A Magical Time for Magical Reads — and Giveaways

When I was a child, nary a Christmas passed without my father reading aloud Clement Clarke Moore’s A Visit from St. Nicholas, Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss. The Grinch was on TV, too, but somehow it wasn’t Christmas unless Daddy read us the story. He always played all the parts in each tale, making the characters come alive in a very special way.

Have you ever noticed that parents who read to their children raise children who love to read? All four of us kids — my two brothers, sister, and I — became avid readers. We still are.

Ask authors “Why did you become a writer?” and many will tell you they’ve always written, from the time they could pick up a pencil. Me? I trace my joy in creating fantastical worlds to escaping with Daddy into the stories he read to us throughout the year. Those were magical days.

Daddy’s been gone for twenty years, and I always miss him — and Momma, too — something fierce at Christmas. Though my parents gave their children many precious gifts, I think the gift of reading is among the best gifts of all.

I’ve got a lot of reading to do this year just to catch up with new Christmas stories set in the Wild West. Here are the ones in my teetering to-be-read pile:

A Cowboy Under the Mistletoe
Rediscovered feelings and unexpected new love bring six couples together during the holidays.

Kissing Until Christmas
A mail-order bride isn’t exactly who she seems — but her unwilling groom hides a dangerous secret of his own.

I Heard the Brides on Christmas Day
Hec Murdock orders up two brides — one for himself and one for his brother, Zeke. But somehow, Hec neglects to let Zeke know what he’s done.




 

The Gift of Forgiveness
A reformed gunman takes up his guns one more time to help a widow find her kidnapped son. In the bargain, he receives the gift of love.

Holiday Hoax
Widow Vera Sanders agrees to switch places with younger and prettier Adele MacIntyre, another mail-order bride. They’re both in for rude surprises, however, after trying to pull a holiday hoax on two very different grooms

A Marriage of Convenience
A debutante on the run from a monster finds her salvation in a jaded Indian Territory lawman. The marshal can protect her with a Christmas wedding … but can he protect his heart?

Her Holiday Husband
Secrets and surprises are in store when families meddle with a beautiful single mother and an outlaw-turned-respectable. Phoebe Pierce may have too many secrets of her own to keep her holiday husband.

Store Bought Ornaments
Ella’s cryptic letter brings her husband’s brother, Caleb, home for Christmas. Can they finally claim the love they’ve been denied for so long?

The Keepers of Camelot
An unusual twist on the King Arthur legend finds Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot embroiled in an Apache attack at a stage station. Only a homeless boy recognizes the three, reminding Arthur The Once and Future King will return when the world needs him most.

 Dance with Destiny
A half-Ojibwa drifter sees a fair-haired woman in a vision. An abandoned army wife with four young children needs help to survive the harsh Ohio winter. Will the love that grows between them endure, or is it doomed from the start?




My stack also contains a few medieval Christmas books. Medieval stories are something new for me, but whoever coined the phrase “variety is the spice of life” knew what he or she was talking about.

One Winter Knight
Eight Yuletide tales of love lost and found, laced with holiday traditions and the excitement of a bold, dangerous era.

Canticle
To save her family’s fortunes, Lady Alisoun must wed an elderly earl the day after Christmas. But in the chapel on Christmas Eve, her heart collides with that of an elegant, mysterious stranger. Is he her salvation … or an enemy spy?

An Unexpected Gift
An outlaw vows to protect a homeless woman from the men who want to kill her unborn son. In the struggle against the cold and would-be kings, Meryk and Ada discover love is the most unexpected gift of all, but will they survive long enough to claim it?

Sir Baldwin and the Christmas Ghosts
An arrogant young knight and a woman with the gift of sight must work together to make a true Christmas for the survivors of a plague — and the spirits of those who did not survive.

Keepsake
On a stormy Christmas Eve night filled with danger, fate makes unexpected allies of a bitter man and an angry woman. Will passion ignite as a result ... or will they even survive to find out?





