Do you remember the scene in Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase when they’re trying to eat the extremely overdone turkey? Everyone is crunching and dipping it in their water? Got that visual? Good. That’s the turkey at my MIL’s house. Dry, oh so dry, I almost choke when I swallow because my spit’s been absorbed by the meat. *taking a drink of water at the memory* Next are the mashed potatoes. Um, who makes homemade mashed potatoes without milk? Not me or my blue collar family. They were tasteless, even with the gravy. Oh yeah, the gravy. My mom’s gravy was thick and light brown and so good. Yum. My MIL’s gravy is apparently a melted salt lick. It’s so concentrated, it’s literally like pouring salt on your turkey, which is already dry enough. I’m used to mashed sweet potatoes with a bit of brown sugar and salt. Okay, what my MIL serves is *bracing myself* canned yams with canned, sweetened apples and browned marshmallows on top. OMG. I was polite once and tried it. It put me into sugar shock for a week. Then there’s something called scalloped corn. I probably should have put “scalloped” in quotes. Here are the main ingredients: creamed corn and squashed Ritz crackers. These are baked in a big Corning dish. Um, gooey goop. And unfortunately, no homemade rolls, no pickles, no olives and no homemade stuffing. Perhaps dessert would make up for it. You know something’s not right with that too, right? *Double sigh* Her pumpkin pies have lots of brown spots in them, not the creamy orange I’m used to. I think it might have been cloves or something like that. It tasted odd AND she uses homemade whipped cream (this for a girl used to Cool Whip) with NO sugar. Oh and the apple pie is made with mushy McIntosh apples. All in all, my first year at my MIL’s house for Thanksgiving was an experience vividly etched in my memory. Can you tell? I learned over the years (I’ve been married for 17) to carefully choose what I eat at holiday time. I make sure I have a BIG glass of water when eating the turkey and gravy, I avoid the yams *shudder* and the pie, and do my best to just enjoy being with family. Because after all, they’ve become my family now too, even if I miss the pickles. Along the main boulevard, Kärntner Strauße, we passed souvenir stores, high class boutiques, familiar clothing shops, restaurants and cafés. Lots of cafés. Thanks to the crisp, cool but sunny autumn weather, outdoor tables were filled to capacity. I didn’t realize this before going, but like Paris, Vienna is a city where you can sit in a café with one cup of coffee and remain there for hours. No one will disturb you or make you feel like you should leave so someone else can have the table. This luxury makes Vienna a popular place for writers to gather. But it’s not just writers who gravitate here. Fans of Mozart and Beethoven will feel right at home. Outside the Opera House and at every intersection, men and women dressed in colorful 17th and 18th century male garb offered tickets to the frequent concerts performed in this cultural Mecca for classical music. Another surprising discovery was the sheer number of bookstores we stumbled across. And they had decent sections of English books! My husband and I are both book-a-holics and there’s very little we like better than perusing packed shelves of fiction. That’s hard to do in a country where you don’t speak the language (at least not well). Not a problem in Vienna. The plethora of Buchhandlung had plenty of books for us. And when we finished in one, we strolled a few feet and discovered another. I tend to judge a city by the number of bookstores I see. Vienna passed this test with flying colors! We also kept running across chocolate shops. Mmm… Chocolate. Delicious-looking, beautifully decorated chocolate. Chocolate shaped like little pumpkins, autumn leaves, ghosts and goblins. I had almost as much fun looking in the windows at all those skillfully molded little sweets as I did ducking in to select something yummy—a treat my husband insisted I have. How romantic is that? Second only to the chocolate was the number of pizzerias. Every sidewalk food stall had pizza. Every fifth restaurant seemed to be Italian. Some of the most crowded “fast food” joints, were pizzerias! I’m not sure why I didn’t expect to see so much of my favorite food. Austria borders Italy. There’s plenty of cross over between the two countries. And I can tell you from personal experience that the pies in Vienna are as good as any I’ve had in Italy. Okay, there was plenty of Austrian/German food. But with so much pizza and chocolate, who has time for jagerschnitzle and spaetzle? Yes, we did see some of the tourist sites. We didn’t just spend our days in bookstores and chocolate shops (tempting as that was). After we’d stumbled across the Spanish Riding School on accident one day, we actually got up early the next morning to watch the Lipizzaner stallions training. Beyond the Spanish Riding School is a fabulous park bordered by the National Library and a view of the gothic spires of the Neues Rathaus (the new City Hall) and Parliament in the distance. Behind the National Library was yet another gorgeous, manicured