The Ghost of Christmas Past

Merry Christmas everyone!

I hope everyone out there had a lot of fun celebrating the various holidays this season. We had a good time, and yes, rum cake and leftover ham makes a perfectly good breakfast, right?

We've had some fun playing with toys over here, and it made me remember some of the Christmases that stood out in my childhood memory.

I remember the year Santa brought me a doll house. It was a Victorian manor house that "elves" had been working on for months, and certainly all night Christmas eve to bring to me. I loved it. I had it for years, and reluctantly had to let it go when we moved out of our house as I was leaving for college. That house was the blank canvas of my childhood imagination, and I believe it helped me develop my natural affinity for storytelling.

So that begs the question, why don't I write historical romances?

Because I also distinctly remember the year that my older brother got Greyskull castle, and my younger brother got Skeletor's lair. I have no idea what I got that year. I also remember the year we all got remote control cars. My brothers got little sprint car type racers, but I got a hot red corvette. It was awesome! Then there were the Star Wars toys, including the Ewok village. (Once again, those were my brother's toys. I'm starting to see a pattern here.)

My younger brother tried to bag on the Ewoks a couple of days ago when he came over. Return of the Jedi was on. I didn't let him get away with it. He loved those Ewoks when he was little, and I'm not going to let him forget it.

I know I always loved my toys, and it wasn't that I wanted what my brothers got. It's that those toys are what we all ended up playing with together. I was perfectly willing to jump in and play He-man. They weren't so keen on joining me for tea with the family of bunnies that lived in my Victorian Manor house. And so my girl skill waned, and my tom boy grew as a defense mechanism against loneliness.

And so here I am, with the romantic sensibilities of a girl who played dolls in a lovely doll house, and the spirit of a girl who could go toe to toe with her brothers and a left over wrapping paper tube light saber.

It's the best of both worlds if you think about it.

Have a great New Year everyone!

Jess

C is for Cookie!

And that's good enough for me!



There's a lot to do during the holidays. I've certainly been swamped, but one thing I just can't seem to let fall to the wayside is holiday baking.

I love cookies.

More than that, I love the memory of baking cookies with my Mom during Christmas. I also loved putting cookies out for Santa, because as everyone knows, that is irrefutable proof the big guy exists.

When I was little, Mom always made candy cane sugar cookies, braided wreaths, Christmas trees, Grandma Gertrude cookies, these very sweet brandy nut clusters with powdered sugar, and old fashioned German pressed cookies.

Wow, they were good, and fun. Now it just isn't Christmas without the act of baking and decorating cookies. This weekend is my traditional baking weekend. I'm about half way done with my campaign. As of right now, I've got about four dozen banana nut oatmeal cookies, at least that many cranberry almond oatmeal cookies, Grandma Gertrude cookies, because it just isn't Christmas without them, and my new experiment, apple nests.

Tonight I start the sugar and gingerbread marathon. By the end I should have hand painted snowmen, trees, snowflakes, gingerbread men and gingerbread reindeer, (or moose, depending on how the antlers turn out.)

** Here's how the decorated cookies turned out. Not bad, huh?**

And at the end of all that, if I manage to get the wrapping done, I'll tackle my first gingerbread house. I just really want to decorate one.

That's a lot to do. I'd better get cracking.

It smells fantastic in here.

Happy Holidays everyone,

Jess

Hello, Frosty!

Hi everyone,

First of all, I just finished my copyedits for Beyond the Shadows. I'm so excited about this book. It is going to be a long wait until May. I get to take a brief breather, and enjoy my birthday this week, and then Christmas.



I love decorating for Christmas. I enjoy putting up the decorations every year. I especially enjoy pulling out my snowman collection. Growing up in California, snow was very special. I loved the snow, but it was a very rare treat and playing in it usually involved a day long outing.

