Spotlight: Enchanting Yuletide. Guest Post by: Author, Guy Donovan
Tis the season for Magic
Six stories of the holiday season, guaranteed to put you in a festive mood. So, grab your hot chocolate and snuggle up to experience the season as you've never done before. After all, tis the Season for Magic!
Trailer
Father Time's servant is dying and only the spirit of Christmas can save him
Seasons, by Jena Baxter,
In her Darkest Hour, on the Deepest Night, only the Fire of Magic can guide Velania.
Deep Winter Fire, by CK Brewer
If work is love made visible, then kindness, generosity, and giving are love made magic.
Hand-Me-Downs, by Barbara Lieberman
Life is stories.
The Memory Tree, by Ellie Lieberman
"Ho ho--oh no!"
Tempus Fugit, by Guy Donovan
Is Earth ready for magical humans?
Solstice Magic, A Realm Jumper Chronicles Origins Story by Raven Williams
A Guest Post by Guy Donovan
Author of Tempus Fugit
A Guest Post by Guy Donovan
Why does Santa tend to be such a cranky, old white guy in “Tempus Fugit”? I dunno. Maybe because I’m a cranky, old white guy? Naah. That can’t be it. Besides, I don’t think he’s really cranky, per sé. He is old though, and undeniably a white guy. But seriously, he’s got one thing to do, and it takes him the whole stinking year to prepare to do it…and then it all gets bunged up by his biggest problem-child-as-employee. Who wouldn’t get a little cranky?
Hi there. I’m Guy Donovan, author of “Tempus Fugit,” which is part of the Christmas-themed, multi-author anthology, “Enchanted Yuletide.” I guess I have to accept the blame for Santa’s, let’s just say “impatience.” I wrote the thing, after all. But hold on a minute! I’ve got my reasons, you know.
Being “old,” I grew up during that heavenly (as seen through the eyes of a child of the 60s/70s), sepia-toned (as seen through the eyes of today’s kids) era in which you had to wait all year for the Christmas specials on TV. There was no streaming video. No digital downloads. No Blu-ray, or even DVD. For crumbled Christmas cookies’ sakes, we didn’t even have VHS, with or without the control track crimped so badly that the picture rolled and tumbled like lemmings off a cliff. Nope. We waited. And we hoped that that year’s stupid school Christmas program wouldn’t be on the one and only ferschlugginer night that Rudolph was!
But then, thanks be to the Gods that ran CBS, it all paid off! As we saw that gaudy 70s font spelling out “special presentation” tumble into place while accompanied by that crazy percussion, every kid in TV land felt his or her heart leap like a deer’s at the sound of a rifle bolt being slammed home. And then…then…kid heaven. Be it bad traditional animation courtesy of a subcontracting studio in Japan, or bad stop motion animation by a primary contracting studio in Japan, the real magic of Christmas flickered over us all at the rate of 60 interlaced frames/second. The sheer bliss is indescribable to a modern kid raised on largely the same stuff, but with it at his or her fingertips 24/7, 365 days a year.
And what was Santa like in almost all of those specials (“Frosty the Snowman” and “Here Comes Santa Claus” being the only exceptions that come to mind)? Yup. He was kind of a dick. I mean, “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” was basically about dealing with prejudiced and hateful a-holes, right? And who was the biggest a-hole of the bunch? You got it: The Big S. Why was there even going to be a “Year Without a Santa Claus”? That’s right; because Santa was being a moody little punk.
What about “’Twas the Night Before Christmas,” you ask? Perhaps you don’t remember it as well as I do. Well in that one, the candy-cane-colored ego maniac basically flips the bird to an entire town, scratching them all off his list because, get this, a mouse wrote a letter to him, claiming that no one there believed in him. That’s right; the magical, immortal, decidedly un-jolly old elf who can “see you when your waking,” and “knows when you’re asleep,” apparently doesn’t have either the clairvoyance or the mojo to know that the author of that letter wasn’t—even—human!
And, pfft! No Christmas for those unbelievers.
So given the Santa of my video-saturated childhood, I think I actually wrote a kindhearted and caring old man in the role. I mean, if someone actually took off with his sleigh for a joyride on Christmas Eve and then didn’t even bring it back, can you imagine how the Santa of “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” would’ve reacted? The “King of Jingle-ing” indeed!
Author Bios and Links
Guy Donovan - I grew up in the Air Force. After my father got out of that bunch in 1971, we traveled all over North Dakota and Minnesota, going job to job, town to town. Picture Bill Bixby at the end of the old '70s Hulk TV show with a wife and two kids tagging along and you're not far off.
Institutionalized by a child's view of the military, I went and joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1984 and was pretty much stuck with it until 1988. After that, I decided animation was the life for me.
