Christmas Traditions

Good morning, lovely, and happy Boxing Day to you all! Was your Christmas fabulous? Mine was, and we're still celebrating over here at Chez Karina. We have leftovers to nom on, presents to find homes for, cats to cuddle and a rabbit who has enjoyed nibbling away at all her wicker ornaments.

And I think I'll convince the mancandy to go out and get my favoritest seasonal thing in the whole world—apple pie. (Well, all right, second only to a fine bottle of Bailey's to put in my coffee and hot cocoa.)

And what better way to spend the day after Christmas? Why, with my third favorite seasonal thing ever, and a tradition I've picked up along the years: Christmas anthologies!

Because I don't have enough books in my shelf, I always have to add a few more every Christmas. Along with the usual suspects—like Cherry Adair, whose Undertow is releasing on Tuesday!—I have a weakness for Christmas anthologies. Especially ones featuring hot guys with Christmas accoutrements.

This year's was Hot for the Holidays, a paranormal extravaganza featuring shapeshifters, knights in shining armor, Fae on the run, and lots of Christmas magic.

I love Christmas. I love what it represents, and I love what it means to families and children and lovers. I love stories set around Christmastime and I can never get enough, so I hope that publishers will continue to put out these heartwarming stories year after year, so I can devour them by the twinkling lights of my Christmas tree.

What about you? Do you have a favorite Christmas tradition? A favorite book you read 'round the holidays, or perhaps a trip you take to view the lights in your city? What's your favorite Christmas story ever?

Karina Cooper is a paranormal romance author for Avon. The first of her Dark Mission series, Blood of the Wicked, will be available in May. She's a Christmas fiend and gets twitterpated around Christmas lights, and don't let her lie—she always gravitates towards holiday anthologies that feature a sexy Santa on the cover. She's easy like that.

Who doesn't love a quickie?

I write one book a year, and while that’s a speed both my readers and I would love to hasten, so far it has worked well, allowing me time to seek some sort of balance between my writerly and personal lives. However, I’ve also found that short stories are a great way to give readers of my Zodiac series a little somethin’-somethin’ between novels, as well as a way to keep me creatively fresh and inspired. So far I’ve done one per year, and all, save one, have been related to my main series.

Now, I realize not everybody likes short stories. There was a time when I could only consume full-length novels, and the longer the better. (Diana Gabaldon’s OUTLANDER series, anyone?) There’s nothing I love more than allowing a good storyteller to take me by the hand and lead me into a world I’d never have imagined - and fully disappear for hours at that. Yet times and tastes change, and while I still love to get lost in someone else’s mind, the shorts belonging to authors I love have also begun battling for space on my bookshelves. They’re like appetizers instead of full course meals, line drawings instead of oil paintings, and a medium that should be considered separate from its longer fictional counterpart, because it is, both in form and function.

However the strange thing for me as a writer has been my inability to write a short from the point of view of my series protagonist, Joanna Archer. Maybe it’s because the Zodiac series belongs so wholly to her, maybe I know her too well, and maybe I need a creative break in between our time together. But I’ve found that shorts are a great way to explore side characters I love, and find out what they’ve been doing both before and while Joanna is off on her risky adventures. So far I’ve written of her mother, Zoe, in HOLIDAYS ARE HELL. I’ve written of her lover, Hunter, in UNBOUND. And in this month’s DARK AND STORMY KNIGHTS (July 20) of her once-foe, Skamar, explaining and exploring many of that character's actions and choices in last month’s release, CHEAT THE GRAVE.



Still, in every case, my interest in these side characters and stories are all Joanna-related. The shorts address their hows and whys in relation to her, which is important because at the end of the day - battles and paranormal setting and superheroes aside - I write about relationships, both interpersonal and in relation to our world … whatever world that might be.

So what about you all? What’s your relationship and interest in short stories, if any? Have shorts ever made you want to pick up a main series, or follow a new character into a more fully developed world? And, if so, who are your favorites and why?