We'd pile into whatever vehicle was holding us, stiff with layers of winter clothing, then we'd drive up into the Sierras. I remember it was always a game, who could spot the first bit of snow, and it was so exciting to see a dirty lump of white stuff in a ditch by the side of the road. Soon it would spread, getting cleaner, whiter, until the whole world was coated with magic. The pine trees didn't seem from this world, and my heart still stutters at the sight of dark green boughs covered with white.

I always wanted to build a snowman, but didn't have much snowman experience until we moved up here to Ohio. Now every time it snows, the first thing I want to do is build a cute little snowman. They aren't very big, and often not impressive, but they make me happy. I can't wait for the first good snow of this year. It is the best part of winter.

So what is your favorite winter memory?

Jess

Bonus Blog! SFR Holiday Blitz

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to point everyone over to the Galaxy Express for the Science Fiction Romance Holiday Blitz. There are tons of chances to win gobs of books including two signed copies of Beyond the Rain.



Good luck, and have fun!



Jess

Avatar, Star Trek, and V

Anyone notice a trend around here?

I'm seeing more and more blockbuster Science Fiction showing up marketed for general audiences.

Yes!

I'm excited. I really enjoyed the new incarnation of Star Trek, though I'm a little apprehensive having a love affair between two of the main characters, because let's face it, there were two guaranteed death sentences on that show, wearing a red shirt, and falling in love with a primary character.

Okay, so maybe they didn't die all the time. But as I look back on Star Trek the next generation, only Keiko and O'Brien were an established couple. Did that end well? I need someone more trekkie than I to answer that one. The love affairs that come immediately to mind did not end so happily. A psychic concubine (in essence) becomes Picard's perfect love only to be bartered off to a man who will never care about her, meanwhile Picard knows she's out there, and has to let her go. The mother of Warf's son, Alexander died. And don't get me started on Deanna's mom.

I don't think Star Trek has had a true and lasting love story at the forefront. There was always a lot of potential, so I find it interesting that the new Star Trek movie has laid the foundation for one. Who wants to take bets on how long it will survive? Will it turn into a triangle, like the Deanna, Riker, Warf thing? I don't know, but as someone who has always loved Star Trek, in spite of the tragedy involved with so many of the romantic story arcs, I'm looking forward to more Star Trek movies. And I loved the special effects, and the new life in some of the much loved characters.

And Avatar has me intrigued. I love the look of the alien species. And while what I can glean from this one is that it is essentially a conquest drama, I'm all for that. Science Fiction allows us to look at the bigger picture of an issue like conquest without the political burden of history. I just hope it is a really good story, because the visuals are amazing.

And finally, who is watching V? I really wanted to tune in, but I've got big time constraints with writing right now, and hardly watch any regular television. I'm intrigued, and it just might draw me in. Heck, I should set it up on the DVR just to show my support for this type of Science Fiction.

So what else is out there? Anyone caught up in anything good?

Jess

Bonus Blog!

Check out this cute Jib Jab my friend Cynthia Eden put together, featuring Juliana Stone, Elizabeth Naughton, and Shelli Stevens.

And I totally rock the worm.

Cheers!

Jess

Ethel the Space Pirate, Chapter Twenty-Four

Okay, I think I've got a system worked out now. I'll be posting a new Ethel on the first of the month. I'll try to make it a little longer than I have been just to keep things interesting.

As always the complete story can be found on the fun stuff pages of my website.

Ethel crept out of the door, carefully shut it, hugged the bulkhead. Keeping in the shadows, she crept down the long corridor. If her memory served, the main lift was straight ahead through the maintenance and thrust sectors.

She couldn't let anyone see her. She needed a different way to the upper levels. Voices bounced off the odd angles of supports and ribs, while the ominous sound of feet falling on the access grate jarred the last of her nerves.

She jumped off the grate into the flooring web below, and tucked herself behind a hot exhaust conduit.

The man and woman were laughing. Perfect.

"Should I check on the prisoner?" the woman asked with a snort as Ethel watched the male, Tams, if she recalled correctly, wrap her in his thick arms and plant a kiss on her neck. She recognized the girl. Uhi.

