Fantasy Festivals

Snoggletog in the fictional world of How to Train Your  Dragon
looks a lot like Christmas.

There are a number of ways an author draws the reader into their story. They can use pace, suspense, fear, excitement, but behind the page-turning tools is a little something called atmosphere, the nuance that creates immersion.

The character of Buffy Anne Summers  - DOB January 19th.

In this way, the readers and audience are captivated by the story, not just because it excites them, but because it feels 'real'.

Ways to create an atmosphere stem from language, word choice, dialogue, character and worldbuilding - the sights, sounds, smells, textures, tastes and history of the story-world. Included in the art of worldbuilding is the power of celebration.

Harry Potter's first festival feast not only helps create an atmosphere at Hogwarts,
  it shows a contrast to his austere upbringing.

Fantasy festival like birthdays, weddings, seasonal celebrations, government holidays and religious ceremonies show the reader what the story-world is like. They can reveal a character's beliefs, family relationships and outlook without having to tell the reader through dense descriptions and narrative.

There's nothing like a royal wedding to make the heart sing.

These fantasy festivals might match ones the reader is already familiar with like the mid-winter solstice, Chrismas, birthdays, weddings, independence days, or they might be unique to the story. In any case, they have the power to convince us that the book we're immersed in is as real as everyday life.

Do you have a favourite fictional celebration? I'd love to hear it.

Happy Holidays, everyone. See you next year!

* * *

Kim Falconer's New YA Fantasy Series is out in 2019 - The Bone Throwers. Also check her urban fantasy out now - The Blood in the Beginning - and Ava Sykes Novel and the SFF Quantum Enchantment Series. You can find Kim on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Kim also runs GoodVibeAstrology.com where she teaches the law of attraction and astrology. 

Christmas Is Coming...

"Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents," grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.
(Little Women, Louisa May Alcott.)

This opening line from Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is not only among the more famous in English-language literature, but also takes us straight to the Christmas of books and storytelling – and at the best possible time, with 25 December just a few weeks away. (And coming far too quickly, I suspect, for many of us!)

One of the earliest, Christmas-themed books I can recall reading –and also one of the first I chose for myself as a very young reader indeed – was Clement C Moore's classic The Night Before Christmas:

"Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse..."

Only a few years later, I was enjoying The Lion, The Witch, & the Wardrobe, which also features Christmas themes, most notably when Father Christmas gives Peter, Susan and Lucy their gifts of sword and shield, bow and horn, healing cordial and dagger:

"It was a sledge, and it was reindeer with bells on their harness ... And on the sledge sat a person whom everyone knew the moment they set eyes on him. He was a huge man in a bright red robe (bright as holly berries) and a hood that had fur inside it and a great white beard that fell like a foamy waterfall over his chest..."

So far, my early literary encounters with Christmas were very much the Northern Hemisphere festival which takes place amid darkness, winter, and snow. So it was fun to read the NZ children's classic, Drover's Road, with its description of a Southern Hemisphere and in this case, rural, Christmas:

Drover's Road series, Bk 2

"All Christmas days at Drover's Road seem to get mixed up in a sort of special excitement : the early mornings and stockings hanging at the foot of the bed ... the long day getting hotter, and lamb for dinner, with mint sauce and peas and new potatoes ... lying out under the cherry tree on the lawn with our new presents, and having afternoon tea there with iced biscuits and Christmas cake. Then dusk coming at the end of the long lovely day..."

(I've featured the cover for the second "Drover's Road" book because it looks like the NZ summer. :-) )

One of the most famous stories with a Christmas setting is, of course, Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, in which the now legendary Ebenezer Scrooge must rediscover his humanity with the help of the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future.

The quote that stays with me from that is not a happy one, but then, I don't believe Dickens intended it to be: 

"This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased."

Another book that was hugely successful in its time (1947) was US writer, Russell Janney's The Miracle of the Bells, which has a famous Christmas scene, in which two of the protagonists, Bill Dunnigan and Olga Treskovna, re-meet by chance in a town that is completely closed down on Christmas Eve. The only restaurant they eventually find open, is Ming Gow's Chinese Restaurant, where the proprietor, Ming Gow, "...refused, obdurately refused, to accept payment for his fare."

