How was your holiday? Or are you still celebrating? How's it going? I hope you're enjoying the holiday season and getting lots of rest, laughter and the warmth that comes from friends and family who care about you. I'm writing this before Christmas, but I'll update you on my holiday in January as we'll be very busy from now until then.
On with the challenges!

Welcome back for another round of book reviews! I'm happy to be able to share another book from one of my favorite new authors. The other book wasn't as fascinating to me, but maybe you will find it more to your liking than I did. Check them out!

Another week down and we're that much closer to Christmas. I can't believe how fast the days speed by. I guess I have too much to do. LOL
On with the challenge posts!

Here are the prompts:

• Day 13 - Loop Friday - :/
• Day 14 - Dream Book Endorsement - Gosh! I don't even know. I think I'd be happy with almost anyone endorsing my book. I also think it'd be cool if it was someone totally unexpected, a person you'd never think would read your book, you know?
• Day 15 - A Seasonal Read - These are our traditional Christmas books. We read them almost every year.
  1. The Cajun Night Before Christmas by James Rice Trosclair
  2. The Tale of the Three Trees by Angela Elwell Hunt
  3. A Redwall Winter's Tale by Brian Jacques
• Day 16 - My Book Buddy - Book buddy? It seems like I've done this prompt before and I feel bad for tagging the same people over and over again in different things, but @elizabethdmarie, @chknyght, @natasjaeby, a friend who's not on IG or social media much at all and I envy her (LOL), and a newer book connection, @michellewrite985...I'd consider these authors my book buddies because they encourage me and inspire me to keep writing. I also mentioned Elzevera Koenderink of Willow Editing because she's been such a huge help and encouragement in the realm of self-editing.
• Day 17 - Five Writer Prompt Ideas - I'm not so good at these but I'll give it a go.
  1. Favorite bookmark
  2. Number one editing tip
  3. Favorite day to write
  4. Best writing weather
  5. Most inspiring moment to date
  (At first, I thought we were supposed to come up with writing prompts, not prompts for another challenge, so I'm keeping these writing prompts because I like them.)
  1. a child, old clothes, broken down shed
  2. herb garden, ancient gardener, faithful tools
  3. crumbling castle, tourist group, straggler
  4. family tradition, a memory, the present
  5. mannequin heads, ceiling fan, unsuspecting visitor
• Day 18 - My Next Book - That would be "Surge" or at least that's what I'm going with for the prompt. It's the one I'm currently working on because it's the one I need to get ready for publishing as soon as possible.
• Day 19 - Life in a Christmas Village - 0.o Really? Like how do I even post a response to this? I'm assuming they're asking this as an actual writing prompt. But it wouldn't apply to anything I'm currently working on as Christmas isn't celebrated in my world. I guess the closest kind of celebration might be...I don't even know! Argh!! Needless to say, I do not have a post to share for this one. This close to the holidays, I have too much to tackle to get any superfluous writing in. :(
  

Here are the prompts:

• Day 13 - Prairie - I live in an area known as the Cajun Prairie. Here's a nifty art map of the area which is hanging in our favorite coffee house. I got this one and Day 12 mixed up but I think I shared the prompt for day 12, even if I didn't share the photo. I don't really remember, that's how busy I've been.
• Day 14 - Cheer - My favorite piece of Christmas cheer are the photos we've had taken of the kids with Santa. We don't have one for each year, probably because we didn't have the money during those years. As a matter of fact, I don't think we paid for any of these. It was all the grandparents' doing. LOL Our girls didn't like Santa at all when they were really young and you can tell in our oldest daughter's face in several that she was only there because her brother was right there with her. Our youngest wouldn't even do that for a long time. In her first picture with Santa, she's asleep. XD
• Day 15 - Cry - The Tale of the Three Trees, written by Angela Elwell Hunt and illustrated by Tim Jonke, is a book we try to read every year on Christmas Day. I can't read it anymore without having to stop because I'm in tears. Our son reads it now.
• Day 16 - Catch - I caught this photo of myself behind a little balloon weight which was decorating our table at the VA Christmas party. I also caught a poinsettia plant with my winning door prize ticket. We had fun and I didn't realize there were so many veterans in our little town. Happy surprise! :)
• Day 17 - Miss - I completely "missed" this post. Had no idea what to share for this one. :/
  
• Day 18 - Old - Our little Christmas tree fit this prompt so well. We've had her for...ah, I guess around thirteen to fifteen years...? She's a faithful, sturdy little thing, though she loses a few more needles every year. Our kids love her and enjoy adding decorations. I sometimes wish she was a little bigger so more memories could be added to her branches. ?
  
• Day 19 - New - I had to really think about what to share for today's prompt.?‍? I scanned my desk and spotted one of these hiding in my pen cup. I just purchased these not long ago and they are definitely new favorites for journaling. The colors are gorgeous and the felt tips write smoothly and consistently. You can kinda see the lines if you look close, but I blurred most of the text. ?‍♀️ So far, I've collected Oriental Blue, Olive Green, Periwinkle, Orchid, and Dark Grey. I can't wait to get a few more! ?
  

Whatever holiday you celebrate, whether it be Solstice, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day, or just the coming of the new year, I wish you every happiness now and in the year to come! My family celebrates Christmas, so Merry Christmas!

I've got a couple of historical romance book reviews for you this week. I hope you'll see something you like. As the holidays draw near, my commentary may grow shorter. I still have plenty to do to keep me busy -- busy enough to wonder if I'll have much time for revisions and writing at all. :/

December's well under way and so are my writing challenges. I'm so looking forward to spending time with family during Christmas. After living in Texas three years and being so far away from some of our family, that's one of the things we consider a real treat since moving back home. What are you looking forward to during your holiday season?
Keeping up with writing challenges isn't easy. I guess if it was, it wouldn't be called a challenge. XD But I did my best this week. Here's what I've got.

I mostly read romance novels this year and I can honestly say that's because the 100 book goal was driving me on. But now, it's ingrained and I'm having trouble switching back to fantasy. Most of the books I'll share with you this month will be romance novels and these are no exception.

I'm back to tackling writing challenges this month. I tried once again to choose those which would allow me to tackle the work I already wanted to do while inspiring me to keep pressing on. Here's what I'm working through this month, along with my responses for the first five days.

I'll start with my apology. I wanted to host at least one more indie author interview for you this month but due to unforeseen circumstances, it's not going to happen until later. It's coming but I've had to postpone it until next year. I hope to have it ready for February which will be perfect for the author's genre. I hope you'll enjoy the book reviews I have to share with you this month and will find something you find intriguing. On the flip side, maybe you'll find something in my reviews that'll make you pause before buying. Whatever the case, I hope you'll get something good out of the book reviews I'm sharing with you this month.