“Seeking Warmth” is live everywhere! Four years ago, I did a holiday blog hop.  The rules were to write a flash fiction with a winter holiday theme and a bad boy character. There was a black and white photo of two young men embracing in what looked like a gift shop. I wrote about two thousand words and posted it on my blog, but I knew that someday I’d want to expand it. At some point in the past few years, I did start to expand it, so when I got the itch to write a holiday st

For all my moping about not being able to spend Christmas with my parents, I got myself in gear, bought two stockings (ours were at my parents’ house), and hung them off the aquarium.  It worked quite well and once I gave myself a little push, I had a very nice time. We spent Christmas Eve with Mr. Vaughn’s family.  We slept in until 10 on Christmas Day, opened our gifts, ate the baked French toast I made, had  a Lord of the Rings marathon, and Mr. Vaughn made dinner.  It was

I have mixed feelings about Christmas this year.  I’ve been so busy with the novella that my Christmas preparation didn’t really get underway until a few weeks ago.  Other than taking advantage of the Cyber Monday sales to buy my husband gifts and putting up my Christmas tree, it wasn’t until the last few weeks (and especially the last few days) that I’ve really put much effort into it.  I’ve made up for lost time though: the house is decorated, treats are baked, shopping is

Summary: After too many holidays alone, Russ Bishop and Stephen Parker decide to invite Russ’ family to spend Christmas with them. Russ wants to repair the fractured relationships with his father and sister, and Stephen wants to feel like he’s part of a family. But when Russ’ sister, Addie, brings an unexpected guest, it makes an already challenging situation more complicated. The Christmas Stephen gets may not be as perfect as the one he imagined but perhaps happiness can be

This entry is part of the flash fic blog hop I told you about last month. The story had to include: -A winter holiday theme -A “bad boy” character -A gift of some kind This photo is what we all used for inspiration.  It’s amazing to see how many different scenarios the photo created and I had a wonderful time writing my own. Holiday Angel “What are you doing?” Benny jerked, startled, and the glass angel slipped from his hands, shattering on the floor.  He stared down at the b

My heart hurt this week.  There’s so much anger and pain and wrong in the world right now and it makes me ache.  At time I’ve felt brittle and fragile and like I want to hide my head under the pillows and cry. At various times I’ve been tempted to rant about the fact that there are Christmas decorations up before Thanksgiving is over. I wanted to rave about the commercialism and let my cynical side tell me the holidays are just an excuse to sell more products.  I wanted to be