Ethel never liked her.

"I've got something you could check right here," Tams joked, thrusting his hips forward. Ethel fought the urge to gag as she rolled her eyes. Did he really think that was going to work?

Uhi oozed all over him, giggling. "Yeah, baby. I can take what you got."

Ethel had to hide her face in her hand. She almost couldn't bear the embarrassment. She didn't care that they were about to get frisky, she just had a low tolerance for stupidity.

The lovers stumbled backward shedding clothing until they landed inside an empty equipment locker. They slammed the door shut and the metal box began to shake on the grate above her.

Pulled to action, she hauled herself back up on the grate, grabbed a coil of spare wiring, and looped it tightly around the locker door handles, locking the lovers inside. They didn't seem to notice.

Ethel gathered up the clothes and ran down the corridor toward maintenance. Tucking herself into an alcove behind a coiled vent stack, she hastily changed her clothes and wrapped her hair up in the sloppy bun Uhi preferred. She was lucky. When Ethel had been crew on this ship, Uhi had changed her appearance to resemble Ethel in a futile attempt to attract Devar. The girl never got it. Ethel huffed under her breath as she pulled the beat up crew cap down over her eyes. She was getting it now.

She hastily searched through the clothing for anything that might help and discovered a code key in Tams's back pocket.

If she could hack the pass code, she might be able to access the ship schematics from the cargo data station without drawing too much suspicion.

For that she'd need Keo.

Knowing Devar, he'd keep Keo close.

Ethel felt drained as she let her resignation fall on her shoulders. She'd have to go to the captain's personal quarters.

Keeping her head down, she waved off the shouts of greeting and snide propositions the rest of the crew threw at Uhi. She wouldn't have much time before someone noticed them in the locker. She had to hurry. She didn't have much of a chance to catch Devar off guard.

In the main lift, she kept her eyes on her shoes as one of the big Pagat meatheads from security planted a palm firmly on her butt.

"Hey baby," he slurred. "You happy to see me?"

Ethel didn't look up, instead she elbowed the jerk in the ribs. "Not now, sweetie," she cooed as he doubled over. "Got to head to Med to have doc pull out some tip lice."

The man scuttled to the far side of the lift. Ethel smiled. Maybe a rumor of tip lice would cool Uhi's personal life down a bit. It would do the girl good.

When she reached level three, she stepped out into the quite corridors. Her body still knew the way from the main lift to Devar's personal quarters. How many times had her feet traveled this path on the way to his bed? Her stomach did a little flip that didn't feel like nerves..

What was she thinking? Ethel slipped into the empty lounge. It was prime hours, and the quarters were deserted. If Devar stuck to his rigid routine, and he always stuck to his routine, he'd be in war command with Falk and Tubbs.

She pushed a gaming table to the corner of the compartment for better access to the alarm speaker. Pulling it out of the casing, she exposed one of the wires, and turned to her mind for the third time. She was going to snap several hundred neurons at this rate. She had to be careful. Tuning her implants, she reversed the command for the speaker to relay any sound from the room.

She heard the flip of a wing and a hoarse scraping. Keo was sleeping and sharpening his beak. Perfect.

She shoved the speaker back into the casing and jumped off the table. Keeping an eye over her shoulder, she punched in the security code for Devar's quarters and silently opened the door. She couldn't believe he hadn't changed his lock.

The room was empty, immaculate as always. Her gaze swept over his study, but Keo wasn't there. Her heart picked up as she tip-toed deeper into the quarters. Her map was probably around somewhere as well. Maybe Keo saw where Devar stashed it.

"Keo?" she called in a cracked whisper. She tried to whistle for him, but her throat was too dry. Where was he?

What should Ethel do?

A: Search the study for a weapon.
B: Search the study for the map.
C: Continue into the bedroom to search for Keo.

You've got plenty of time to vote. Also feel free to discuss Ethel's options with fellow Ethel fans. It might just give me ideas. Happy reading everyone.

Jess