AUTHOR LOIS WINSTON ON WINTER WONDERLAND HOLIDAY BLOG SHARE, MAKING LISTS & #GIVEAWAY

The holidays are coming. Are you ready? Need another gift for a book lover? Or maybe you need a break from all the holiday frenzy?

Today marks the start of the Winter Wonderland Holiday Blog Share. In the spirit of the season I’m joining with authors Catherine Green, Stanalei Fletcher, Doree Anderson, Kathryn E. Jones, Karl Beckstrand, Marie Higgins, and Mary Martinez, to spread a bit of holiday cheer.

The tour lasts through December 18^th. Stop by, leave a comment at each blog, and enter the Rafflecopter. You could win a $60 Amazon gift card, an early holiday present for yourself or a bit of help with your gift list. In addition, many of the authors, myself included, are giving away copies of our books.

Author Mary Martinez came up with idea for the Winter Wonderland Holiday Blog Share. She asked that we answer one or all of the following questions:

1. What is your favorite tradition from your childhood?

2. Do you still keep the same tradition with your family? Or have you started a new one for your family?

3. What is your favorite holiday dish?

Hmm…you might think these are easy questions to answer. Not for someone with a rather non-traditional childhood, noted mostly for its lack of any family traditions. And the traditions established with my own children have changed over the years as they’ve grown older and close friends and relatives have moved away. As for my favorite holiday dish? It’s hard to choose just one.

So instead, I’m going to discuss the biggest holiday tradition of all—list-making.

As everyone knows, this is the time of year for lists:

Gift lists.

Shopping lists.

Christmas card lists.

To-Do lists.

One by one we check off or cross out the items or names or chores until all are taken care of—hopefully well before ChristmaChanuKwanzaFestidan has come and gone.

Whatever you celebrate, this is a busy time of year. I don’t know about you, but I’d be lost without my lists. Even with them I often find myself running out at the last minute because I forgot to put an item or a person or a necessary ingredient on one of my many lists. A list, after all, is only as good as the list maker’s organizational skills. Good thing Santa doesn’t rely on me. He’s the most organized list maker the world has ever seen. Not only does he make a list, he checks it twice. And manages to accomplish his tasks all in one night. I envy Santa. I wish I could be that organized.

Along with the aforementioned lists, it's also that time of year for a host of other lists. I'm sure you've seen them in newspapers and magazines as well as on TV and the Internet. But did you know there's even a website of Top 10 Lists? Imagine that, a List of Lists! So along with finding out the Top 10 Grossing Movies of the Year or the Top 10 Searched Internet Sites or the Top 10 Gadgets of the Year, you can also find everything from the Top 10 Strangest LEGO Creations to the Top 10 Most Fascinating Urinals. (Really! Even I couldn't make that one up!)

So since everyone seems compelled around this time of year to come up with a Top 10 list of something, I thought I'd share one of mine:

Lois Winston's Top 10 Holiday List (in no particular order)
10. Favorite Christmas Beverage: John's egg nog
  9. Favorite Christmas Cookie: Rose's shortbread with chocolate frosting
  8. Favorite Christmas Carol: "Angels We Have Heard On High"
  7. Favorite Christmas Song (non-carol): "White Christmas"
  6. Favorite Christmas Movie: White Christmas
  5. Favorite Christmas TV Special: A Charlie Brown Christmas
  4. Favorite Christmas Book: A Christmas Story
  3. Favorite Christmas Activity: decorating the tree
  2. Favorite Christmas Present: a Shirley Temple doll
  1. Favorite Christmas Memory: watching my son perform in Amahl and the Night Visitors

Now it's your turn. What are some of your holiday favorites? Post a comment on today's blog for a chance to win a Kindle version of Elementary, My Dear Gertie, the novella sequel to my award-winning Talk Gertie To Me. (Note: Elementary, My Dear Gertie can be read and enjoyed without first having read Talk Gertie To Me.) The winner will be announced in the comment section of this blog at the end of the blog share. So make sure you check back after Dec. 18th to see if you've won and how to get your copy.

And don’t forget to hop over to these other blogs for more chances to win other books and enter the Rafflecopter drawing.

