Let's Go to the Hop! (The TWCS Christmas Blog Hop that is)

Welcome to the third day of the TWCS Christmas Author Blog Hop! I’m J.D Watts, author of the Children of Creation Series. So glad you could stop by and check out my blog and I’d love it if you clicked the follow button on the Left right under the ABOUT ME section. If this is your first stop on the Blog Hop, then be sure to read the information below the asterisks to find out how to catch up and gather the clues for your chance to win one of several paperback books or some great TWCS swag! Below that beside the *!* is another note you might want to take time to check out if you’re at all interested in special exclusive content and sneak peeks!

When planning all of this, we decided to all speak of our own traditions. Mine are unoriginal, but it really doesn’t take a lot of pomp and circumstance to make the season worthwhile. Church, my children’s plays, and family gatherings, and decorating the house with my kids more or less encompass what my Christmas week consists of and I am more than content with that. I love it. Thinking about all of these family gathering and traditions that I take part in every year, I found myself pondering my Children of Creation series characters. The way I spaced Convergence and Induction, Christmas sort of disappears in the space between the two books, never being broached or mentioned, so I thought as a special little treat, I might discuss how Ana, Nate, and Dani would have handled that first holiday together in their Rocky Mountain safe house. (Fair warning, there may be spoilers if you haven’t read Convergence or Induction yet.)

While one might think that there would be little Nate, Dani, and Ana could do to celebrate while trapped in the mountains as they were at the end of Convergence, Ana always found ways to recreate Dani’s childhood traditions to try to bring a sense of normalcy into her life even in the worst of situations. The same would be true in this case, and she would also have elves, ahem, sorry, I mean angel conspirators to help her. I am quite positive that Dani would go to sleep the night before Christmas Eve, while Ana was on guard duty, only to wake up to find a tree in the living room ready for them to decorate together with the myriad of supplies Ana had ordered up or requested to be brought from storage. They would work together while sipping on Ana’s famous hot chocolate. There would have undoubtedly been some smuggled in presents and a meal, and even though things at this point still would have been awkward between Nate and Dani, both she and Ana would have made a major effort to make Nate’s first ‘family’ Christmas a happy and memorable one.

Most important of all, however, considering the undercurrent of this story, they would have taken part in some sort of ceremony to celebrate the birth of Jesus. I envision singing songs by candlelight and reading the Christmas story, all typical traditions that were always a part of my own family’s celebrations and that sometimes became wrote with repetition and some seasons lost some of its impact. For this group, however, I believe that act would be so much powerful for them with all they knew and had seen first-hand, and especially for Dani having stood face to face with Jesus at the end of Convergence. Can you imagine how much more meaningful the entire celebration would be for her? I certainly can’t truly wrap my head around it, but I believe it would have been magnificent and humbling, making all of the other traditions we take part in seem so trivial in comparison.

I know that there are many people in the world who don’t celebrate Christmas as I do, or don’t celebrate it at all, but in my mind, Christmas is first and foremost about LOVE. Love for one another, love for the world, and love beyond all understanding. It makes me sad to know that love is sometimes clouded by people who don’t show that love as I feel it was intended. In my mind, Christians are supposed to be striving to be more like Jesus, and that means showing love to the world, even when you might not like what is happening, or feel that it is right. It is my belief that the whole purpose of sending Jesus was about LOVE, love for us, forgiveness for us, and we should be putting that out into the world instead of hate.
I end this post by sending hugs and positive thoughts your way this Christmas Season. Whether you believe in the same things as me or not, I hope you feel LOVED!

********
Dec. 12 Veronica Breville
Dec. 13 Kathryn Gayle
Dec. 14 JD Watts
Dec. 15 Michele Richard
Dec. 16 Jennifer Schmidt
Dec. 17 Sophia Duane
Dec. 19 Sherri Hayes
Dec. 20 Michelle Birbeck
Dec. 21 Lindsey Gray
Dec. 22 C. M. Smith
Dec. 23 E. L. James

TWCS Author Blog Hop - Our authors are sharing holiday traditions Dec. 12 - 23. Each day an author will post on their blog a personal holiday tradition or a holiday tradition of their characters. They will also post the blog hop icon. You will notice in the bottom right hand corner of the icon a holiday/winter object. You will need to write these objects down and keep the list handy. In addition to great giveaways happening each day on the authors' blogs, we will have a grand prize drawing on TWCS's website. To enter the grand prize drawing you will need to have collected all 11 objects.

