Dead of Winter: Sherry Knowlton

I'd like to welcome Sherry Knowlton today. She writes in one of my favorites genres, mystery and suspense with a bit of romance. 

Thanks, Susan, for inviting me onto your blog today. 

My Alexa Williams series is mystery/suspense with a nice dollop of romance.  My stories are set in the present day but are somewhat unique in that they contain a parallel historical story that intersects with the contemporary mystery at some point in the book.  So, it’s particularly important that each story contains a few key elements that help ground it in the correct era.

In the newest book, Dead of Winter, I looked to drone technology to provide that sense of early 21^st century setting.  The heroine, Alexa, and her friends discover a disturbing image on the video footage they’ve just filmed with their drone.  That discovery leads Alexa into big trouble. In contrast, the parallel story is set in pre-Civil war days and follows a young slave in his escape from a Virginia plantation. The most cutting edge technology in that story is a horse and wagon.

Of course, there are many things an author can use to ground a story in an era or a region. For example, I used style of dress, slang and music to help bring the hippie era to life in Dead of Summer. Speech patterns and entirely different set of slang helped me set the stage for the Depression era subplot in my first book, Dead of Autumn.

In some ways, I find it easier to capture bygone eras by emphasizing a few of that time’s most distinctive characteristics than I do to depict the current day. Perhaps it’s because we are so immersed in our everyday environments that we must be especially keen observers to predict the items that will make future readers think, “Oh, this book is set in the early 21^st century.”

But, my books also use issues that are ripped from today’s headlines as the background or key components of the plot.  So, those issues provide much of the contemporary flavor.  I guess you’ll need to read of one the books to discover whether I’ve been successful in nailing the proper sense of time and place. Dead of Winter is the newest with a release date of February 19^th.

Dead of Winter

“With riveting suspense and vivid details, Dead of Winter by Sherry Knowlton brings the towns and forests of Southcentral Pennsylvania to vivid life as cultures and beliefs clash in a searing tale of murder, love, and communal fear.  From flying drones to police investigations and legal wrangling, Dead of Winter will keep you guessing and glued raptly to your reading chair.” 

-          Gayle Lynds, New York Times best-selling author of The Assassins

A lighthearted trip to test a new drone turns deadly for attorney Alexa Williams
and two close friends when they find a stranger’s bullet-riddled body in a remote field in
rural Pennsylvania. Next to the dead man is a note that declares: Allahu Akbar.
When a second man is executed near Harpers Ferry, Alexa’s old flame, Reese, becomes a suspect, leading her to question just how much he changed while working in Africa. Fear of Islamic terrorism spreads like wildfire through Alexa’s small town after a third murder. After police arrest the oldest son of her Syrian refugee clients, the family becomes the focus of mounting anti-Muslim rage, and a dangerous militia group turns its sights on Alexa.

One dark night in the dead of winter, Alexa discovers who is behind the murders and must race to stop an attack that could kill hundreds. If she fails, she could lose everyone she loves.

Buy links:

·         https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Winter-Alexa-Williams-Novel-ebook/dp/B07MLNCHT2/

·         Available at most online retailers and bookstores.

About Sherry: Sherry Knowlton is the author of the Alexa Williams series of suspense novels: Dead of Autumn, Dead of Summer, Dead of Spring and the most recent release, Dead of Winter.  Passionate

about books at an early age, she was that kid who would sneak a flashlight to bed at night so she could read beneath the covers. All the local librarians knew her by name. When not writing the next Alexa Williams thriller, Knowlton works on her health care consulting business or travels around the world. She and her husband live in the mountains of South Central Pennsylvania. 

Connect with Sherry at:

www.sherryknowlton.com

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42968171-dead-of-winter (Goodreads)

@sherry.knowltonbooks (Facebook)

@KnowltonSBooks (Twitter)

https://www.pinterest.com/knowlton0706/ (Pinterest)

Do you think drones can help solve crimes or perhaps discover crimes? Is that title hitting right in the cold spot for this time of year? 

Thanks, Sherry, for visiting today.

Corruption by Nick Wilford

Hi Susan! Thanks for hosting me as part of my tour. Today, we're going to go live to one of Harmonia's top investigative TV shows for an interview with the youngest member of the science team.

*

I’m Mark Tangleford from Harmonia Happenings, and today we’ve got something exciting for you – an insight into the hitherto secretive world of the Whitopolis science labs through the eyes of its youngest member, Dr Daniel Carrickson.

