Why Write a Christmas Book? Author Sue Moorcroft Explains

Please join me in welcoming author Sue Moorcroft to the blog! She offers insights into writing a Christmas book and the origins of her latest novel The Christmas Promise in this holiday guest post. Take it away, Sue!

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Writing a Christmas book was a new experience for me. I’d written quite a few short stories for magazines set at or around Christmas but never anything longer. I’m not the world’s biggest Christmas fan.

I suppose there are three reasons I wrote The Christmas Promise. Here’s the chronology:

Waterstones had given me an opportunity to sign books in my local store. While I was handing out my bookmarks and chatting to prospective readers I was able to observe the table at the front of the store piled high with novels featuring Christmas. Those novels were just walking out of the store. A couple of people even came up to look at my books and said that if there had been a Christmas one they would have bought it because they make such good presents for friends or stocking fillers for relatives.

Escape Pod Emulation for Christy Birmingham

I’m in an epod at Freya Pickard’s blog today. I am only allowed to pack five things with me on this adventure… What will I take? Read on to find out!

Dragonscale Clippings

Here is another Escape Pod Emulation! A warm welcome to author, Christy Birmingham!

So here I am, in this e-pod, and I’m feeling a bit claustrophobic. I better slow down my breathing to conserve the oxygen. Luckily, if I feel lightheaded, it won’t really matter too much as I’m not steering this contraption.

I settle into the console chair, knowing I’ll be here a while, and open up the cloth bag that rests on my lap. Inside, I find my five things here. Only five. It was quite the ordeal to decide what to take with me. I take out each item, one by one.

1. A Book. I find security in the familiarity of the book Surfacing by Margaret Atwood, which I have read several times and contains a handwritten note from my mom on the first page.

2. A Pillow. If I’m going to get some decent…

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Author Deepak Singh on the Inspiration Behind His Book

Today I am giving the virtual floor to Deepak Singh, the author of Rise Today, Lead Tomorrow. I first learned about the book when I stopped by Deepak’s blog deepakdheer. The book’s title caught my eye, as did its summary about overcoming setbacks in business, sports, and life in general. What follows below is Deepak’s explanation of what inspired him to write this book on personal development.

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My idea for the book were born from hard-won experiences that declare: ‘Anyone can fall, but then anyone can rise again.’

Deepak Sing Talks about How He Got the Idea to Write His Book.

I suppose that’s what motivated me to write the book Rise Today, Lead Tomorrow. Forty-five stories in my book show how ordinary people faced immense personal misfortune, yet they refused to give up and pushed themselves to the top.

Bouncing back from defeats and shining is at the heart of what I want to bring to young working professionals, and business people. The book will inspire individuals trying to recover from setbacks and achieve success in business, sports, and life!

It’s encouragement for everyone who is facing diversity, such as lost job, or bankruptcy, or perhaps feeling emotionally drained.

Science Fiction 101: What is Leviathan, Cyborg, and Humanoid?

Every genre of books has its share of literary terms. This point was reinforced in my head as I read the essay Talyn’s Heroic Journey in Farscape by Natacha Guyot, which discussed the role of the gunship Talyn in the sci-fi TV series Farscape.

In the read, which I reviewed at Goodreads, I noted many terms that would be familiar to science fiction enthusiasts but might not be clear to someone new to the genre. I realized there are a lot of intriguing characters in the sci-fi world that are anything but human (at least not in their entirety) and are worth defining here.

Here are some of the science fiction terms I came across in Guyet’s essay:

Leviathan: What Does it Mean in the Sci-Fi Context?

If this term were not used in reference to Farscape, you would be correct in saying that leviathan is a large mythical sea creature. But, in Farscape, Leviathan has a different meaning, which is a sentient spaceship. Leviathans have feelings and communicate mainly through non-verbal methods, which can include conveying messages through the pilot.

Moya was an example of a leviathan ship in the Farscape universe and had a close relationship with the alien blue-skinned pilot. Interestingly, Talyn, which is Moya’s offspring, is a combination of Leviathan and Peacekeeper technology.