Happy day-after Thanksgiving to all who celebrate this holiday, and for
those who don’t, Happy Friday to you and yours: ) The weather is turning
colder in Southwest Michigan, good for campfires, which I had today with my
grandson. Always good times when sharing moments with family; )
So, tell me, are there certain family
traditions you follow on this special day?
I’m always curious about traditions. I grew up with them…but
things changed when I had my own family. I didn’t want to deal with traditions,
things we do the same every year, but little did I know that I was actually
making my own traditions. LOL Like celebrating the holiday on the Friday after:)
~.~.~.~
There is an amazing dish that my mom-in-law made for the
holidays – Apple Pie Slices, which my brother-in-law named Pink Sh*t – because of
the pink frosting on top. It’s like apple pie flattened onto a cookie sheet and
topped with frosting – s-o-o-o yummy! We haven’t indulged in this dish for a
number of years, but this year I made it for my family. I guess some traditions
hang on whether you want them to or not – they become part of who we are.
~.~.~.~
So tell us about your favorite tradition
for the holiday/s? Who
knows, maybe it will become a new tradition for someone else.
~.~.~.~
While you’re here, I’d like to share a short excerpt from my
soon-to-be-released book - Secret: At HL Woods – YA Paranormal
Romance scheduled for release January 2018.
Unedited Author Excerpt - 1st part of chapter one:
“What the—?
Ugh!” Air exploded out of my lungs as I face-planted in musty dirt and leaves.
A little fur-ball chipmunk had scurried across my path and should be a smear on
the bottom of my tennis shoe, but I’d dove over it like diving off the raft.
Air wheezed back into my body on gulps of mortification.
“Holy crap.
Kyle, did you see that agile ballerina move? It’s none other than the dark
witch-girl, Bri Lancaster. You know, the very one that unveils morbid goth
clouds wherever she goes.”
Max. My worst nightmare. No, no, no. Don’t look. Do not raise your
head. I did, coughing and sputtering dirt from my mouth. Kyle, the guy that
lived next door, ran full bore toward me, while Max struck a pose, laughing. A
deranged hyena came to mind. What the heck were those two doing this far into the
woods? They’d never been in this area of the forest, at least not for the
past three months I’d been jogging here.
“Are you
hurt?” Kyle kneeled next to me and extended a hand.
I got to my
feet on my own, brushing dirt from the front of my T-shirt. “I’m fine.” I
glared at Max, who was still a distance away laughing his butt off. How mature.
“Max. It’s
not that funny.” Kyle unfolded himself to stand beside me. His ice-blues
twinkled from the sunlight filtering through the tree branches. “Are you sure
you’re all right? That was quite a tumble.”
Stop staring at him and respond. A slap on my shoulder shoved me
into Kyle. I nearly knocked him to the ground. Somehow he righted both of us.
“Get a grip,
Goth-girl. He’s not into you.” Max jerked me away from Kyle and completed my
humiliation. “You kissing the dirt made a perfect Snap Chat expose, my evil
one.” He flashed me the picture on his phone. “Today we get to enjoy black
spiky hair tipped in fluorescent fuchsia. What happened to your eyebrow stud?”
He blinked his eyes and grinned, most likely for effect.
As if on
auto-mode, my hands curled into fists
with a deep-seated urge to punch his face. My hair wasn’t spiky, just short,
and how he got his phone to grab a close up of me on the ground was beyond me. I hate him.
Grandpa’s
words about hate rifled through my head, “Don’t
hate the haters, it’s normally a traumatic experience that created their
outlook, or exterior programming from parents that went through the trauma. Not
their fault.” Well, I didn’t see
anything but red whenever I looked at Max’s smug face.
Without a
word, I ran toward the mound of wild rose vines and thistles, where Kyle and
Max had stood a moment ago.
A black man
and white woman shimmered into view beside it, arms around each other, both
staring at me.
I stopped so
abruptly I almost lost it again. Apparitions.
“Martin,
look at her. She’s seein’ us.” The woman’s distinct southern accent caught me,
but what set off my cursed paranormal spidey-sensors was their clothing…straight
from the 60’s, according to some of the old romance books I’d read from Mom’s
stash.
“By damn,
she does see us.” He stepped closer to me with the woman at his side. “You can
see us.”
“I can,
yes.” Holy crap, I just said that out
loud. My whole body tensed. I glanced over my shoulder to see if Kyle and
Max still roamed face-plant alley. A shiver shook through me. They’d left.
“We need
your help, Missy.” Martin’s brows arched, his head tilted. “Please tell us you
can help us.”
The woman turned to him and patted his cheek. “It’s gonna
be all right, sweetie. We ain’t botherin’ this fine woman with our problems.”
She turned to me. “It’s okay, darlin’, you never
mind us.”
“Why are you
both here?” Wherever I saw spirits of the dead, it usually meant they were
connected to something in the area. I considered the mound, seeing something
metal and rusty underneath all the greenery. “You should have crossed over,
into the vortex of light…unless you’re meant to go to the dark plane.”
The woman
gasped and clung to Martin.
Maybe I’d
said too much. I yanked some of the vines away, getting scratched and poked
from the effort.
A car,
green, ancient. No wonder it was tough to see.
“We want
justice, but we aren’t able to leave this spot. Something’s holding us here,
like some kind of barrier.” Martin’s lips pinched together, his head nodding.
He looked at the woman as if to confirm.
She nodded also.
I scanned
the area thoroughly to make sure Kyle and Max weren’t lurking behind a tree to
get a shot of me talking to air. I’d dealt with Max enough during school to
last a lifetime; his nasty pranks didn’t need to scar my summer too.
Thankfully
they’d really left.
“You
fancyin’ one of those boys?” The woman smiled.
“Gloria, now
don’t you be puttin’ on with this little lady. She won’t want to share her life
with the likes of us.” Martin embraced Gloria, kissing her forehead.
I chuckled
at considering either Kyle or Max as anything more than what? Simply guys in my
grade? No one knew me here and I liked it that way. Moving from Marshall before
the end of my junior year was the worst thing to happen in my life, well
besides Dad leaving once we settled into the house here. Plus, Luke lived in
Marshall. I shook my
head. “No. Neither of those guys is into me, and I’m definitely not into them.”
ENTER OUR HOLIDAY CONTEST FOR A CHANCE TO WIN an Alcatel A30 e-Book
Tablet and your choice of 6 e-books - http://bookswelove.net/bwl-holiday-magic/
DK Davis writes YA sci-fi, supernatural, and
fantasy with a good dollop of all the relationships woven in between. When
she’s not writing, editing, or reading, she’s hiking, RV’ing, fishing, spending
time with grandchildren or her favorite muse (her husband) in Southwest
Michigan.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DKDavisBooks
Website: http://suda788.wixsite.com/dkdavis
BWL Publishing Inc. Author Page: http://bookswelove.net/authors/davis-dk/
No comments:
Post a Comment
I have opened up comments once again. The comments are moderated so if you are a spammer you are wasting your time and mine. I will not approve you.