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Christmas

Guest Post and Giveaway with Natasha Blackthorne, author of Grey’s Lady

By Barb Drozdowich

 Welcome to Sugarbeat’s Books – The Home of the Romance Novel!

Today we are welcoming Natasha Blackthorne to the blog!!  Tomorrow I’m going to post my thoughts about her book – Grey’s Lady.  I hope that you’ll be back to see what you think of this little story!  Natasha is going to share a guest post with us today. She is also giving away a copy of Grey’s Lady to a lucky commenter.   Please welcome her and sit back and enjoy what she has to say!

 

New York City Christmas in Regency Era: Oloffe Van Kortlandt dreams up the modern Santa Claus

 

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro’ the house,

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of sugar plums danc’d in their heads…

 

This poem seems so iconic to those in the United States now but its influence brought a radical change in how Americans viewed Christmas Eve.

 

The question of whether or not to celebrate Christmas was a thorny issue in the early years of the United States, especially for those in the north. Their Puritan heritage led New Englanders to place less emphasis on Christmas. During and after the American Revolution celebrating Christmas took on an additional negative aspect. Making much of Christmas was decidedly English and therefore unpatriotic.

 

However, by 1809 it was a little different in New York. For cultural distinction, New Yorkers started to look more to the Dutch side of their history and to try to bring more of that into their traditions. Saint Nicholas became the icon of that special Dutch flavor that New Yorkers wished to focus on. It was typical in the time for those in the states to establish a patron saint. For example, Philadelphia had Saint Tammany, an old Native American chief of legend.

 

Christmas could be a dark time of riots and violence on the part of the working classes. Some in the upper class sought a way to bring some of the harmonious and generous aspects back to Christmas. If they couldn’t find what they needed in the old histories, they were determined to build on them and enlarge those legendary images.

 

Under the penname, Dietrich Knickerbocker, Washington Irving released his satirical A History of New York on Saint Nicholas’ Day 1809. This book featured twenty-five references to the venerable old saint. Washington’s Saint Nick flew a wagon led by horses but like the modern Santa, he did come down the chimneys to give out gifts.

 

Washington’s character Oloffe Van Kortlandt has a very familiar dream where Saint Nicholas surprises him:

And the sage Oloffe dreamed a dream, — and lo, the good St. Nicholas came riding over the tops of the trees, in that self-same wagon wherein he brings his yearly presents to children, and he descended hard by where the heroes of Communipaw had made their late repast. And he lit his pipe by the fire, and sat himself down and smoked; and as he smoked, the smoke from his pipe ascended into the air and spread like a cloud overhead. And Oloffe bethought him, and he hastened and climbed up to the top of one of the tallest trees, and saw that the smoke spread over a great extent of country; and as he considered it more attentively, he fancied that the great volume of smoke assumed a variety of marvelous forms, where in dim obscurity he saw shadowed out palaces and domes and lofty spires, all of which lasted but a moment, and then faded away, until the whole rolled off, and nothing but the green woods were left. And when St. Nicholas had smoked his pipe, he twisted it in his hatband, and laying his finger beside his nose, gave the astonished Van Kortlandt a very significant look; then, mounting his wagon, he returned over the tree-tops and disappeared.

Washington Irving, A History of New York

Irving’s version of Saint Nicholas made quite an impression and this influence would only continue to grow. In December 1810, New York Philanthropist John Pritchard ordered a woodcut of Saint Nicholas dressed in bishop’s robes to commemorate the first Annual Saint Nicholas Day dinner on the sixth of the month for the member of the New York Historical Society. By December 23, 1823, a poem named “The Night Before Christmas” was published by the Troy, New York Sentinel and has been attributed to Clement Moore or possibly Henry Livingston Jr.

“The Night Before Christmas” expanded Washington Irving’s notions about this historical figure known as Saint Nicholas and set many of our current impressions into stone. The most significant is the change in the expected arrival of Saint Nick from Saint Nicholas Day early in the month to Christmas Eve. Over the years between 1810 to the 1830s, this reflected a gradual change from New Years Day being the central focus of the New York holiday season to Christmas Eve. It also marked a change from the December holiday season being a rather adult focused celebration to a child centered one. At least for the genteel classes. Therefore, modern children spend Christmas Eve eagerly awaiting the arrival of Saint Nick, otherwise known as Santa Claus.