Let’s introduce you to our viewers. Can you tell our viewers a bit about yourself and how you got started in the exciting world of science?

(Clears throat nervously) Well, sure, Mark. Um, let me see. I guess I was always fascinated by science, all the wonderful things around us that make our lives better. Most people take them for granted, like the food transmission units – they just produce a delicious plate of food out of nothing, and it wasn’t always like that. When I was eight I tried to take ours apart at home to see how it worked. My parents had to spend five hundred dollars on repairs, so they weren’t too happy, but when I was leaving school my dad – who works as a government adviser – heard about an opening for a trainee scientist and put my name forward.

Yes, under the old system it seemed to be very much about having connections if you wanted to get anywhere in government. Now it seems they’re trying to make things a lot more open. Can you tell me about how things have changed?

Yeah, well, I’d only been in about my job for about a year you see when Wellesbury Noon overthrew the Reformers. So I wasn’t too set in my ways, unlike some of my older team members who, um, weren’t particularly happy about it! I don’t want to say anything bad, so I’ll leave it there. But yeah, it does seem more open, transparent you could say. We get groups of visitors who come round to see how everything’s done. It doesn’t seem like we keep secrets any more, whereas before people didn’t even know where the labs were. It was like a fortress.

Now tell me what’s coming up in the world of science. I hear you’re going to be part of a very special mission to Loretania.

That’s right, we’re preparing mass quantities of the disease antidote to help all the people over there who are suffering so much. That’s another thing I’m glad is out in the open. Of course, all of us who were behind the scenes, you could say, knew about what things were like there, but it was kept hidden from the population. It was the biggest secret of all. So yes, I’m really excited about that. It’s going to make a real difference and I hope it leads to some sort of interaction between the two countries.

Thank you for talking with us today, Daniel. I’ll let you get back to your important work now.

Thank you. It was a pleasure!

Title: Corruption

Author: Nick Wilford

Genre: YA dystopian Series: Black & White Series #: 2 of 3

Release date: 11th February 2019

Publisher: Superstar Peanut Publishing

Blurb:

Wellesbury Noon and Ezmerelda Dontible have found themselves in a position where they can make their native land somewhere that lives up to its name: Harmonia. However, they’re setting their sights further afield for their number one task: eradicating the disease that has plagued the neighbouring country of Loretania for generations and allowed the privileged Harmonians to live in a sterile environment.

After dispatching a team of scientists to Loretania, armed with cratefuls of an antidote and vaccine and headed up by their friend, Dr George Tindleson, Welles, Ez, and Welles’s brother Mal – who grew up in that benighted nation – start to worry when they hear nothing back, despite what they had agreed. Commandeering a fishing boat to follow the science team over the sea, they soon find that, while the disease may be on the way out, a new kind of infection has set in – the corruption they thought they had stamped out in Harmonia.

Can they get to the root of the problem and eliminate it before even more damage is done to an innocent people?

*** Warning – this book contains themes that some sensitive readers may find upsetting. ***

Purchase Links:

Amazon US / Amazon UK / Smashwords / Barnes & Noble / Kobo / iBooks

Add it on Goodreads

Meet the author:

Nick Wilford is a writer and stay-at-home dad. Once a journalist, he now makes use of those early morning times when the house is quiet to explore the realms of fiction, with a little freelance editing and formatting thrown in. When not working he can usually be found spending time with his family or cleaning something. He has four short stories published in Writer’s Muse magazine. Nick is also the editor of Overcoming Adversity: An Anthology for Andrew. Visit him at his blog or connect with him on Twitter, Goodreads, Facebook, or Amazon.

IWSG: February 2019

The year is already zipping along. The first Wednesday of the month mean IWSG, the monthly bloghop and brainchild of Alex J. Cavanaugh. Please share your questions, failures, victories, and inspirations with the group. Find the entire list here.

The optional question for hop participants this month: Besides writing, what other creative outlets do you have?

Not as many as I used to. LOL. Time being a factor. I love cross-stitch and have done some pretty nice projects with it, if I do say so myself. I also love to crochet and I love to bake and try new recipes. I don't do much of the latter anymore. With my kids all grown up, baking is a very bad idea for my husband and me. It's only us to eat those goodies. I have no one to crochet a blanket for either though my granddaughter is getting one as soon as she's old enough to pick her colors.

Hope you all didn't suffer too much in the recent deep freeze. It was really miserable. I'm dreading the electric bill which will probably be posted today or tomorrow. Could be a record for us. It's warmer than average now, but who knows what is on the horizon.