And because we all enjoy becoming children again once in a while, I always have one or two young adult Christmas reads in my stack this time of year.

The Christmas Spider
Christmas should be a happy time, but this year will be bittersweet for Samantha McCaslin. Following the death of her mother, the thirteen-year-old tomboy must grow up quickly, especially when a bully targets her American Indian friends. Thanks to the magic of Christmas and the power of love, Sam learns what family really means.

The Donkey that Carried Mary
A warm and funny story about Mary, the mother of Jesus, as told by her donkey, Sarah. This one won’t be out until Dec. 20, but I’m so looking forward to such a sweet-sounding read.

 

 

To help make your holidays merry and bright, I'll give away four anthologies in e-book form: A Cowboy Under the Mistletoe, A Mail-Order Christmas Bride, One Winter Knight, and One Christmas Knight. To be eligible, tell me what holiday tradition is most special to you.

One more thing before I forget: Prairie Rose Publications is looking for reviewers. If you enjoy reading and telling people about good books you've read, email prairierosepublications@aol.com for more information. (Click the graphic below to make it larger.)

A Texan to the bone, Kathleen Rice Adams spends her days chasing news stories and her nights and weekends shooting it out with Wild West desperadoes. Leave the upstanding, law-abiding heroes to other folks. In Kathleen’s stories, even the good guys wear black hats.

Her short story “The Second-Best Ranger in Texas” won the Peacemaker Award for Best Western Short Fiction. Her novel Prodigal Gun won the EPIC Award for Historical Romance and is the only western historical romance ever to final for a Peacemaker in a book-length category.

Visit her hideout on the web at KathleenRiceAdams.com.

A Holiday Tradition: Mincemeat Pie (and a giveaway)

The winter holidays are sneaking up on us. Do you know where your family-favorite recipes are?

The Thanksgiving dinner. Edwd. Ridley & Sons., 1870

More importantly, do you know which hours are the busiest at your local grocery store or market? If not, figure that out now so you can avoid the crowds. After fifteen years on Galveston Island, I still haven’t discovered the right time to shop. However, I seem to have reached the venerable status of “old,” so I frequently find myself the beneficiary of Southern manners. Younger folks eagerly assist “sweet little old ladies” fill their shopping carts (possibly just to get us out of the way).

Though I am hardly a little old lady of the sweet variety, I’m not above masquerading as one when it serves my agenda.

Some traditional holiday foods have been around for a long, long time. Take mincemeat pies, for example. They date back to Medieval times, when savory “minced meat” filling stretched families’ meager ration of protein by adding beef suet, dried fruits, sugar, and spices to leftover meat. The recipe endured into the early nineteenth century, as illustrated by this recipe from Mrs. Child’s 1833 cookbook The American Frugal Housewife.

Boil a tender, nice piece of beef—any piece that is clear from sinews and gristle; boil it till it is perfectly tender. When it is cold, chop it very fine, and be very careful to get out every particle of bone and gristle. The sweeter and better to boil half an hour or more in this.

Pare, core, and chop the apples fine. If you use raisins, stone them. If you use currants, wash and dry them at the fire.

[Add] two pounds of beef, after it is chopped; three quarters of a pound of suet; one pound and a quarter of sugar; three pounds of apples; two pounds of currants, or raisins. Put in a gill of brandy; lemon-brandy is better, if you have any prepared. Make it quite moist with new cider. I should not think a quart would be too much; the more moist the better, if it does not spill out into the oven. A very little pepper.

If you use corn meat, or tongue, for pies, it should be well soaked, and boiled very tender. If you use fresh beef, salt is necessary in the seasoning. One ounce of cinnamon, one ounce of cloves. Two nutmegs add to the pleasantness of the flavor; and a bit of sweet butter put upon the top of each pie, makes them rich; but these are not necessary. Bake three quarters of an hour. If your apples are rather sweet, grate in a whole lemon.

