A Toasty Holiday Treat—A Little Yule Magick

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I'm giving away a copy of my holiday story, too! See below for details.

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Grab something warm to drink and cozy up!

Welcome to the Winter Warm Up Blog Hop, an excellent sampling of authors sharing short excerpts from their work.

Readers: Please enjoy the steamy snippets and consider picking up the full book by clicking on the buy link.

Bloggers: Please check out the excellent previews and spread the word.

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Holiday Traditions. No matter what holiday is celebrated—Yule, Christmas, Kwanza, Hanukkah, or just gathering with family, there's something great about having familiar traditions.

When I was growing up, we always opened one gift on Christmas Eve. My two brothers and I got very excited when Mom called us in and handed the pretty packages to us. Usually, we received new pajamas, sometimes socks, or maybe a winter coat. Regardless of what we revealed, she made sure the items were similar. I kind of loved that about her.

Now that I have three kidlets of my own, we've established a couple of our own traditions. From the time my oldest, now twenty-one, could eat solid foods, we've made cinnamon rolls for breakfast after opening all the gifts under the tree. It's still going strong, with the exception of the year our local store didn't have cinnamon rolls stocked when we were shopping and we substituted the orange flavored ones instead. My daughter still reminds me it's unacceptable to have orange-iced rolls for Christmas morning. Our back-up plan is now to make cinnamon toast instead. LOL

My favorite family tradition started about ten years ago. I got the wild hair idea to have a themed holiday tree. I had my oldest kiddo pick the theme and we came up with ideas for how to make ornaments and use things around the house to decorate. To date we've had Under the Sea, Buried Treasure, Nature's Bounty, Candy Land, Snowflakes and Cupcakes, Techno Tree, Imaginext, and Noah's Ark. I know I'm missing one in there somewhere, but that's the general idea. This year, we're going with a Seahawks tree, using green, blue and white ornaments, in honor of my middle kidlet's favorite team.

After getting the tree decorated, my favorite 'me' tradition is to turn on some seasonal music, get a glass of wine or cup of tea, and decompress by reading a holiday romance. It's a nice little respite from the crazy schedules, piles of presents, and butt-loads of wrapping paper waiting in the wings.

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Traditions are fun to include in books. When writing as Skye Ritchey, I tend to focus on romance with a paranormal aspect, sometimes with magical abilities or beings. Weaving in those fantastical elements is so much fun, but I try to keep the story grounded in the here and now. When the hero and heroine find love, while dealing with the extraordinary, it makes me happy.

Traditions, old and new, often play a big role in paranormal romance. For my holiday release, A Little Yule Magick, Sygin and Boyd love to spend the Yule holiday enjoying the myriad of customs they've established. A little twist of danger only makes the couple appreciate their special brand of celebration even more.

I had such a great time writing A Little Yule Magick and I'm giving a digital copy away for this blog hop. Please leave a comment for your entry and tell me your favorite holiday tradition, if you have one. (Maybe it involves books!) A random.org drawing will determine the lucky reader who received the copy.

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Book Tagline: A Little Yule Magick is needed to get the holiday off on the right start.

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While Boyd took his turn in the shower, Sygin dressed and pondered Yule. She and Boyd had the estate pretty much to themselves—as they had for the past five years—with the maintenance guy, Bart, heading out last night along with Anna, the cook, and Cat, the cleaning wonder-woman—who kept the huge four-story, three winged house spotless. Yeah, she used her magick skills, but Sygin got exhausted just thinking about the amount of work the lady accomplished in a day.

Two other adept apprentices, who helped with the coursework, left before dawn for their homes. With trouble brewing, the staff and students always traveled in pairs or groups—except for the elder in residence. A grand mage, he didn't enter or leave by conventional methods, just let Boyd know he wouldn't be around until after the beginning of the year. He'd spend the holiday on sabbatical, in a sacred dwelling only the highest ranking members knew about.

She exited their suite and contemplated how much longer she and Boyd could keep their traditions. They had several, aside from her fried honeycakes. Finding the Yule log together always created fun, and they usually dragged a huge piece in so it lasted throughout the three day celebration. Boyd made wassail—her personal favorite, because they drank the brew in bed, toasting accomplishments and new goals. But mainly, they enjoyed the quiet solitude of being together, making love whenever they wanted and reaffirming their connection.

How much longer would she and Boyd have the luxury of time? She'd been a toddler when the Unified Clan split into two factions. Her family followed the teachings of the light—health, healing, help, and heart. The other side dwelled on the dark arts, malice, mayhem, malevolence, and often… murder. But they'd kept a low profile, until recently, and Sygin couldn't quite grasp why rumblings were happening now.

Available on Amazon

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Book Blurb: Sygin and Boyd, adept mages, are looking forward to their winter break, being alone in the big manor for Yule is their most cherished tradition. But a series of mishaps may keep them from their celebratory festivities.

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