But the quote I've never forgotten since first reading the book is this:

"This place boasted that it was a "city of homes." ... No one but a homeless man can understand the utter loneliness of a stranger on Christmas Eve in a "city of homes."

This post isn't intended to be an exhaustive list, so I'm sure – and hope, too – that you'll have other titles to add, but since the Supernatural Underground is a speculative fiction community, I'm going to end with a Fantasy classic, Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising.

Quite aside from being a contest between Light and Dark, the protagonist, Will, must find six "Signs of the Light" before Twelfth Night – so this is definitely a Christmas-centered book.

I won't be back here again until New Year's Day, 1 January 2018, so to those who celebrate Christmas, Merry Christmas – and otherwise I hope you all have a relaxing and enjoyable holiday break.

---

Helen Lowe is a novelist, poet, interviewer and blogger whose first novel, Thornspell (Knopf), was published to critical praise in 2008. Her second, The Heir of Night (The Wall Of Night Series, Book One) won the Gemmell Morningstar Award 2012. The sequel, The Gathering Of The Lost, was shortlisted for the Gemmell Legend Award in 2013. Daughter Of Blood, (The Wall Of Night, Book Three) is her most recent book and she is currently working on the fourth and final novel in The Wall Of Night series. Helen posts regularly on her “…on Anything, Really” blog and is also on Twitter: @helenl0we

December 1 approaches...

Photo courtesy of
www.yachtandboat.com.au

Can you believe it's only two weeks to winter/summer? Depending on where you live, of course.

Here in Australia, we're actually having a bit of a hard time believing it's almost Summer. We're in the middle of a bit of a cold snap at the moment, and the Spring rains have been more 'deluge' than 'refreshing' in some parts. All this just a few weeks after horrific bushfires.

Weather, huh?

On Twitter, I've seen people staring to talk about the build-up to Christmas. In particular, parents commenting on how the stupid end of year whirl has begun, with their relationship with their kids being reduced to little more than a bus driver. There's also been the now traditionally whinge about how early the shops get all the Christmas gear out. Actually, I think they were a little more laid-back this year - it was early to mid-November before it was really noticeable.

Do the shopping centres start decorating for Christmas that early in the US, or does Thanksgiving hold it back?

Lotsa folks have been saying December 1 is the day that Christmas observances can start. It's the earliest day that you can put up your Christmas tree, they opine. It's when the shops should put up their decorations. Anything earlier is a waste.

When you look at that depository of all wisdom, Wikipedia, it turns out December 1 is actually a pretty cool day. Here's some of the holidays/observances from around the world:

• Christian Feast Day:
  • Castritian
  • Eligius
  • Edmund Campion
  • Nicholas Ferrar (Episcopal Church (United States))
  • December 1 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

• Damrong Rajanubhab Day (Thailand)
• Earliest day on which Farmer's Day can fall, while December 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Friday in December. (Ghana)
• Earliest day on which Good Neighborliness Day can fall, while December 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Sunday in December. (Turkmenistan)
• Freedom and Democracy Day (Chad)
• Great Union Day, celebrates the Union of Transylvania with Romania in 1918; since 1990, National Day (Romania)
• Military Abolition Day (Costa Rica)
• National Day (Burma)
• National Transit Tribute to Rosa Parks Day (American Public Transportation Association)
• Republic Day (Central African Republic)
• Restoration of Independence (Portugal)
• Self-governance Day or Fullveldisdagurinn (Iceland)
• Teachers' Day (Panama)
• World AIDS Day (International)
• Rosa Parks Day (United States)
• National Day (United Arab Emirates)

Personally, I love the idea of a Good Neighborliness Day - particularly as the stress of the end of the year grows. We all know that for some people, this is a really difficult time of the year, so a day put aside to being a good neighbour sounds awesome.

Christmas and everything just rushed at me last year. Work was extremely busy in December and I just didn't have a chance to stop and think about it and by the time it arrived, I wasn't ready and it was a bit of a dud, quite frankly. This year, December at work is going to be much calmer, so I am DETERMINED that I'm going to give Christmas and the end of the year the attention it deserves. It's going to be a party, my friends.

How about you? Are you looking forward to December?

12 Days of Christmas: Counting Down

Winner of the signed copy of Sacrifice plus the $25 Amazon gift card:

Michelle Bledsoe! 

