An Easter Egg for Christmas, plus huge free book blast!

Happy Holidays to all you out in reader land! I hope you got all the books you wanted for Christmas. This newsletter came out after the Big Day because I'm part of a massive ebook giveaway (more details below), but I hope you don't mind if I tell you a personal story about the holiday season.

Readers of my Magical Midlife Librarian series already know that Santa, in the form of Klaus, and Krampus, St. Nick's polar opposite (ha! get it? "Polar?") appear as main story drivers in Rosalind's journey to become a magical fae librarian. Santa has long been one of my favorite characters of all time, and it all started with a book.

Specifically, The Santa Claus Book by Alden Perkes.

Back in 6th grade, during the 1990s in a small southern Idaho town, I was obsessed with reading. My grandma would take me to the local library every week to replenish my supply. I'd read so much in the children's section that the pickings were getting slim, so when the librarians put out their annual Christmas book display, I decided to pick up a few picture books instead of the novels I preferred.

It's disingenious to call The Santa Claus Book something strictly for little kids, though. With large-page formatting and clocking in at 132 pages, the book contains dozens of illustrated stories about everything you might want to know about Santa. It's like a mini encyclopedia about the Big Man himself.

A sample of the gorgeous illustrations inside.

I might not have even read The Santa Claus Book, though, if not for fate. Christmas season was pretty busy for me that year. I was the star of the school play (dressed up as Franz Gruber, the composer who wrote Silent Night, not to be confused by Alan Rickman's Die Hard villain). I also was set to play piano at Midnight Mass for our church. I wasn't reading much those last two weeks in December.

Until I came down with the flu, right on Christmas Eve.

With a high fever, chills, and unable to keep anything in my stomach, I completely missed Midnight Mass. That was bad enough, but I was so sick, I didn't even get to leave my room on Christmas Day. My mom didn't want me spreading the flu to my family, so I was stuck downstairs in my basement bedroom with nothing but my stack of library books for company.

It was basically a "worst case" scenario for any kid at Christmas. I could even hear my younger sisters running around upstairs, happy as can be with their new toys. I was upset, but what could I do? I flipped through a few books at my side, angry at the injustice of it all. I pulled out The Santa Claus Book and began to read out of boredom. None of the other books in the stack held my attention.

Except this one did. I loved all the details Perkes gave about Santa: from his birth, to how he gained his magic, to his relationship to the elves...you get the idea. There's even a Christmas dragon in one of the stories. What was not to love? The Santa Claus Book single-handedly saved an otherwise disappointing 6th grade Christmas.

That's why, during this time of year, Santa holds a special place in my heart. He was magic when I needed it, even though I'd already grown too old to believe in him anymore. Not only that, but he represents my love of reading, which is why when I decided to write about a magical midlife librarian, I wanted Santa to feature heavily in the plot. It's a little Easter (Christmas?) egg I inserted in Rosalind's story, and now you know why.

And while Christmas may be officially over, it doesn't mean you still can't get free goodies. Stuff Your Kindle Day is back! If you love fantasy and romance books, there's plenty to choose with over 2,200 books! Download something new at www.romancebookworms.com.

I'm also having a big book sale today. Mom of the Chosen One is completely free across all Amazon stores, and C urse of the Fae Library is also on sale for 0.99 in the US and UK Amazon stores! If you haven't started either of my Paranormal Women's Fiction series, now's the time.