The term “mincemeat” arose about 1850 in the U.S. to distinguish traditional minced-meat pies from those containing no meat. Beef suet remained among the ingredients, though, and many cooks added nuts and some kind of liquor.

The 1875 edition of Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery included recipes for both types of filling.

Savory version:

Peel, core, and chop finely a pound of sound russet apples, wash and pick a pound of raisins, and let both these be chopped small. Then take away the skin and gristle from a pound of roast beef, and carefully pick a pound of beef-suet; chop these well together. Cut into small pieces three quarters of a pound of mixed candied orange, citron, and lemon-peel; let all these be well stirred together in a large pan.

Beat or grind into powder a nutmeg, half an ounce of ginger, and a quarter of an ounce of cloves, the same of allspice and coriander-seeds; add half an ounce of salt, and put these into the pan, mixing them thoroughly. Grate the rinds of three lemons, and squeeze the juice over half a pound of fine Lisbon sugar, mixed with the lemon-peel; pour over this two gills of brandy and half a pint of sherry. Let these ingredients be well stirred, then cover the pan with a slate; and when about to use the mince take it from the bottom of the pan.

Sweet version:

To make mincemeat pies without meat, carefully prepare, as before directed, a pound and a half of fresh beef-suet, and chop it as small as possible; stone and chop a pound and a half of Smyrna raisins; well wash and dry on a coarse with two pounds of currants; peel, core, and cut small three pounds of russet apples; add a quarter of an ounce of mixed cinnamon and mace in powder, four cloves powdered, a pound an a half of powdered sugar, a tea-spoonful of salt, the juice of a lemon and its peel finely grated, and a table-spoonful of mixed candied fruit cut very small. Let all the above be well mixed together, and remain in the pan a few days. When you are about to make mince pies, throw a gill of brandy and the same of port wine into the pan, and stir together the mince. Line the required number of patty-pans with properly-made paste; fill from the bottom of the pan; cover, and bake quickly.

I’m not a fan of mincemeat, but it remains a popular dessert for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. Many contemporary cooks use prepared mincemeat filling (None Such is a popular brand, available in both condensed [dry] and jarred versions), so piemaking is quick and easy: just dump the filling into a pie crust and bake. Pillsbury offers a simple made-from-scratch (almost) recipe here.

My mother and grandmothers made their own mincemeat, which takes about three months to cure. If you’re industrious and have lots of time on your hands, you may want to try this recipe.

Mincemeat
Makes 4 quarts

1 lb. cooking apples, unpeeled
½ lb. butter (or an equal amount of shredded beef suet)
12 ounces raisins
8 oz. currants
8 oz. golden raisins
4 oz. candied orange peel, chopped (to make it yourself, see recipe below)
4 oz. candied lemon peel, chopped
4 oz. slivered or chopped almonds or chopped walnuts
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
12 oz. dark brown sugar
2 ½ tsp ground allspice
½ tsp grated nutmeg
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
About ½ cup brandy, or to taste

1.    Core and chop apples.

2.    Combine all ingredients except brandy; pour into a crock or large glass bowl, cover, and leave on counter overnight.

3.    The next day, preheat oven to 225° F. Stir mixture well, then pour into baking pan, cover with foil, and bake 3 hours, stirring occasionally.

4.    Remove from oven, uncover, stir well and let cool completely.

5.    Add brandy.

6.    Pack into jars or crock. Cover and refrigerate 1-3 months.

Homemade Candied Citrus Peel
Makes about 4 oz.

4 thick-skinned lemons (Meyer lemons’ peel is too thin) or 3 oranges
3 quarts water
2 cups water
1 cup sugar
½ cup sugar

1. Using a vegetable peeler, pare skin from fruit. Reserve the rest of the fruit for another use.

2. In large saucepan, combine 3 quarts water and fruit peel (either lemon or orange; repeat the process for the other fruit). Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium. Cook, uncovered, until about 1 inch of water remains in the pan (about 1 hour).