What is the grand prize? An ebook of Season of Love, your choice of paperback (Connected, Take This Regret, Slave, or Fourteen), TWCS coffee mug, bookmarks (many are signed by the author). TWCS pen and notepad.

Sounds like fun? Then get out a notepad, note that today's item is Candy Canes, then click on the links for Veronica and Kathryn to get caught up and you're ready to join in the fun and have the chance to win some great stuff!

*!* Additional side note…if you haven’t done so already, now is a perfect time to join my fan club on Facebook as I will be releasing an exclusive first peek as a Christmas present to those members months before the rest of the world sees it!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year (to pull your hair out)

Okay, I'm only half teasing here. I LOVE this time of the year. Christmas is my absolute most favoritest holiday ever! (Yes, I know that's not a real word, but I'm attempting to relay my enthusiasm here so let's just pretend.) I've had my house decorated for weeks, have purchased all of the presents and have them wrapped under the tree, etc, etc,and yet, no matter how organized or prepared I am, there's always more to do. My latest project for the past two days is making Angel's wings for my daughter for the Christmas Pageant at church in two weeks. She doesn't even have a speaking role, but she was so excited that I just had to get my hands on a halo (which had to be fluffy because that was what the kids at the other church she visited recently was going to have)and somehow create a set of Angel's wings for her to wear. I'm actually just grateful that I didn't have to somehow come up with a gown, but they had some in storage from years past. Some poster board, white ribbon, a little hot glue, one wooden heart hidden in my old crafting supplies, and some gold glitter glue later and I am now watching my 'masterpiece' dry. While my mom marvels at my creativity, I find myself looking at it thinking, my sister-in-law the artist probably would have come up with something much better, but it's decent, considering I have the small motor skills God gave a toddler. Oh well, at least when the day comes that my kids need to come up with some kind of creative writing project, I'll be able to really help them knock it out of the park. In the meantime, I hope they're happy with slightly wavering glitter glue lines!

As far as writing, I did get another 2,000 words of Maelstrom done the other night. I'm attending an online Social Media training seminar tonight and hope to get some time between all of the shuttling kids back and forth to school, musical practice, etc to get a little more done. In the same breath though, I'm going to savor these next few weeks with my kids, going on drives to see the Christmas lights, singing Christmas songs before bedtime, and in the midst of the ever mounting obligations and expectations reminding myself and my kids of the real reason for the season.

An Amazing Day!

This is been an amazing, wonderful, very good day! IN addition to writing almost 1,500 words on Maelstrom, I have also been having a blast being a part of both Ali's Bookshelf and What's Beyond Forks!

First off, these ladies both left wonderful reviews of Convergence that has had me hopping in my seat and smiling so hard my cheeks ache!

Ali's Blog said "Oh my... Convergence is absolutely one of the best books I've read in a long time. I couldn't get enough of this Angel~tastic book. I love a book when it pulls me in and makes me fall for the main character, one that seems so real, I love a story that seems as if its a movie reel being played out before me, Convergence does just that." To read the rest, CLICK HERE

Beyond Forks thought "Convergence was a very hard book to put down. I loved seeing angels portrayed with such loyalty and strength. This is how I picture Angels to be.:" Click Here for the rest of the review!

I also did guest posts for both.

Ali's Bookshelf (aka My Embarrassing Confession)

Beyond Forks (I wax poetic about music and my writing playlists)

What's Beyond Forks did a great interview with me:

And both blogs are doing Giveaways!

Ali's Bookshelf

What's Beyond Forks


I know it's 25 days away, but today TOTALLY feels like Christmas! :D

Bloggers and Interviews, and Giveaways, OH MY!

Bloggers, and interviews, and giveaways, oh my! I’m off to see the bloggers, the awesome bloggers of YA lit! I cannot wait to get started.

First off, I will be chatting with the ladies of the Mystical Lit Lounge tomorrow on Skype. This podcast won’t post for a few days afterward, but I’m really looking forward to sitting down with Shannon and Kim again to chat about Induction! http://mysticallitlounge.com/

Then Wednesday is double trouble giveaway day.