park and across the street the Museums Quarter. We purposefully made a trip out to Schönbrunn Palace—the Imperial Palace—to walk through the sculptured gardens of the Palace Park and visit the oldest zoo in the world. We explored St. Stephen’s Cathedral and accidentally found Peterskirch, another beautiful Baroque church worth spending a few quiet moments in, especially when you’ve been walking all day and you need to sit down. Our most romantic walk, though, was through Stadtpark, the largest city park in the central city. The Vienna River runs through one side of the park. There’s a stone walkway along one edge of the river for strollers, and rot iron bridges for access to the street opposite the path. The stone walls bracketing the path are covered with ivy and hanging trees. The ivy, this time of year, was a bright red accent to the dark gray stone. There were even little insets along the path for sneaking private kisses. An elaborate white-stone fountain decorates the wall at one end of the walkway, and from there, you can climb a set of arching stairs to the main section of the park. Paths around the trees and trimmed patches of grass are dotted with famous statuary. And despite the changing color of the ivy, most of the park was still beautifully green. Historic but modern, beautiful and Baroque, Vienna was full of surprises, and I intend to visit again, just to uncover a few more.
Isabo Kelly is the award-winning author of multiple fantasy, science fiction and paranormal romances. Her fantasy romance, The Heron’s Call, is available now from Samhain Publishing. Look for her erotic science fiction romance short story, Hali’s Rescue, in Tales from Lachmuirghan available from Samhain Publishing in December.
To learn more about Isabo, visit her website www.isabokelly.com Home for the Holidays: Military Style That might not mean much to people who have never lived a nomadic existence like we do in the military. One year there might be snow. The next, a beach. As I type this, we wait to hear if it will be beaches, snow, or possibly learning new Christmas traditions in a new country for Christmas 2008. As I said before, you really don’t know from one holiday to the next where you will be living. Even if the military promises you’ll stay somewhere for two years, they don’t always fulfill their promises, especially in these days of constant deployment. A family needs a sense of normalcy to thrive. Building that is difficult with our lifestyle, but there is a way. Home to us isn’t so much as a place, but our family. Our small four person family, our extended family of grandparents, uncles, aunts, nieces and nephews, and the even bigger family: the military family. My kids know that our home is about who we love, who we care about, and a state of mind. We try our best to familiarize ourselves with the area where we are, enjoying sunsets in Honolulu or picking strawberries in Georgia. My kids are fully and totally entrenched in the local culture. Whether it is boiled peanuts in South Carolina, or the Alamo in San Antonio, they know about where they live. They will always remember having Thanksgiving dinner with my husband’s Superintendant in Georgia, and going to the Hickam O’Club and enjoying Thanksgiving on the lanai(the back porch to those of us from the south) just as I have memories of Santa throwing candy from the back of a military truck in Wiesbaden and smelling gingerbread in the air on a German street. We have each other, our love of family, and a love for all things new and wondrous no matter where we live. This year finds us for the fourth year in row in San Antonio. A very rare occurrence for us and one we have truly enjoyed. We will try to make it down to the River Walk for the lights, and make sure we enjoy Randolph AFB—otherwise known as the showplace of the AF—all dressed up with bows and lights. But, next year it will probably be somewhere else we have never been and the excitement is already brewing. My kids never look at a new place as a horrible thing. Granted, there are always the tearful goodbyes, the times when I threaten to tie both my children (and sometimes their father) to the roof of the car during the move, and the fear of the unknown. No matter what, wherever we end up, we have each other, and we know we are home.
Melissa Schroeder is the author of over 20 short stories, novellas and novels in genres from historical to futuristic with eight publishers. Her current releases from Samhain are her first erotic western, The Seduction of Widow McEwan(digital) and The Accidental Countess(print). Animal Shelter Appreciation Week Also please consider donating goods or resources to a No-Kill shelter in your community. Many organizations are often short of supplies like old towels and chew toys, and would also love volunteers to stop by and give these animals some companionship. For anyone who might be interested, I’m also running a charity print sale throughout the month with some of my cover art for m/m shifter books. Five dollars from each sale will be donated to Operation Kindness, and at the end of the month, I’ll happily match the total. Please visit my blog for more info.