3. Remove peels from saucepan and discard liquid.

4. In clean saucepan, combine 2 cups water with 1 cup sugar and boil over high heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and add peels. Let stand 1-2 hours at room temperature.

5. Return pan to heat and cook peels until they absorb all syrup (about 45 mins.). Stir frequently to prevent scorching.

6. Remove peels from pan, roll in remaining ½ cup sugar, and let stand on waxed paper or parchment overnight.

7. Place peels in airtight container and store in cool, dry place for up to 2 weeks. Do not refrigerate. (Refrigeration will make the peels gummy.)

To make a pie, fill pie shell with about 2 quarts of the filling, top with crust (either solid or lattice), and bake in 400° F oven until crust begins to brown (about 30 minutes). Reduce heat to 350° F and bake 30-40 minutes longer, until filling is bubbling and crust is golden.

Which pies do you bake for the holidays? Tell me in the comments! One of the commenters will win a copy of Prairie Rose Publications’ new boxed set of Christmas novellas, A Cowboy Under the Mistletoe. Stories by Stacey Coverstone, Livia J. Washburn, Donna Alice Patton, Kaye Spencer, Gail L. Jenner, and Tanya Hanson are guaranteed to make your holidays merry and bright.

A Texan to the bone, Kathleen Rice Adams spends her days chasing news stories and her nights and weekends shooting it out with Wild West desperadoes. Leave the upstanding, law-abiding heroes to other folks. In Kathleen’s stories, even the good guys wear black hats.

Her short story “The Second-Best Ranger in Texas” won the Peacemaker Award for Best Western Short Fiction. Her novel Prodigal Gun won the EPIC Award for Historical Romance and is the only western historical romance ever to final for a Peacemaker in a book-length category.

Visit her hideout on the web at KathleenRiceAdams.com.

LOST SISTER BY DOROTHY M. JOHNSON--A WESTERN SHORT STORY TREASURE by CHERYL PIERSON

I know we’ve talked before about Dorothy M. Johnson, the iconic western short story writer who penned such classics as The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Hanging Tree, and A Man Called Horse; but today, I wanted to tell you about another short story of hers that I read a few days ago. Quite possibly, the best short story--in any genre—that I’ve ever read.

You may never have heard of it. It wasn’t made into a movie, because it too closely mirrored the true life of a real person, Cynthia Ann Parker, mother of Quanah Parker. The story is called Lost Sister.


I’d heard this story mentioned before by a couple of friends, and thought, “I need to read that—I’ve never read much of Mrs. Johnson’s work but the movies have all been good.” I know. I hate it when people say that, too. Anyhow, I bought a collection from Amazon that contained the three stories I mentioned in the first paragraph and Lost Sister as the fourth. Of course, I had to read The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, since that’s tied for my all-time favorite western movie, along with Shane. I was so disappointed. The characters in the short story were not the same as my beloved Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne! Hmmm. Well, even though I was disappointed, I decided to give Lost Sister a shot.

It more than made up for my lukewarm feelings for The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

Lost Sister is the story of a woman who has been kidnapped as a young child by “the hostiles”. She has an older sister, who remembers her well from childhood, and loves her with the devotion that most older sisters have for a younger sister. Through the forty years she has been gone, the oldest sister, Mary, has cherished memories of her younger sibling.

There are three younger sisters, as well, who have no recollection of the Lost Sister, Bessie. The older sister doesn’t live with them, but in a different town a thousand miles away. The three sisters are notified that their sister, Bessie, has been “rescued” and is being brought back to them. The story is told from the eyes of a nine-year-old boy, whose mother lives with the sisters. She is the widow of their brother, who was killed by the Indians. The boy has dreams of growing up and avenging his father’s death, but something changes once his Aunt Bessie comes back to live with them.