At Ali’s Bookshelf a review of Convergence will post along with a guest blog by yours truly and an ebook giveaway opportunity will head your way. In my blog post I wax poetic about overactive imaginations and getting a little physical. http://alisbookshelfreviews.blogspot.com/

Meanwhile, over at What’s Beyond Forks? you’ll get another chance to win an ebook, read an interview with me about my writing, and get another review. http://whatsbeyondforks.blogspot.com/

I’m really looking forward to the rest of this week. I hope you all get a chance to drop in and check out the blogs on Wednesday and I’ll be sure to post again and let you all know when the podcast interview posts as well. In the meantime, I hope you had an amazing Thanksgiving and are already having a fun Christmas Holiday windup. Christmas is my absolute favorite holiday…no matter how down I am, something about the spirit of the season…the lights, and the music, and just the peace that I feel during this time of year…they all seem to make me feel so much better. I hope you find the same blessings amongst the chaos that also accompanies the season as we fight to find the perfect gifts and make it to 1001 events, because at the end of the day, this season is really about peace and love. Best wishes to all and here’s hoping to gifts of inspiration and high word counts for the rest of the season!!!

Giving Thanks for YOU!

Over here in the states, tomorrow is a holiday dedicated to giving Thanks. I have so many things to be thankful for...great kids, a loving family, all of the blessings God has provided me in this life, and even all the hard stuff are still blessings in their own way. I could go on all day, but right now I really want to take a moment to show my gratitude to all of you who read my stories, buy my books, and take the time to say hi and hear what I have to say. If it weren't for all of you, some of the best blessings that have come out of 2011 would never have happened, because without wonderful readers who take the time to enter the world we create, we authors would be absolutely superfluous! Yep...without you, we would just be a group of crazy people, talking to ourselves and typing away for the benefit of our eyes only. So thank you kind and gentle readers for all of your wonderful support. As I sit down and think of all of the things that I am thankful for with my family tomorrow afternoon, you will all be close to my heart and heavy on my mind.

Blog Tour Info!

November is the month for blog hopping for our Young Adult Authors. I have a couple of dates set to guest post, but I could use a little more. If you're interested, click the button below to findout more!

Mud and Water

I am struggling so much with the last novel of the CofC series. Normally when I write, it's like a tidal wave. My fingers fly, the words spew out and next thing I know, I've knocked out 1,000 words in an hour. They might not always be the best words, but a little editing and a couple more hours later and I've got a chapter, maybe two. I've been so spoiled by the ease of my writing, that even the littlest writer's block has annoyed the heck out of me.

Now I'm facing my last book of my first ever series, and suddenly I feel like I'm trudging through waist deep mud, the suction on my legs and feet making every little movement, every sentence written, feel like really hard, frustrating work. I'm fighting with myself, my attention, my exhaustion and it's stressing me out more than anything.

So, now I'm an analytic person. I take every decision in my life and mull it to death like a cat torturing a mouse before finally deciding what to do about it, how to handle it, what is wrong and how to fix it. There are a lot of easy to see things that are blocking my path, growing kids demanding more attention, major changes in my personal life, demands on my time to help promote and market the books that are already out, etc, but I think beyond all that I may have realized a bigger, looming shadow plaguing me as I head into the last part of what, in many ways, I consider my third, fourth and fifth babies...I'm suddenly paralyzed by a fear of failure. I'm afraid that after building this whole world, these delicate relationships, this over arcing sense of danger and suspense that when the final book is laid to rest I'm going to disappoint everyone. Then, if I don't fail, I think a part of me is afraid I won't find another original idea good enough to write something else people would really want to read.

Darned if I do, and darned if I don't, and in addition to all of the concrete barriers I am currently facing, I've managed to grind myself to a near halt thanks to this fear. Now I recognize some of this is a healthy fear. Only an extremely cocky person would look at their book/series and think it's a slam dunk. Almost every writer I know agonizes at least a little over their work, each of us being our own worst critics. I'm just praying for some rain here to thin out the muck and help me get a flow again. It don't necessary need a tsunami...at this point, I'd be happy with a lightly babbling brook, steadily building until it hits a larger body of water that will take me all the way to the completion of my series...a few more waking hours of quiet with the 'voices in my head' chattering away at me wouldn't hurt any either. ;)