This time next week Christmas will have come and gone, though our celebrations, like many other people’s, will still be in full flow. This will be my last blog post of the year so I wish you all a really lovely Christmas and I will see you in 2025.
My Christmas picture (above) shows the decorations in Seven Dials. They are really pretty. I posted this picture last month together with a bit of history about the sundial that all the lights are arranged around. You can read about it HERE.
At this time of year, writers often like to include something from one of their books that references Christmas. That’s always a problem for me. My characters are usually away from England at Christmas time and are often quite busy fighting wars. Christmas hardly features. There’s more than usual about Christmas in my current WIP, Burke and the War of 1812, but, even so, it barely rates a mention. Burke has gone off to do something important somewhere comfortable, leaving poor William Brown, who often gets left doing the hard work, to spend winter living with the Shawnee tribe in a camp in what is now Indiana. Here’s his experience of Christmas.
Christmas came and went. William wasn’t sure of the day but he taught the Shawnee some carol tunes which they sang with their own words. William didn’t understand what they were singing and thought he would be happier not knowing, but the tunes provided some comfort as the shortest day came and went and the weather grew colder.
I hope your Christmas is more fun than his.
I’m always impressed by people who turn out short stories at the drop of a hat. I did do a special Christmas short story last year but I’m not going to manage this feat twice. Last year’s story was not historical but features Galbraith and Pole, the main characters in my Urban Fantasy series. It’s set soon after the two of them meet (in Something Wicked) and it’s an unashamedly sentimental tale of Christmas Eve. If you haven’t already read it, it’s still available HERE.
That’s all for this week, this Christmas and this year. I wish you all the best for the holidays and hope people give you lots of books.