"A fair day in winter is the mother of a storm." English proverb

I've been reading a lot of statistics about publishing and how writers are faring in this ever more competitive field. Lots of numbers show that authors are making a lot less in the past year than they made a few years ago. Over-saturation of the market is one of factors most often cited. At a recent one-day workshop I attended, the presenter shared that 730 new romance novels are published every day. Wow! Romance readers are voracious, but those numbers are still unnerving. How does one get found by new readers?

Working on a new book and trying to keep my 1,000 words per day going like I have for the last four books I wrote. It took me a lot of years to figure out a process that works for me.

I'm enjoying the new FOX show, The Passage. It's a lot like the books, and the differences are working. It's getting the creep factor right. Another show I'm looking forward to in 2019 is the return to The 100, a CW show that gets better every year. Also, I heard this season of SYFY's Killjoys will be its last. This is a fun show if you haven't tried it before. In case you believe I only watch science fiction and fantasy show, I am really enjoying the new CBS show, FBI.

Saw on the news today that Pennsylvania's new budget is once again not increasing the funding to public libraries. What are they thinking. It's one of those things I'm glad to pay taxes to support. Hope your home states or countries do better than mine. On the other hand, my local county has found more monies for libraries. I can't express how important libraries are and how much I love my local one.

Stay warm, friends, and keep on reading and writing. Do you have many creative outlets? Do you love your local library? Did the polar vortex get you? Any TV keeping your warm this winter?

How To Build a Green Mars

 How Would A Settlement Be Built on Mars?

My novel – my very first published one! – is “The Bride From Dairapaska.” It is set on my vision of a terraformed Mars and incorporates a lot of what I’ve learned about soil building, resource management, colonization, infrastructure needs, and how to work without access to fossil fuels.

  

There is a story, I promise. But before I could write the first word, I had to build a green Mars, and that meant thinking about how it could be terraformed.

  

There was one problem: After a lot of reading and thinking, I concluded that it can’t work. It would be easier to turn the Gobi Desert into a green and pleasant land, well-watered, fertile, and rich in agricultural products of all kinds, than it would to grow a blade of grass on Mars.

  

For one thing, terraforming the Gobi Desert does not require 140-million-mile-long supply lines on average for your equipment. Earth has fossil fuels. There is soil. There are plenty of people to do the work. There are no problems with a breathable atmosphere. It has the gravity that the human body and every other critter evolved with. Earth has a magnetosphere which both holds in the atmosphere and repels the deadly, radiation-laden solar wind. Mars does not. There are difficulties in traveling through space, starting with outer space damaging the human body starting from the very first day.

So how do you build a green Mars? First, obtain a lot of Handwavium. This important element was discovered by the first science-fiction writers to explain faster-than-light travel, bug-eyed monsters, time travel, or any other concept that science couldn’t explain.

  

Next, work out the terraforming process. The number one issue in terraforming the planet is building soil so the colonists can feed themselves. I decided that Mars could be seeded with genetically-modified molds, algae, lichens, mosses, and fungi. Give them 100 million years to work, and you’ll have soil. For my purpose, I made them fast-growing to cut down the time!

  

Then I broke out the Handwavium to give Mars a magnetosphere — by creating machines to make the core of the planet spin — and give it a heat-trapping atmosphere.

  

The next problem was fossil fuels. It’s hard to imagine life without coal or oil, yet people managed. However, a high-tech civilization depends on coal and oil. Solar panels and wind turbines cannot be built without fossil fuels. Solar panels are made from plastics derived from oil. The metal needed for steel can be dug out by men with picks and shovels. It cannot be smelted without charcoal (made from trees), peat (compressed plant material that hasn’t turned into coal), coal, or oil. You can’t run a blast furnace on electricity even if you can generate the electricity with your nuclear power plant.

  

So, the colonists will make do with what they brought with them, and get real good at fixing broken equipment and clever at coming up with substitutes.

  

Once that was settled, it was time to figure out how the colonists would organize to settle the planet. I developed a feudal, agrarian culture built on the labor of peasants. I use men as draft animals, something many cultures have done. What is a coolie but a draft animal? You’re going to have people, you need people, they have to eat and so that muscle gets put to work.

  

But not all of Mars will be settled. After a couple hundred years, there’ll be enough people to cover less than half the surface, which leaves lots of space for people to form horse-riding tribes similar to Native Americans or Mongols. They’ll develop their own belief systems, customs, and family traditions.

