A Holiday blog by Jaclyn Tracey

To date there are 24 days left to shop for your loved ones for Christmas. Some of you may already be done with the task, others, like myself, might be waiting for the perfect moment, which is a total farce. There is no perfect time, no perfect gift other than spending time with those you cherish.

Time does have an expiration date. For humans. For animals. For anything with a heartbeat.

Memories are at your beck and call day or night. Growing up my family always gathered in masses at someone's home. Eleven adults not counting friends and eighteen grandchildren, again not counting friends...We played games. We ate the most delicious food on earth. Don't even try to compare :) We were gifted with the greatest cooks EVER!

One of my favorite holiday memories was making ornaments with my cousins in a dusty, moldy, mouse-laden basement filled with the lovely aromas of glue and spray paint, which back in the day were probably not the best things to inhale... I am still here! Anyway our creations were hung with pride, some may have been jammed on the none-viewing side of the tree buried beneath tinsel... We listened to stories so outrageous from our aunts and uncles and grandparents that no one believed and yet we believed each story of Santa and how he pulled off the impossible every year in one night. Something it takes me a month of Sundays, and every other day during the week to accomplish, getting presents for those we love. After eating we all went to the living room where we were regaled with music by my uncle playing the accordion, my father thinking he could play the guitar, my aunts and grandma singing... the laughter made your belly and cheeks ache for days after. It was simply the best and I miss it. We wrote letters to Santa on Christmas Eve and then our parents would burn them in the fire place because Santa would get our wish list as smoke signals... it was our tradition... this tradition also worked when someone we loved passed away. The smoke signals went straight to heaven... all depended on who the letter was addressed to.

Made perfect sense to a child.

If only reaching those we loved were so easy now. If only time travel were a thing. If only!

The holidays are a reflective period. Ways to remember all the joy in our life, all the things that seemed so little back then but today are the bigger part of who we are. All the people who who filled your life with joy and your stockings with treats and small gems, or coal...

My passion for writing began a long time ago in the form of poetry. It was an outlet. A way to defuse the inner beast. After I lost my mom I wrote my first paranormal book, Eden's Black Rose, as a tribute to her. She was the reason I loved all things that went bump in the night, gave you goose bumps when you walked into a room and the temperature dropped and you just knew there was a ghost peeking over your shoulder.

Would it whisper in your ear or nibble it off? Did you turn around to face it or run? I greeted them with open arms.

What's that saying, Fear No Evil?

My characters tamed it, squashed it, embraced it, but never put it in the corner.

I know all about corners. Spent may an hour/day sitting in one as a child. My imagination got me into trouble and kept me company while I sat there trying to find a way out of it.

I wrote a children's book centered around Christmas that will be published through the Wild Rose Press with a release date of Jan 7th, 2019. I had self-published this a few years ago with the hopes of getting a formal publisher to embrace my character Periwinkle, aka Peri, and our leading lady Rhonda Penders, President of  TWRP, floored me with a proposition that continues to keep me smiling. I can't thank Rhonda enough for the opportunity to become the first published author in TWRP children's Poppies line. It, simply stated, is an honor.

In keeping with my paranormal spirits, Peri has a posse of special friends, a dragon, Darian, a gargoyle, Gideon and a unicorn, Dini, as in Houdini that keep her as grounded as a child can be once Peri realizes she is a time traveling princess that knows naught of her past, but her future is looking pretty awesome. Here is the book's cover tag:

Periwinkle Douglas had always been told she was special, so much so that she was placed in a special needs classroom. She had no idea how special until one day her mundane life got flipped upside down when a sleigh of eight reindeer took her back to her future.

An excerpt:

A second before Jingles yelled, “Hang on,” a loud blast exploded followed by a flash of light that turned the sky orange. It was blinding. Jingles had to yell over the ruckus of the grunts, and deep breathing the deer made getting air born. Air born? The gaseous bubbles Sir Toots-A-Lot discharged added more little thunderous explosions too. Jingles hollered, “The deer’s toots are like NOS. The stuff race cars use to get the extra oomph.” Peri plugged her nose. If racecar driving smelled this bad that profession was out. The carriage picked up more gusto. One deer turned around and gave a shy grin to Jingles and Peri, his nose red. Peri gave a fast glance to Jingles. “That’s Rudolph. You aren’t fooling me one bit!”

“Nice try. It’s Sir Toots-A-Lot. Hang on, kiddo.”

Seriously, Peri didn’t have to be told twice to hang on. One hand wound around her tiara, and the other she’d securely looped through Jingles arm. There was no screaming. No ‘ooh’s or ah’s’, just one little girl with the biggest, brightest smile ever. Once they were above the clouds, Peri’s hold on Jingles relaxed a smidgen. Her grasp on reality was literally up in the air. Still too in awe of the moment, she signed, “Wow!”

the cover:

I hope everyone here has a blessed holiday with family and friends.

Merry Christmas to all. My Christmas will be centered around these three. Noah, Hadley and Ethan.

Jaclyn Tracey