Thanks, everyone, for sharing your stories here. - DB

The Christmas that made me cry - three times


It was going to be a memorable year for me, but I didn't know it yet. It was right after Thanksgiving.
I was eight years old and had heard a lot of talk at school that Santa Claus wasn't real. To be on the safe side, though, I wrote a letter to Santa during the first week of December. My dad mailed it for me, because there weren't any mailboxes we could walk to, and the post office was far away.

A few days later, I thought of something else I wanted to say. Can't remember what it was now, but it was one of those burning things that had to be conveyed. I went looking for a clean piece of paper in my sister's desk. She was fifteen years old and had stationery with roses on it and stamps in her desk. I intended to make off with a sheet of rose paper and only admit it if she noticed one was missing. (Did I mention we were sisters?) 


Inside her desk drawer, I was shocked and surprised to find my opened letter to Santa, along with a half-written reply. How could she have my letter unless...? Crushed by the realization that the kids at school were right, I hid out for the rest of the day and cried myself to sleep that night. Dad caught the scent of trouble the next day, and after I blurted out my problem, he explained that Santa did exist, but not as the man in the red suit. Santa was the spirit of Christmas that made us glow when we gave presents to others and gave to charity. The letter-writing, reindeer, and all that? Something to help the "little kids" until they had grown up enough to understand. I took right to this explanation. After all, I wasn't a "little kid" anymore, and here was the proof! Eight years old might seem like an advanced age to be figuring all this out, but it was a more naive time then. When it came time to tell my sons about Santa Claus, I have to admit I went for the magic. But I talked about the way different people around the world envision Santa Claus, including some stories from other countries, so my kids wouldn't get too hung up on chimneys and reindeer. I actually think they knew at least a year before they asked me.

If only Santa revelations had been the worst that Christmas had in store for me that year! Two days before Christmas, my cat Sugar died. It was some disease; all I knew was that she had been feeling bad, went to the vet and didn't come home. Oh, Sugar! I miss her to this day. She was a sweet, tiger-striped cat with a red nose I'd loved all my short life. Tears poured from me and I couldn't be consoled. On Christmas morning I opened my presents without joy and thanked everyone in a dull voice. It was too soon to be happy. Then my mother brought something in from the kitchen, and I heard a tiny mew. I couldn't believe it when Mom settled a little gray ball of fluff into my lap. I loved Sugar Two from the instant I laid eyes on her. This time there were tears of joy. 

The holidays tend to stir old memories and sometimes deep emotions. I'd love to hear one of your old holiday memories.

I've donated Mortal Path Books 1 & 2 for the Grand Giveaway at the end of this very special event. Right now, I'm giving away a signed copy of Sacrifice: Mortal Path Book 2, plus a $25 Amazon gift card so that you can enjoy even more books. I'll choose a random winner from those who comment by Friday, December 23rd. To make it easy to get in touch with you if you're the winner, please leave your email in some disguised form.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night.

8 for 8 - The Eight Days of a Supernatural Christmas

*Clears throat* *Sings to the melody of the 12 days of Christmas*

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

a sparkly vampire high in a tree.

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

2 wolves in shorts, and a sparkly vampire high in a tree.

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

3 angelic demons, 2 wolves in shorts, and a sparkly vampire high in a tree.

On the forth day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

4 angsty ghosts, 3 angelic demons, 2 wolves in shorts, and a sparkly vampire high in a tree.

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

5 - hotties - with - wings, 4 angsty ghost, 3 angelic demons, 2 wolves in shorts, and a sparkly vampire high in a tree.

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

6 zombies-a-munching, 5 - hotties - with - wings, 4 angsty ghosts, 3 angelic demons, 2 wolves in shorts, and a sparkly vampire high in a tree.

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

7 aliens-a-possessing, 6 zombies-a-munching, 5 - hotties - with - wings, 4 angsty ghosts, 3 angelic demons, 2 wolves in shorts, and a sparkly vampire high in a tree.

On the eighth day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

8 witches-a-casting, 7 aliens-a-possessing, 6 zombies-a-munching, 5 - hotties - with - wings, 4 angsy ghost, 3 angelic demons, 2 wolves in shorts, and a sparkly vampire high in a tree.

Have a very Supernatural Christmas, everyone.

Leigh

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.