & ONLY a apron on & carrying his famous turkey on a silver tray, Tom gracefully made his way 2 the opened front door...ONLY 2 slip on the last step sending the turkey sliding across Regina & Jill's main entrance floor & their Yorkshire Terrier running & jumping on the turkey like it was some kind of BIG doggie treat. Believe me, the dog was in heaven! *LMAO*
Ada
Wow! Great stories, everyone! Jacki, I'm glad RT was good to you, and I'm X-TRA-specially glad that Elijah is coming out earlier! Woohoo! Christmas comes early! I can't wait to read it! :-P
As for a story - I guess last Christmas is a good one. I was really proud of my mom and I, actually. It was our first Christmas with out my dad, who had died of cancer the year before. He LOVED Christmas! It was also our first with out my brother, who lives on the west coast and had to work for his restaurant; AND our first with out my grandma, who had become too weak to spend the holidays outside of her nursing home. So, it went from the 5 of us all together to just mom and I - but we actually got through it & had fun! We ate too much, we probably bought too much (especially for our 3 cats and 1 dog! LOL!), and we may have had one too many white russians on Christmas Eve (I can't remember. LOL! :) I managed to get all of the lights up outside (swearing like a sailor the entire time!) whereas my dad used to put them up. But, we got through it with very few tears - really surprising ourselves with that. We agreed to start our own traditions and we are going to stick with them this Christmas - just the two of us, again (plus, furry babies, of course!). As with last year, my brother will be coming out for a "2nd Christmas," in January, and mom & I will bring Christmas to g-ma in the nursing home. So, hopefully, it will go well again! I think we feel that, if we were to be blue at Christmastime, my dad would be looking down on us and having none of it! He'd probably shoot us both in the butt with a lightning bolt or something! LOL! I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday this year!
I don't have a specific funny holiday memory except that I am probably the biggest kid at Christmas. I LOVE Christmas. It really gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. I take great joy in finding just the right gift for someone. When my kids were little, I would be so excited to see their faces when they saw what Santa had left for them. Unfortunately, my kids never visibly showed excitement. Inside they might be screaming about the fantastic present that they received, but I never really knew for sure. Now they say things like "Remember that Christmas that Santa brought me my American Girl Doll? I LOVED that doll! I couldn't believe that I was so lucky to get one!" If I had only known at the time.....
Fabulous books! I can't wait until Elijah comes out!
My most vivid Thanksgiving memory will have to be the time I spent as an RA in the dorms. Winter in Fairbanks, AK tends to send everyone sideways to begin with, but living in Nerland Hall (aptly called "Nerdland" Hall) added an entirely new dimension. As the hall staff tried to gather a potluck of all the traditional trimmings we had to run back and forth between the office and the kitchen. Our hurdle? The commons area. A Dungeons & Dragons circle was happily rolling about, students were stumbling around drunk (which wouldn't have mattered if they weren't underage) and a pair of girls were skittering up and down the stairways and halls making cat and dog noises. I'm still trying to block the visions of hissing, barking and swiping fits. As if their fuzzy battle wasn't enough, the jocks were facing down the computer geeks for control of the television - one of the monitor-tanned wraiths had managed to download the (yet to be released) latest extended version of LoTR. Out of sheer devotion to elves, the D&D crowd weighed in and helped win the battle. Eventually, the whole troop zoned in to their not-so-legal movie. A ring of costumed and kitten-eared students stuffing their mouths with turkey.
As for a Christmas memory, well, the one that sticks out the furthest would be Christmas Eve during my sophomore year of college. Mom came out while I was 1,500 miles away, and I spend the better part of five months feeling incredibly discombobulated and out of touch. It wasn't until I was able to see her and talk to her again that I was able to come to terms with her new lifestyle. We spent hours talking, and by morning I was calm and excited to meet the partner who made her so happy.
Thank you to everyone for sharing their happy, sad and frustrating holiday memories.
Elijah early is definitely going to make this holiday a bit nicer! Can't wait.
As for favorite holiday memories...they would always be about Christmas. Christmas morning, my best friend would come down to the house, my grandparents would too, and we'd all sit there opening gifts, and laughing at everything.
My funniest Christmas memory is a little sad too. It's due to my dad's sincere, yet sometimes skewed, quest to get my mother the perfect christmas gift.
My mom always has cold feet. So my dad spent a ton of time trying to find something to help her out. He was so proud of what he came up with...despite my Aunt Rose cautioning him that he should perhaps get something else to go with the gift (she didn't have the heart to tell him mom might not like it). Dad was giddy with excitement as mom went to open it.
He even wrapped it in a box in a box to prolong the excitement.
And my mom opened the final gift and pulled out heavy grey hunting socks with orange stripes with a pack strapped inside for 2 "D" batteries. It had a wire running from the knee down to the toes to send a warm current through it.
The smile slowly faded from dad's face as mom demanded to know if this was a joke. She was honestly upset...I had hoped that she would at least take it in the spirit it was offered. But no, she kinda let him have it.
She was expecting jewelry, or a pretty new robe...but orange striped hunting socks pushed her past her limit.
To this day, the socks come up...dad gets upset, mom laughs now...but she wasn't then!
My Christmas memory - there are so, so many.. Christmas is my favorite holiday!!!
This year is my family's 10th year of celebrating the Grinch!!! Let me explain - I have 7 nieces and nephews - so we created a game so that they had to "earn" their gift. (The gift is money that each of the aunts/uncles and grandparents contribute) Also there is a stuffed Grinch. I write a story every year and in it I incorporate the words LEFT and RIGHT. Each "kid" gets a gift box and each time they hear the LEFT/RIGHT that have to move their gift box in that direction. When the story is over and they open the box, whoever has the GRINCH wins (they get extra money). It is a lot of fun and the nieces and nephews love it - I might add that my oldest niece is 24 and the youngest is 9. (They really don't want us to stop doing this - I have to come up with a new story every year and sometimes it is so difficult)
Another favorite Christmas memory is going to midnight mass and then go back to my mom's for her cherry stollen and a full breakfast. My mom's cherry stollen is a food group by itself. It is so, so good and it wouldn't be Christmas without it.
Josie
Maybe you should ask your favorite author to write the story this year ;)
Oh btw, the winner of the Elijah ARC is Robin Snodgrass. Robin, please send me a private email at jacquelynfrank@hotmail.com with your address if you want your Elijah ARC before release! ASAP hunny bunch!! I am not known for my timely mailings!
Congratulations Robin.
btw...I love the grinch game concept!
ok...so this is probably a day late and a dollar short, but I can't post on your blog from work (can read it though).
My daughter is three and desperately wants a brother and/or a sister. We're not quite ready for more. So at this thanksgiving, she told my husbands ENTIRE family that I was pregnant -- with twins!!! A boy and a girl. I'm still fielding emails from my sister in laws. ~Sigh~ LOL. They do say the darndest things...
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