Up until Bessie is returned to them, they have gotten much attention from the neighbors, and have been pitied as being the family who had a sister stolen by the savages so many years ago. Once Bessie is returned, their standing in the community takes a subtle twist. The other sisters don’t know how to handle Bessie’s homecoming. They make plans to go into her room and “visit” with her every day. One of them decides to read to Bessie from the Bible for thirty minutes each day. The others come up with similar plans, none of which include trying to understand Bessie’s feelings at being ripped away from her Indian family.

The oldest sister, Mary, comes to visit. What’s different? Mary loves Bessie, and accepts her; and Bessie loves her—they both remember their childhood time together. The language of love overcomes the barriers of the spoken language that neither of them can understand, for Bessie has forgotten English, and Mary doesn’t know Bessie’s Indian dialect. But Bessie has a picture of her son, and Mary admires it, and by the time Mary is to go home, she has made arrangements for Bessie to come live with her—a huge relief to the other pious sisters who had made such sympathetic noises about her being reunited with them in the beginning.

In a fateful twist, Bessie makes her own decision about what she will do, taking her own life back, and helping her son avoid capture. This is one story you will not forget. Once you read it, it will stay with you and you’ll find yourself thinking about it again and again. It doesn’t fit the mold of a romance story, except for the fact that I think of Bessie being in love with her husband, having children with him, and then being “rescued” and forced to live in a society she had no ties with any longer…except one—the love and understanding of her older sister, Mary.

No specific Indian tribe is mentioned in the story, probably for a purpose. I think, one of the main reasons is to show us the cultural differences and how, in this case, the “civilized” world that Bessie had come from and been returned to was not as civilized as the “savages” who had kidnapped her. Also, as I say, Cynthia Ann Parker’s story, at the time this story was published, was not that old. There were still raw feelings and rough relations between whites and Indians. But by leaving the particular tribe out of the story, it provides a broader base for humanity to examine the motives for “rescue” and the outcome for all concerned, of a situation such as this in which it would have been better to have let Bessie (Cynthia Ann) remain “lost.”

I’ve posted the link below for the story as it was printed in Collier’s Weekly on March 30, 1956. It’s also available on Amazon in several collections.
http://www.unz.org/Pub/Colliers-1956mar30-00066

And speaking of short stories...PRAIRIE ROSE PUBLICATIONS has a new call for submissions for our Christmas anthology, A COWBOY UNDER THE MISTLETOE!We hope you'll consider submitting a holiday story!




Theme: A Christmas surprise
Length: 10,000 to 15,000 words
Deadline: September 15, 2016

What do we wish for in the hottest part of the summer? Christmas, of course! Now’s the time to do some daydreaming and writing about those snowy, cold days we long for in the heat of summer. At Prairie Rose Publications, we’re looking for stories about romance in the old west at that most magical time of the year—Christmas—for our upcoming anthology A Cowboy Under the Mistletoe.

Have you ever stood under the mistletoe and gotten an unexpected kiss? Or maybe you hoped for a kiss from a special someone, but it didn’t happen. Life is full of surprises, especially at Christmas. Our western romance anthology A Cowboy Under the Mistletoe will be composed of stories that have an element of surprise in them. Whether your heroine finds herself falling for the wrong man or your cowboy comes home to an unexpected event, it makes for a big change in their lives.

Could an unusual gift turn friendship into love? Or maybe a playful kiss under the mistletoe changes a couple’s lives forever.

At PRP, we’re always on the lookout for experienced authors as well as bright new stars. Got a sweet love story? A sensual one? Or maybe even a spicy tale of intrigue and love? (No erotica, please.) Whatever you decide to write about, as long as it includes Christmas, a surprise, and love in the old west, we’d love to take a look.

If you have questions, please e-mail us at prairierosepublications@yahoo.com.

Submissions should be e-mailed to prairierosepublications@yahoo.com or fabkat_edit@yahoo.com.

For details about our submissions process, visit the submissions page on our website.