  

Next, I considered the distribution of wealth. In many traditional empires, the closer you are to the capital, the more technology you have available. The richer you are, the more technology you can use. A Roman emperor could have ices in the summer; his lowliest subjects did not. Life in the capital of Barsoom on the equator will feel very different from life with the horse-riding barbarians in the northern and southern latitudes.

  

Relations with Earth also play a role in the stories. Immense amounts of wealth had to be poured into terraforming Mars. The investors expect a substantial return on their investment. All empires expect their colonies to generate wealth that is returned to the empire’s elite. This is called a “wealth pump.” The colonies of an empire are mined for their assets, and that wealth pours back into the center of the empire, leaving the colony increasingly stripped bare.

 The Spaniards did this to South America. The British did this to India. The Chinese are doing this right now in Africa.

 Do the residents of those colonies appreciate this? They do not, unless they personally benefit.

 When these questions were settled, I could begin “The BrideFrom Dairapaska.”

 How would these elements play out with real people trapped in a world not of their own design? You can see this play out in the cover art, which demonstrates these contradictions so well. Who is the bride? That woman carrying a baby with two other kids? What is “Dairapaska”? Why is she green? Why are there two moons? Why are they in the middle of nowhere? What are they running from?

  

“The Bride From Dairapaska” gives you the answers, and introduces you to a Mars you’ve never seen before. I’m looking forward to exploring it in future books, and I hope you’ll come along for the journey.

  

For Writers

Writing is a business. If you aren’t getting paid, it’s a hobby. The IRS says so and they’re right. As a functioning business, it should provide you, the writer, with not just a current income (even if it’s only walking-around money), but a future income as well.

For Everyone

If you want to see something sad, ask a room full of freelance writers about their tax strategies. It’s like asking a pack of baby kittens about space travel.

 The Bride from Dairapaska  On Amazon

In a rural village on a terraformed Mars, a lonely young wife takes her children and dog and flees into the vast open steppes. Debbie only wanted to escape her abusive husband, but her encounter with the Steppes Riders, and especially Yannick of Kenyatta, unwittingly ignites changes that attract the attention of Mars’ ruling families. Left to her own resources, Debbie must adapt to her new life and figure out how to defend her adopted people.

  

“The Steppes of Mars” series imagines a transformed world where a disaster on Earth decades ago cut off all contact with its wealth and resources. Experience a Mars where its genetically modified inhabitants have developed their own cultures, beliefs, and religions. A semi-feudal world where ruling families control vast demesnes under a central government at Barsoom. A world of limited resources where train travel is possible but cars and planes are not. A world of free-cities — open and domed — villages, vast fields and steppes, and people banding together to survive and thrive in this harsh new world.

  

“The Bride from Dairapaska Find it on Amazon

 About Odessa Moon

Odessa Moon has, at various times, painted, sewed, served in the Navy, worked as a sales clerk and cashier, taken care of her family, and gardened with enthusiasm. She reads extensively, especially about medieval history, the class struggle, colonization, and resource depletion. She read piles of science-fiction and fantasy in her youth and often wondered what the authors hand-waved away about how difficult it really would be to terraform another planet at the end of a 140-million-mile supply line. Her “The Steppes of Mars” series combines all those interests.

When Ms. Moon is not writing, she is working on improving the soil in her own garden and planting trees in Hershey, Pa., where the air really does smell of chocolate.

Visit her website at OdessaMoon

Do you think we'll ever build a settlement on Mars? Would you go? Do you think mankind would take all the social problems of Earth with them to Mars? Have you ever been to Hershey, PA and smelled the chocolate in the air?

Guest Rachel J. Good: Blessings in Disguise

Please welcome Rachel J. Good today as she shares her writing journey and many reasons not to give up when your publisher closes or changes their plans without consulting you. She is a prolific writer and is a skilled navigator of this tricky business of writing. Here's Rachel:

Life isn’t always easy, but sometimes the darkest times may turn out to be blessings. If I hadn’t lost my library job, I’d never have become a writer. Once I did start writing, I worked for years on

magazine articles and educational pieces before I had a book published. Looking back, I’m glad for that delay because I learned a lot about the craft and business of writing. After switching to fiction, signing with an agent, and getting my first three-book deal for the Amish Sisters & Friends series, I assumed the worst of my struggles were over.