 

The original version of “The Night Before Christmas”

 

 

Sources:

 

Burrows, Edwin G. & Wallace, Mike. Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. p. 462-463

 

 

Nissenbaum, Stephen (1997). The Battle for Christmas: A Social and Cultural History of Christmas that Shows How It Was Transformed from an Unruly Carnival Season into the Quintessential American Family Holiday. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

 

 

 

My American set erotic Regency romance novella, Grey’s Lady is the story of a wealthy merchant prince that falls for a poor but beautiful young seductress. However, for all their social and economic differences, at their most basic level, Beth and Grey are very similar. Both suffered isolation and emotional neglect in childhood.

 

The product of an adulterous affair, Beth grew up in the home of her late mother’s employer. Separated from her half-siblings and kept at an emotional distance, she felt lost and alone. At age eighteen, she’s seduced and betrayed by a trusted wealthy gentleman. After this, she leaves her benefactress’s home and goes to live with her half-siblings, and helps them in their struggling shop. Yet, she still feels out of place.

 

Grey grew up in an upper-class household, a privileged only son, heir to Sexton Shipping, one of the fledgling nation’s largest fleets. Grey’s father is a stern, strict businessman who does not understand his daydreaming, intellectually curious son. A child in this position might take solace in a closer relationship with his mother. However, Grey’s mother is chronically ill and unable to bear his childish energy. She keeps to her chambers and dies while he is still quite young. Later at age nineteen, Grey engages in an emotionally scarring experience with a slightly older woman, something that is not covered in Grey’s Lady.

 

How these back story issues and more challenge Beth and Grey’s coming together are explored in depth in the sequel, White Lace and Promises, which is scheduled for release Dec. 26, 2011.

 

White Lace and Promises is set in Regency Era New York City, during the onset of the War of 1812 when the conflict was just beginning to threaten America’s east coast.

 

Grey’s Lady
Total-e-Bound | All Romance e-Books | Amazon | Fictionwise

 

Book One in the Carte Blanche Series

 

Seeking sexual excitement and conquest, poor but beautiful Beth seduces wealthy merchant prince Grey Sexton, only to find herself the pursued as he seeks to own her body and soul.

Flouting the moral standards of Jeffersonian America, temptress Beth McConnell lets no man touch her heart. Her motto is love them once and leave them burning.

But when she boldly seduces Grey Sexton, a self-controlled merchant prince from New York, she finds herself too fascinated by his ice-over-fire nature to stay away. His possessive determination to own her, body and soul, threatens to expose her secret erotic life to public shame.

But Beth will only surrender her love to a man she can trust. And Grey’s materialistic approach to relationships leaves her little reason to believe he can ever give her what she truly needs.

For these two cynical yet lonely people, can deep sexual intimacy work a miracle and lead to the opening of their hearts?

 

 

 

 

White Lace and Promises

(Available starting Dec 26, 2011 from Total-e-Bound in formats compatible for all current e-readers)

 

Book two in the Carte Blanche Series

Beth and Grey’s passionate battle of wills continues…

New York Merchant Prince Grey Sexton loves the audacious, spirited young temptress who seduced him in a Philadelphia bookseller’s and made passionate love to him in his carriage. Her fiery nature broke through his cold self-protection. But in a time of war and trade disruption, he cannot allow himself to be distracted. He vows to put business above all else in his life, including his bride.

Shocked and hurt by Grey’s distance, Beth wonders whether he truly returns the burning love she feels for him. Beth demands that Grey prove he can truly change once and for all or else she will not start a family with him. But will the dark, sensual secrets she yet keeps repel this arrogant, self-controlled gentleman she has married?

 

Reader advisory: This story contains scenes of anal play/sex.

Find Natasha: Author Site | Blog | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon | Shelfari | Facebook |

 

Giveaway:

I am offering readers an opportunity to win an E-copy of Grey’s Lady. One randomly drawn commenter on this post will be chosen as the winner. You must be 18 or older and have reached the age of majority in your country/state of residence to enter. This contest is void where prohibited by law. Thank you and Good Luck!

I’d like to thank Natasha for dropping by and sharing such an interesting post with us.  I learned so much today and I hope you did as well!  Leave your name and email address in the comments to be entered to win!

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What She Really Wants for Christmas by Debbie Rawlins

By Barb Drozdowich

ISBN: 978-0-373-79372-3
Publisher: Harlequin
Release: December 2007
Source: I purchased this book to read and review

What would you do if you hit the jackpot?  Thanks to a spectacularly bad ex-boyfriend, Liza Skinner is in one heck of a mess.  She’s lost not only her amazing job at Atlanta’s hottest TV talk show, but also her best friends and her share of millions of lottery bucks!  Frankly, a blackmailing ex in the cherry on Liza’s misery sundae!

