Here I am again, for a semi-regular update:

In case anyone is still wondering, the winner of the September contest was: Eva Sikka, of Finland!

Hopefully, you have a package from me by now, Eva, since I sent it in Mid October. International mail is keeping me on my toes.

Everyone else: check the contest page for a chance to win my latest book “A Wicked Liaison.” US readers, this is your best chance for an early copy. The rest of the world will be seeing this story in January of '08, But I still don't have a US Release date for it.

As always, while ignoring my web duties, I've been writing. I finished my Halloween novella, and have moved on to Christmas. Regency Christmas can be defined more for the things they did not have, then the things they had. There was no Santa, of course, but also no Christmas Cards, and no Scrooge. Dickens was born in 1812.

I find this most unreasonable of him. I worked in theater for years, and my Christmas has always been defined by altering costumes for the annual production of “A Christmas Carol.” I can quote parts of that story from memory. This knowledge is utterly useless, now that I've traveled back in time to pre-Victorian England.

For the Regency I'm having to re-imagine Christmas in a much simpler form. I can get by with a Christmas tree. There were a few of them that early, and I'm making one of my heroines a little bit German, since they were the fiends for indoor greens. I can have holly and ivy and mistletoe (thank you, druids), and a Yule log in the fireplace. While I work, I can hum many of the Christmas carols that I enjoy best. According to the dates in my hymnal, my characters were singing the same things in church that I do, although some sources say that caroling wasn't a popular pastime until the Victorian era.

But to really get into the spirit, I plan to experiment in my own kitchen with goose and Christmas pudding. I think a large amount of wassail will be involved.

God help us, everyone.

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