I didn’t count on the publisher closing the fiction line and orphaning my third and fourth books, especially not after I’d just given my editor ideas for continuing the series. I’m grateful for my agent, who suggested I give those ideas a new spin and she’d send them out. Several days later, she had requests from three different publishers for a sample chapter. Two of them made an offer, so we went with Hachette/ Grand Central. And the Love & Promises series was born. TheAmish Midwife’s Secret (Nov. 2018) is the second book in that series. The Amish Teacher’s Gift (Apr. 2018) and The Amish Widow’s Rescue (May 2019) round out the series.

Although I was devastated by the closing, it turned out to be a major blessing because I moved from a mid-sized publisher to one of the Big 5. Had I stayed where I was, this new series wouldn’t have made the BookScan bestseller lists or be featured in USA Today. But that wasn’t the only blessing. A few months later, I received a message from Harlequin, and they contracted the orphaned books from the Sisters & Friends series. Gift from Above (Feb.) and Big-City Amish (June) will be part of their Wal-Mart exclusives program in 2019.

That experience taught me not to count on only one publisher or one genre. Lines close, editors leave, genres wane. So, although I recently signed a six-book contract with Kensington for more Amish romances, my agent is preparing to shop two other series proposals—inspirational Westerns and sweet romances. I’m also working on new MG and YA novels as well planning a mystery novella series. As I (and many of my writer friends) have discovered, it’s important to give yourself multiple options if you’re hoping for a lifelong career in writing.

About The Amish Midwife’s Secret

An Amish midwife and an Englisch doctor must embrace their differences to rescue a baby in need in this uplifting romance that will “capture your heart and leave you smiling” (Amy Lillard, award-winning author).

Kyle Miller never planned on becoming a country doctor. But when he's offered a medical practice in his sleepy hometown, Kyle knows he must return... and face the painful past he left behind. Except

the Amish community isn't quite ready for Kyle. Especially the pretty midwife who refuses to compromise her traditions with his modern medicine...

The more Leah Stoltzfus works with the handsome Englisch doctor, the more she finds herself caught between the expectations of her family and her own hopes for the future. It will take one surprising revelation and one helpless baby in need of love to show Leah and Kyle that their bond may be greater than their differences... if Leah can find the courage to follow her heart.

“The Amish Teacher's Gift might have been the first book I've read by Rachel J. Good, but it won't be my last.” - Shelley Shepard Gray, New York Times bestselling author

**The Amish Midwife’s Secret can be purchased at Walmart, Barnes & Noble, Meier’s, and other stores as well as online at these sellers and at ChristianBooks.com. For international readers, Book Depository offers free worldwide shipping.

** Readers can find out more about the hero, Kyle, by reading the first two books in the Sisters & Friends series, Change of Heart and Buried Secrets, although the midwife story stands alone.

About Rachel J. Good

Rachel J. Good turned to writing to keep her sanity when she had 5 children under the age of 8. Squeezing in writing between changing diapers, settling sibling quarrels, and wiping runny noses proved impossible, so she became a night owl. Writing from 10 PM to 3 AM, Rachel cranked out more than 40 books for children and adults under various pen names, but Amish novels have become her favorite. To keep her books authentic, she enjoys spending time with Amish friends, doing chores on their farms, babysitting their children, and attending family events.

Rachel’s Amish series include Sisters & Friends (Charisma House & Harlequin), Love & Promises (Hachette/Grand Central), Hearts of Amish Country (Annie’s Book Club), and the forthcoming Surprised by Love and Unexpected Amish Blessings (Kensington). She also has several anthologies in print as well as the Amish Quilts Coloring Book. To learn more about Rachel, you can visit her website and sign up for her newsletter.

If you enjoy learning about Amish life and want to follow along on her research trips to Amish country, you can join her private Facebook group, Rachel J. Good’s Hitching Post.

Rachel can also be found here, and she’d love to connect with you:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/racheljgoodnovels/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RachelJGood1
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14661177.Rachel_J_Good
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/racheljgood1/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Rachel-J-Good/e/B019DWF4FG
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/rachel-j-good

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rachelj.good

Thanks ever so much for having me, Susan! And many blessings on your writing journey!

I've known Rachel for many years. She continues to amaze me with her accomplishments. Have you ever visited Amish country? Did anything about it surprise you? Ever own an Amish quilt or eat some Amish baking? Did you know how big the inspirational romance market is?

IWSG: January 2019 Edition

Welcome to 2019. It seems like just last year when some people thought that the world's infrastructure would collapse when those clocks ticked around to 2000. A great way to celebrate the New Year is making my first blog post my contribution to IWSG. This amazing blogging group, and so much more, is the brainchild of Alex J. Cavanaugh. Join us in supporting and helping each other in this crazy business of writing. Find the entire list of participants here.