But then an unexpected date with Dr. Hunky-Hunk, Evan Gann, turns Liza’s life around again, especially when she suspects the good doctor is quite a bit naughtier than she first thought.  So that whipped cream from her sundae might come in handy for those sinfully delicious nights…

Nights that will end for certain if Evan discovers what she’s been hiding!

What She Really Wants for Christmas is a book that has been sitting on my TBR pile for some time now.  It is the final book of a series that I read back in 2007.  While reading the series, I seemed to develop an animosity for Liza, the subject of the last book and because of that, I had been avoiding reading this book.

Liza Skinner had her dream job – creative director for “Just Between Us”- a popular TV talk show created by her and her two best friends, Jane and Eve.  At some point she started dating Rick, someone her friends didn’t like and through a series of events, Rick stole Jane’s diaries and was blackmailing Liza with them.  Liza drops out of sight and shortly after, the group at the TV show won a lottery jackpot and to pay off Rick, Liza sued her friends to get 1/7th of the winnings.

As this book is started, Liza runs into Evan Gann while lurking at the TV station and decides to take him up on his invitation out for a drink  in order to see if she can pump him for information on the lawsuit.  This starts a rocky relationship between Liza and Evan.

Although I’ve read the other books that made up this series and enjoyed them, I went into reading this book with a bit of a bad attitude, yet trying to be open-minded as I wanted to officially finish this series off, and I needed another Christmas themed book for the Christmas challenges.  I found the premise of the book to be somewhat weak.  I couldn’t understand why Liza, at no point, attempted to go to the police to get help with the blackmail situation.  As time progressed, Rick was progressively drunk or stoned and one would think that the opportunity was there for Liza to seek help from someone.  She even tried to keep Evan in the dark.  I didn’t feel that enough logic existed to explain the series of events that had occurred before the book started and this continued through the telling of the story during the book.  Liza’s actions at times made sense, but frequently she did illogical things.  Evan was exceedingly tolerant of Liza’s irrational behavior.  She was inconsiderate of his feelings, and unwilling to rely on his help with the situation she had gotten herself into.

The redeeming quality of the book comes at the end where this multi-book series is brought to a close.  Like all good series, we get a final glimpse into the lives of the characters we have learned about in previous books and we tie all the loose ends.  Although there is positive and negative in every book, and I remind myself that others may enjoy what I don’t, this book is probably my least favorite read of 2010.

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Santa is Coming on Friday #4

By Barb Drozdowich

We have managed to make it to Thursday!  Yea!! Just Thursday and Friday and then Santa comes.  The excitement is reaching a fevered pitch!  We had the opportunity today to start taking cookies and cards around to friends and neighbors.  I like this tradition of Christmas – it’s something that we’ve done to one extent or another for many years.

The short one has had lots of questions about traditional Christmas food.  What do we normally eat at Christmas and why.

We found this picture in the collection of  a Christmas dinner table from years past.  The question that came up almost immediately was “What’s the orange thing, mommy?  I said that’s a jellied salad.

I can’t remember the last time I was served a jellied salad and don’t have a mould.  We had to go visit Grandma to get a recipe and some advice.  There’s a jellied salad in my fridge, but the short one announced that it was disgusting and she wasn’t going to eat it. HHmmmm.  Where do you stand on the jellied salad??

This lead to other traditional “English” Christmas foods.  My mother-in-law makes Christmas cake religiously.  She feels my husband likes it.

Why would you want to eat something that happily sits on the counter for months at a time??  Look at all that artificial dye!!  Yuck!  My mother made Christmas cake every year also until my dad died.  I guess he was the only one eating the stuff….are you a fan of Christmas cake??  The short one decided Christmas cake was disgusting!

The subject of Christmas Cake brings us to Christmas pudding.

I like that this one is on fire….again, my mom made Christmas pudding religiously every year.  It would clear the table – we called it barf in a bowl.  One of the few things my siblings and I can agree on.  Do you like it?  Does it have a role in your Christmas dinner?

Let’s talk about what we serve with a turkey Christmas dinner.  I traditionally serve turkey, stuffing, and gravy and then a selection of veggies and then some Christmas cookies for dessert.  Our family is rather varied in dietary requirements.  We have one vegan, one vegetarian, and two that can’t have wheat or dairy.  As a result, I make two types of stuffing – one in the bird and one in the crock pot. Mashed potatoes are made with  goat’s milk.   I have a selection of about 6 different veggies and several family member will show up with their own additions.  One year, my vegan niece bought a Quinoa pilaf that tasted just like stuffing!

I have to get going on the things that are scheduled for today!  Stay tuned for Norad Tracks Santa – currently our favorite website.

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