My Holiday Titles

Happy Holidays!

I never realized just how many holiday-themed short stories/novellas/novels I've written over the years until recently. Then I thought, "Why not make a list of my holiday titles so people can find them easily all in one place?"  Since I write romantic fiction under two pen names it can be a challenge tracking them all down, but here they are in no particular order.

 Highlighted book titles and links should take you to the book's purchase page at the publisher. Yes, my publisher accepts credit cards and has Kindle books! Plus, I get more royalties if you buy directly from the publisher and not through another online store. Thanks for your understanding.

First off, my "sweet romances" written as Cynthianna.

 The Tinsel Timewarp

 http://www.extasybooks.com/978-1-4874-1963-9-the-tinsel-timewarp/

Cici and John experience the true meaning of love when they help their friend Chandra deal with her grief on Christmas Eve by creating a tinsel time warp.

Cici wants everyone to have a perfect holiday, but she discovers things don't always work out that way. When a crying Chandra shows up at her home, Cici asks her alien boyfriend, the time traveler John Smith, if he can help mend Chandra's broken heart. John creates a time warp for Chandra where she can spend one more Christmas Eve with her late grandmother doing all the holiday things they loved to do, but, as usual, things quickly go south. The tinsel time warp grows and expands and threatens to take over the entire planet, and Cici is forced to go up a ladder when she's afraid of heights. Will time travel heal all wounds and make for a Merry Christmas for Cici, John, and even the melancholy Chandra?

Featuring characters from the Loving Who series. (PG rated, contemporary-romantic-comedy/SF/fantasy)

The Stocking

Adele’s lonely Christmas Eve on the prairie is made much brighter by the arrival of a mysterious silver-whiskered stranger.

(G rated, historical short story) 

Jonathan could do nothing to aid his wife’s losing battle with cancer. With twenty years into the ministry, he can't believe the Lord would leave him suddenly with both an empty nest and empty spot on the other side of the bed. Katrina, music teacher and mother of grown twins, feels settled in small town Texas. Life may be dull, but at least it's predictable--unlike her life with her late ex-husband. "Kat" has come to the conclusion that if nuns can live celibate for years, then why can't she make it the next fifty? One Sunday Jonathan sees a golden beam alighting upon a radiant Kat as she directs the singers. He hadn't noticed how beautiful she was before! From here on out he knows that he’ll be preachin’ to the choir. But will Kat—and his congregation—let him? - See more at: http://www.mojocastle.com/preachin-to-the-choir.html#sthash.euNixdC8.dpu

Jonathan could do nothing to aid his wife’s losing battle with cancer. With twenty years into the ministry, he can't believe the Lord would leave him suddenly with both an empty nest and empty spot on the other side of the bed. Katrina, music teacher and mother of grown twins, feels settled in small town Texas. Life may be dull, but at least it's predictable--unlike her life with her late ex-husband. "Kat" has come to the conclusion that if nuns can live celibate for years, then why can't she make it the next fifty? One Sunday Jonathan sees a golden beam alighting upon a radiant Kat as she directs the singers. He hadn't noticed how beautiful she was before! From here on out he knows that he’ll be preachin’ to the choir. But will Kat—and his congregation—let him? - See more at: http://www.mojocastle.com/preachin-to-the-choir.html#sthash.euNixdC8.dpufhttp://www.mojocastle.com/preachin-to-the-choir.html

The Fixer-Uppers

(I include my first published novel on the list since it features a holiday wedding.)


Can a single mom find happiness on a blind date--or at least dinner with a male who can cut up his own food? Cassie and Mike believe they're "in like" not "in love." But when down-on-his-luck Mike is evicted, Cassie takes him in. Mike starts fixing everything from window screens to broken hearts. Will Cassie let him fix hers?


(PG-13 rated, contemporary romantic-comedy)

My first ever Thanksgiving historical holiday short story! (G rated)

The Gift of the Songbird

https://www.devinedestinies.com/978-1-4874-2753-5-the-gift-of-the-songbird/

Hannah Cummings has big plans for her future. An invitation to sing at the mansion of the dashing Elisha Spielman on Thanksgiving Day promises to launch her music career and help her raise funds to receive further vocal training. It’s a most fortuitous invitation, and Hannah is grateful and excited to accept. However, one man seems to stand in her way.