Following graduation from art school in 1993, My new bride (now my old bride)and I relocated to Los Angeles, where we quickly came to understand why so many people shoot at each other while simply trying to drive to work.
In the toon biz, I worked on both television and feature films as an animator and storyboard artist/designer for Marvel Films, Hanna-Barbera, DiC, Saban Entertainment, Sony Pictures, DreamWorks SKG, and Warner Bros Feature Animation, amongst others.
When the traditional animation business largely dried up in the early 2000's, I thought it best to "choose" to get out rather than just complaining about being "thrown out of it" by the warm-blooded corporate types who shipped all the jobs overseas.
Needing to continue my wasteful and selfish habits of eating and sleeping under a roof (to say nothing of my wife's similarly selfish needs), I began working for the U.S. Government.
I now live in North Dakota for the second time in my life with my wife and daughter. While I continue to work for the government, I dream of the day when my hobby of writing might someday supplant that gubmint check I've been cashing for the last 12 years.
Raven Williams – Raven Williams describes herself as a beautiful mess disguised as a human being. Within this chaos words swirl around until they coalesce into fictional, fantasy stories or poetry for the world to read.
A prolific writer, Raven began her career in 2010, first with a blog, next with non-fiction, then finally moving to fiction in 2014, when she began Elven-Jumper, the first book in the Realm Jumper Chronicles. Now, she has eleven stories published in that epic fantasy series with more planned, as well as two stories in a new series, Raven’s Twisted Classics, and a standalone paranormal story, Witch Hunters’ Society.
When Raven is not writing, she is creating art in the form of jewelry pieces that tie into her stories, fractal designs, and abstract paintings. She is also a caregiver for a disabled family member and two cats. She physically resides in the Northwest Florida Panhandle, but spends most of her time mentally in the Mystic Realms. Will you join her?
Barbara Lieberman - Barbara Lieberman is a writer whose books are about the power of words, the power of love, and the consequences of the choices we make. A New Jersey native, Barbara moved to beautiful Southern California to start over. The proud mother of two amazing young adults and partner in Pipe & Thimble Bookstore and Publishing Company, Barbara is also an avid gardener, a life-long (and long-suffering) Phillies fan, a voracious reader, an editor/formatter, and an inspirational speaker.
*Voted one of the 50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading for 2015 and 2016!
*The Treasure of Ravenwood: A Fairy Tale by Barbara Lieberman has been voted to the top 40 Best Chapter Books for Young Girls List on Goodreads.
*The Treasure of Ravenwood, Ben's Little Acorn, and Why Does the Moon Follow Me are Reading Is Fundamental books and Barbara is proud to be a RIF Author Partner.
Ellie Lieberman - A New Jersey transplant, Ellie Lieberman lives now in sunny Southern California. She works with the fairies on her handmade business, Acorn Tops, when not writing or illustrating. An avid reader with a bedroom that looks like a mini library, Ellie is a lover of all things purple, basset hound, squirrel, and milk chocolate, with a slight fried rice obsession. In addition, she is co-proprietor of Pipe and Thimble Publishing and its bookstore.
CK Brewer – C. K. Brewer is a native Montanan living in Washington State with her husband and three profoundly gifted children – who also are extremely advanced readers. She noted when her eldest was entering third grade a full year younger than the rest of her classmates, that the stories her daughter could comprehend easily were wholly unacceptable in terms of content. By the time her third child began displaying the same capability with his reading, C. K. was frustrated by the lack of entertaining books with acceptable content for advanced readers.
Taking matters into her own hands, C. K., with the help of her three children, began writing a fantasy series that is set in a world based on the map her eldest drew and filled with creatures imagined by her two sons. As it has been a labor of love, it has been a long process in which C. K. hopes to see come to fruition in March of 2018 with the publication of the first book of the Royal Velanian Series, DragonStar. C. K. has, at this time one novella which is a history of Velania story that is included in the Enchanting Yuletide Anthology.
Jena Baxter - Jena Baxter has always loved fantasy, history and time travel. As a child she liked to read, and often wrote poetry as a stress inhibitor while growing up, but like many other writers, she dreamed of writing a novel. So, she enrolled at the UCLA Writer's Extension, to gain the confidence and skill to move forward with that dream.
Today Jena has a middle school/YA fantasy novel, as well as a paranormal, historical romance novel, and an urban fantasy. She also has a book of short stories written by herself and Raven Williams, as well as a dragon anthology, and another to be released November 15th, 2017. Read her story, The Covens of Misty Haven, posted monthly in her newsletter, and website.
Born in Ojai, California, she now resides in Northern California with her husband, Blue-front Amazon parrot, Rain, her sassy-cat, Lissa, and a handful of Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy called Sigh.
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