The optional question this month:
What are your favorite and least favorite questions people ask you about your writing?

I guess my least favorite is people asking me if I've paid someone to publish my books. My favorite is when they ask me when my next book will be out. Nothing like a fan eager to read my books to make my day, week, and year.

2019 saw a lot of writers facing declining sales. The ebook market flooded with more books than there were readers to buy them. Marketing continued to be frustrating and ever-changing. What works with one book may miss totally with the next.

On the upside for me, I wrote four complete novels in 2018, completing the final edits for The Alien and the Engineer on Christmas Eve. I also outline the next three novels I'll be writing in 2019 and have started a longer outline for my next epic fantasy series. My first romance novel was published by New Concepts publishing in 2007. The Alien and the Engineer is the 26th novel of mine published by NCP.

A few things I'm looking forward to in 2019.

My new Old Farmer's Almanac Planner. I'll share lots of its wisdom with you starting today.
"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." Unknown
Next week, the new show, The Passage, based on the book by Justin Cronin premiers on TV. Even though the third book in that series was an incredible let down, the show looks pretty good.
Of course, later in the year, we'll have the last season of Game of Thrones and End Game for the Avengers.
I recently watched three seasons of The Travelers on Netflix. I had started it a while ago but stopped for some reason after a few episodes. I'm really glad I dove back into it. The last episode of season 3 has one of the greatest twists in a series ever.

Happy New Year to you all. May 2019 be filled with joy, contentment, and adventure.

"It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness." Charles Spurgeon

What are you looking forward to in 2019? Did you meet your 2018 goals? Do certain questions from readers bother you?

How to Enjoy the Holiday Season by Christine Rains

Please welcome one of my long time blogging friends and chase away those shopping and entertaining blues.

PREPPING FOR THE HOLIDAYS

Thanks so much to Susan for having me on her blog today. It’s that exciting time of year with lots of holiday events with family and friends. Even more exciting for me because I finished my shopping last month and don’t have to deal with the insanity of crowded stores!

For some people, they don’t get a chance to do their shopping until the last minute. My sympathies to you. All that noise, the rude people, crazy parking lots, the stress of finding what you need. The best way to deal with getting ready for the fun part of the holidays is to have a book with you all the time. As a voracious reader, I carry my Kindle with me everywhere. Waiting in line, I read. Waiting for a parking spot to open up, I read. There are also audiobooks if you want your hands free. Wrapping, cleaning, baking. You can get through a lot of books this month!

As an author, I lose writing time with the running around and visiting. While some writers love their little notebooks, I have an app on my cell phone where I can jot down ideas, or, if you’re really quick at typing, you can compose a poem or work on your current story. (It’s a free app called Writer Plus!) I usually retire early in the evenings when we have visitors, so I squeeze in a bit of writing time as I’m sitting in bed. If you’re an early bird, getting up before everyone else and putting on the coffee works as you’re sneaking in some words.

Enjoy yourself this holiday season. Savor the time spent with good friends and family, and give yourself the gift of not missing out on writing or a good book. You’ll be happier and that joy will carry through to everything else.

Of Gods and Sorrow (Of Blood and Sorrow, Book #2)

Stopping the undead will seem like child's play when the Cult of Ammut comes calling.

Even after losing most of her adopted family, Erin Driscol continues to console clients at Putzkammer & Sons Funeral Home. Keeping the funeral business working smoothly is no longer the walk in the graveyard it used to be. Grieving demons are fighting in the halls. Eyeballs are showing up in teapots. And a so-called psychic and member of the Cult of Ammut claims Erin's boss Cort is a god. All Erin wants is a friend to lean on and a sense of normalcy. But as the cult kills people and repeatedly attacks the funeral home, she must stand strong or lose Cort to the Lake of Fire.

Buy link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JGDPLFC/

Goodreads:https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42349008-of-gods-and-sorrow

Author bio: Christine Rains is a writer, blogger, and geek mom. She decorated for the holidays way too early this year, but it did make everyone smile. She’s a jolly member of Untethered Realms and S.C.I.F.I. She has two novels and several novellas and short stories published.

Website: http://christinerains.net/

Blog:  http://christinerains-writer.blogspot.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CRainsWriter

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorchristinerains

Did you get your shopping done early like Christine? Do you always carry a book with you? How do you squeeze in come writing time over the busy season?