Daniel March won’t have it. Hannah has always sung for their village’s Thanksgiving festival to support the orphanage, and this year should be no different.

Friends since long before the terrible war separated them, Hannah feels there is more to Daniel’s determination to change her mind than simply his need to get his own way.
 

 Can a songbird help them count their blessings and come to see each other in a different light?

And now for my "adults-only" holiday titles written under my Celine Chatillon pen name...

Santa's Big Little Helper 
 http://www.extasybooks.com/978-1-4874-1331-6-santas-big-little-helper/

Be careful what you ask Santa for—you just might get it. Suellen confesses to an angelic hobo she's befriended on Christmas Eve that she lusts after the cover model on her romance novel because he reminds her of Carlos, a shy, handsome trucker who frequents her coffee shop. Santa's helper Carlos is given instructions by his friend Ol' Nick to make Suellen's dreams come true, and when Carlos finds out what they are, he can't wait. A little snow, a bearskin rug, and some fuzzy handcuffs make it a very Merry Christmas for the two lovers!

(R rated, contemporary-fantasy erotic-romance) 





A Very Vampire Christmas 

How do you cheer up your vampire lover around the holiday season? Melynda wonders if maybe a few new traditions of their own are in order to bring a smile to Val's bite. Mel's time-traveling cousin Shelby and her horny boyfriend Quentin add to the fun of the season with their own brand of wild and free activities. Mel and Shel find it's time to get on Santa's "naughty girl" list. Ho, ho, ho!

Available at eXtasy Books:
 http://www.extasybooks.com/2016-holiday-countdown/a-very-vampire-christmas/

 Featuring Melynda and Val from my novel The Vampire Next Door and Shelby and Quentin from the Time Surfer series. 
(R rated, contemporary-fantasy erotic-romance)

Yes, Virginia, Here Comes Santa Claus

When Brad "The Rude Reporter" Rudner opens a letter to the editor from a lonely lady who says she doesn't believe in Santa after her fiance dumped her, he feels it's his duty revive her faith in the jolly old elf. A red garter belt and fishnet stockings help "good girl" Ginny get on Santa's "naughty" list, and Brad can't help but lose his heart to the dark, exotic beauty.

Click here to purchase this book at the best price!

(R rated, contemporary erotic-romance)

 
 
 






I do like the winter months--I have Valentine's Day erotic-romances as well!

Gifts Well-Timed

Trish Steelman always gives generously of her time and energy to her students, but it takes a blizzard and a friendly ghost to help her to receive the gift of love from Patrick Rodgers, a fellow teacher she has been mentoring.

“Pete the Poltergeist” brings these two sensitive and caring souls together in the empty halls of Harding High. Before long, Trish and Patrick realize that sharing “body warmth” with a friend in the midst of a power outage can ignite a fiery passion that has been too long contained…

Click here to purchase this book at the best price!
(R rated, contemporary erotic-romance)

Coming February 2020 from eXtasy Books: Aphrodite 1, a SF erotic-romance that celebrates Valentine's Day.

Come along with Giselle and the crew of space station Aphrodite 1 as they find romance, love and danger—as well as a mystery—in the upper atmosphere of Venus.

Here's to a happy holiday season to you and yours! And remember, there's always time for a good book. ;-)

Doctor Who: The Last Christmas Special Ever?

Doctor Who: The Last Christmas Special Ever?

by Cynthianna

Warning: This review contains spoilers.

You sometimes wonder as a fan of a long-running popular television program why it wishes to imitate every other show on the telly. Just because many TV series produce a Christmas special for broadcast every December doesn’t mean your series has to have a Christmas special or even should have a holiday special, does it? Doctor Who from 1963 to 1989 never had a distinctly Christmas special, but since its 2005 reincarnation it somehow sees the necessity of producing one every December 25, featuring killer Christmas trees, homicidal angels or evil Christmas stars. “‘Tis the season to hate Christmas!” it seems to sing.

So, after viewing this season’s special, I have one word of advice to those planning next year’s Christmas special: Don’t.