Part-time cover artist and illustrator, full-time hopeless fangirl, Anne Cain enjoys spreading her love of art and appreciation for the sensual and macabre through her work. Whenever she’s not doodling away in one of her sketch books or painting a cover, Anne spends her time writing and reading too much yaoi. To learn more about her art and stories, please check out: Anne’s DeviantArt Portfolio or Dragon’s Disciple, her labor of love with co-author Barbara Sheridan. WRITING: Remember What Your Mama Taught You Keep on keeping on. In other words, never give up. What may not happen tomorrow, or thenext day, or even many days from now, will never happen if you don’t try. You cannot fail if you never give up. You have to believe in yourself and in your writing, and know that it’s only a matter of time until a publisher recognizes your talent. Ask any published author and she’ll tell you that perseverance is a key factor in getting your first book contract. Never let anyone tell you that you can’t do it. Learn to take rejection because there will undoubtedly be rejection. Although most people are supportive, you will encounter those who will try to get you to give up your dream, those who scoff at your writing, and others who will believe you’re wasting your time. Unless you’re driving your family to financial or emotional ruin, don’t listen to those negative people. Trust your own judgment and listen to your heart. When my mom taught me this lesson, she was talking about law school (Sorry, Mom!) but the same principle applies to writing. Although trying a case in front of the Supreme Court was my mom’s fantasy for me, I took her lesson and applied it to my goal of becoming a published author. Guess what? It worked! Once a publisher wants your book, don’t forget these other life lessons. Keep your head. When choosing any publisher, don’t leap into signing a contract. Sure, the excitement of getting published is wonderful, and you should spend a day celebrating. But after the champagne is gone and the chocolates are eaten, put the thrill aside, take a big breath, and think logically. Think in terms of your career and your business. Approach the publisher or editor in a strictly professional manner. While writers should pay attention to their gut instincts, too many authors treat their working partnerships as they would their personal relationships. Whether or not you like the publisher as a person shouldn’t be the biggest factor in your decision. Trust me. You won’t be invited to her only child’s wedding. She is a business associate—not your new BFF. Therefore, from the start, take it slow, consult with an attorney, and find an agent. Check the facts. Now that you’re using your head, remember to do the necessary research. Is the publisher a legitimate one? Have they been in business long? Are they respected among their peers? Do their authors get paid on time and in compliance with their contracts? Is the publisher asking you to pay for edits or for the book’s cover art? (If so, run and run fast.) Are the books they’ve published edited well? Buy a few and see what you think. Are they restricting their publishing endeavors to selling eBooks or have they expanded into print? Ask other writers and check online resources for opinions of this publisher. In short, a little bit examination before signing on the bottom line is worth the effort. Work to live. Don’t live to work. My mom never used the popular saying, but she meant the same thing. She stressed the point of doing something enjoyable and not getting caught up in the “have to” work mode that too many people do every day of their lives. It’s difficult to find that one thing you love to do and even more difficult to get paid for it. Writing is no different—which, of course, is why many of us write after we’ve put in our time at our paying job. However, we keep on writing because we write out of our love for the story. Once the writing becomes “work” and not pleasure, then it’s time to put the aside the laptop. Mothers teach us more than how to ride a bike, do our makeup, or balance a checkbook. They teach us how to enter whatever field we want to pursue, keeping our heads in the clouds while our feet stay rooted to the ground. So whether you’re fending off Hands Anderson next door or pursuing a writing career, remember the lessons your mother taught you.
Beverly Rae – http://www.beverlyrae.com/ Holiday Stress, A Guide To Keeping Your Cool
Remember that one way to minimize holiday stress is simply knowing that the holidays can trigger stress and depression. Accept that things will go wrong, then take active steps to manage your stress. You may actually enjoy yourself more than you thought.
J.C. Wilder is a multi-published author of paranormal and erotic romances. Book I of her new series, The Coven, will be released December 7, 2007.
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