I know I have been absent way too much lately…but you know how life can be.  It is now Christmas here in Jacksonville, FL.  For the first time in way too many years, I have my daughter with me this holiday season.  Her father remarried (again) and her new step-mom does not like our daughter.  Since it was the step mothers goal in life to make Claire’s life miserable…and she succeeded, I have now been blessed with my beautiful 17 year old.  She is suppose to be a sophomore in high school.  As many of you know, I travel for a living and since she will be with me until she decides she does not want to be here anymore, I have gotten her out of a traditional school and am now “home schooling” her via correspondence courses.  If she needed all 4 years worth of credits then it would cost me about $1450 but it is suppose to be less once they get her transcripts.  I am working with her so that she can study and get the stuff done sooner rather than later…hopefully that is.

Because I had to give up my job to bring my daughter to my mothers, there is not much of a Christmas this year.  I have 1 present for her, and that is only because I bought it months ago and had it put up.  She knows this and says it is ok.  I am doing more for her now than her father has done for her in the 2 years she was living with him this time.  And I know it is a lot more than my sister did for her in the 5 years she lived there.

In many ways I am glad that there is not a lot of money to spend on stuff that we really do not need.  It means that we are doing more together as a family than we normally would.  None of us has spent more than a small bit of money.  In a time when so many people go into big debt to give their children a “Christmas to remember” they tend to forget that the real reason we celebrate was cause God allowed his only child to come to earth to live as an example for us and to die so that we can spend eternity in a better place.

It does not matter what you believe.  If you are Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Wiccan or any other faith.  Have faith that things could always be worse than they are at the moment.  For those of us that still have them, we have families that we can spend time with.  We here in the U.S. at least have our freedom thanks to the wonderful Men and Women of Our Armed Forces that are not home with their families this time of year.  Live your life so that you are not ashamed of yourself when you look back on your life.  Remember that the things we do comes back onto us.  Forgive people that have wronged you in any way.  Love everyone and be the kind of friend to others that you want others to be to you.  Above all, enjoy the time you have with friends and family because none of us are promised anything other than this moment.

Merry Christmas and a Happy Prosperous New Year

It’s the holiday season, and one of the things that I like to do is make up goofy songs to the tunes of well-known Christmas carols. It’s silly, but it’s fun and helps me stay in the spirit of the season. Like the start of this little gem…

On the first day of Christmas my kitty gave to me…
a knocked over Christmas tree.

On the second day of Christmas my kitty gave to me…
two hairballs and a knocked over Christmas tree.

On the third day of Christmas my kitty gave to me…
three french sneezes, two hairballs, and a knocked over Christmas tree. (My cat sneezes a lot, okay?)

On the fourth day of Christmas my kitty gave to me…
four catnip mice, three french sneezes, two hairballs, and a knocked over Christmas tree.

On the fifth day of Christmas my kitty gave to me…
five sparkly poops!
Four catnip mice, three french sneezes, two hairballs, and a knocked over Christmas tree.

Alas, I didn’t get to finish my masterpiece of holiday music because I laughed at my own silliness so hard I lost my train of thought.

So, what verses would you put in your silly holiday songs? Or maybe help me finish mine!

Winter Festival at Pink Petal Books

And don’t forget about our Winter Festival at Pink Petal Books. It runs through the 23rd of December, so there are still lots of goodies to be given away.

I was talking to a reader the other day and the subject of pen names came up. Now anyone who knows me knows I have three pen names. I write three different kinds of stories and they are so different they cannot all be under one name. In explaining this my reader was aghast that Aeryn Traxx is not my real name and how can she trust anything I write.
Uhm…..yeah.
Well, to be honest the name Aeryn Traxx LOOKS fake so I’m not too sure why the fact it turns out to BE fake is important. As for trusting what I write, again I am a bit bemused why a pen name matters. The work is good and worth reading or it isn’t. Shouldn’t matter what name is on the cover other than that is why you bought it because you had read other works by Aeryn Traxx and liked them. But that loops back around to why I have three pen names. When you pick up a book with Aeryn’s name on it you will get a m/m romance that has hawt over the top sex scenes, love and a happily-ever-after. There will be other factors depending on the piece but these are the three things Aeryn builds into every story . It is a guarantee- sorta like McDonalds. No matter what McDonalds you go to you know a double cheeseburger is going to be good. Same with a story written by Aeryn. You know when you pick up a book with Aeryn Traxx on the cover it is going to be hawt, have characters with love on their minds and a happily-ever-after. To anyone who has had their world shattered to learn writers don’t always use their real names I apologize. I suppose I could have done like they do in radio and used a truly obvious fake name like Oliver Clotheshoff…then again maybe not.

TTFN
Aeryn