Okay, maybe it’s two words: Please don’t. Take guidance from the original series—if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Use the extra money in the budget to produce another regular episode or two, give the cast and crew a pay raise, or go on location big-time. In other words, put the money and resources to good use and produce quality programming instead of a Christmas special that’s not needed or possibly even wanted by some of the fans.

Having said that, the basic premise of this season’s special, Last Christmas, is a good horror tale of dreams nestled within dreams and of face-hugging dream crabs whose shape is directly ripped off from the Alien/Aliens franchise. If the story had been broadcast on or near Halloween, minus the addition of Santa Claus and possibly re-designing the aliens to look less like the popular movie monster, it might have worked. As it is, it’s yet another Christmas special that advertises how its creators don’t quite get the true meaning of the holy day. After all, if you don’t believe in Christ, then you don’t have to celebrate Christmas or add it into your show in any form, do you? Maybe you should just write sci-fi/fantasy episodes with a more generic tone and leave the Christmas specials to others to pen?

One could ask why is Santa Claus in this Doctor Who script at all. We’re told that he’s a universal symbol that all the characters can relate to during their horrific dilemma, but truly, who is Santa Claus? He’s a part of your dreams—nightmares you might not ever wake up from—according to Last Christmas. Not quite a great thing for young children to be told and indicative of how far the show has traveled from its family-friendly origins. If youngsters aren’t terrified of killer Christmas trees, homicidal angels, and evil Christmas stars, they can now be frightened of Nightmare Santa and the face-hugger aliens who can make your happiest dreams deadly. Should parents go ahead and send their children’s psychiatric bills to the BBC?

Perhaps there is some hope in the fact that Santa Claus himself is played quite warmly (despite some of his throw-away lines) by Nick Frost. And perhaps—without even realizing it—Steven Moffat has written a most Christian motif into the ending of Last Christmas. The Doctor says to his companion he doesn’t know who brought them together in their nightmarish adventures of dream states, but the camera pulls back to reveal a tangerine (looks more like an orange really) placed on the windowsill. 

Placing tangerines (oranges) into Christmas stockings is a long-standing tradition from St. Nicholas’ Day, December 6, when children are given gifts in the saint’s honor. The orange globe represents one of the bags of gold that Nicholas tossed into the window of the home of three young women whose father wasn’t able to provide dowries for them, so they weren’t able to marry. Mirroring God’s unconditional love, Nicholas tossed the money into their home—no strings attached—so that the young women could go from a state of hopelessness to hopefulness about their futures. Their lives were changed for the better all because of this beautiful gift that they never asked for or expected, freely given.

 As St. Nicholas stands as a symbol of God’s love and his gift of the gold (tangerine/orange) a symbol of the gift of the Savior promised to all people, perhaps we the audience are being given a hint just Who is actually directing the Doctor’s travels and what special purpose the Doctor serves in helping humanity unconditionally.

With the promise of the true gift of Christmas, Clara and Danny wouldn’t have to suffer through a maudlin scene of this is our “last Christmas,” since we’re never promised another one with those we love, for with Christ at the center of the Christmas celebration we are all promised an eternity of Christmases with those we love. Eternity—it’s a heckuva lot longer than a short life span here on earth. Eternity—we get to spend forever in God’s unconditional love. What a great way to time travel with those we love! 

If only the Doctor, Danny and Clara could accept God’s unconditional love, given as the gift of the Christ-child born on Christmas day, then we’d see more emotionally and spiritually mature characters who wouldn’t have to act maudlin, whiney, childish, or confused. They could act confident in the fact that they have a loving Higher Power watching over them in all the challenges they face, now and in the future. What an uplifting and happy Christmas special that would be!

***

You can read my review of Death in Heaven here:
http://momsday.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-death-of-doctor-who-as-engineered.html

Doctor Who vs. Marvel's Agents of Shield: Creating strong female characters:
http://momsday.blogspot.com/2014/12/doctor-who-vs-agents-of-shield-creating.html

I got the Doctor Who Let Down Blues: http://momsday.blogspot.com/2014/08/i-got-doctor-who-let-down-blues.html