Winter Wonderland Holiday Blog Schedule

December 11^th—Lois Winston

December 12^th—Catherine Green

December 13^th—Stanalei Fletcher

December 14^th—Doree Anderson

December 15^th—Kathryn E. Jones

December 16^th—Karl Beckstrand

December 17^th—Marie Higgins

December 18^th—Mary Martinez

Click here to enter the Rafflecopter drawing for a $60 Amazon gift card. 

Elementary, My Dear Gertie

Heat up some hot cocoa, cuddle up on the couch, and treat yourself to a visit to Ten Commandments, Iowa where nothing is what it first seems. Come for the secrets. Stay for the laughs. And watch out for a killer on the loose.

Two years have passed since the happily-ever-after that isn’t doing so well. Nori Stedworth has moved in with the love of her life, Mackenzie Randolph, much to her parents’ displeasure. They’re coping as best as parents from Ten Commandments, Iowa can. They want Mac to make an honest woman of their daughter, and that means nothing short of marriage. Mac is all for exchanging I do’s. He’s even bought the ring, but before he can pop the question, an explosion hurls him and Nori right into the middle of a murder investigation. Gertie, Nori's alter-ego, can't help but lend her acerbic wit to the twists and turns as the town is turned upside down in the search for a murderer and arsonist, and yet another scandal envelopes the not-so-pious residents of Ten Commandments.

Read an excerpt here. 

Buy Links

paperback
Kindle

BOOK CLUB FRIDAY - GUEST AUTHOR LOIS WINSTON

The guest author we had scheduled for today is a no-show, so I thought I’d do something nice for author Lois Winston since she writes all those books about me. As I’ve mentioned previously, Lois also writes about other characters in other books. Don’t ask me why. It’s one of the mysteries of the universe as far as I’m concerned, but maybe every once in a while she needs a break from putting me in the line of killers. Lord knows, I do, but I guess that’s why she created Zack for me. :-)

The first book Lois ever published back in the spring of 2006 was Talk Gertie To Me, a multi-genre, humorous women’s fiction, combining chick lit, hen lit, and romance. It featured Connie, a menopausal Martha Stewart clone; her rebellious daughter Nori; and Nori’s acerbic imaginary friend Gertie. The book received critical acclaim and was the recipient of a few awards. And then it went out of print.

Lois honed her humor chops with Talk Gertie To Me. The book definitely prepared her to write about me, my Communist mother-in-law, and my multi-married, (self-proclaimed) Russian princess Mama. So in that respect I owe a debt of gratitude to Gertie, Nori, and Connie. And Lois.

That’s why I’m telling you about Elementary, My Dear Gertie, the novella sequel to Talk Gertie To Me which was just released. But Lois has added a bit of twist into this sequel. Along with being one part chick lit, one part hen lit, and one part romance, Elementary, My Dear Gertie all parts mystery. Lois has sent Nori, her boyfriend Mac, and Gertie back to Ten Commandments, Iowa for Christmas, and it turns out to be anything but an ordinary Christmas.

Connie’s Christmas gift to Nori is a cross-stitched pillow with a none-too-subtle message about marriage and children. Mac is all for exchanging I do’s. He’s even bought the ring, but before he can pop the question, an explosion (the literal kind) hurls him and Nori right into the middle of a murder investigation. Of course, Gertie can’t help but lend her acerbic wit to the twists and turns as yet another scandal envelopes the not-so-pious residents of Ten Commandments.

Both Talk Gertie To Me and Elementary, My Dear Gertie are available as ebooks from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the iBookstore. You can read excerpts at Lois’s website http://www.loiswinston.com where you’ll also find Buy Links, but because I’m in a giving mood, I’ve also included them here:

Talk Gertie To Me: Amazon, B&N, iBookstore

Elementary, My Dear Gertie: Amazon, B&N, iBookstore

Now, maybe since I’ve done Lois such a huge favor, she won’t write me into so much trouble in the next Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery. Or is that wishful thinking?

By the way, comments are always welcome, but Lois won’t be able to respond until Sunday. She’s without Internet until then.