Welcome to the Twelve Days of Angels

Dear Friend,

Welcome to the Twelve Days of  Angels – an opportunity to celebrate the spirit of generosity as we approach the holiday season.

Most authors hate having to do the old soft-shoe sell of their books to readers – frankly it’s our least favorite part of being a writer. So when faced with promoting (aka hawking) our Christmas books, we dreaded making bookmarks, running contests and constantly tweeting, Facebooking and pinning our bookcovers all over creation. So, we decided we wouldn’t. Instead we decided to celebrate the release of our Christmas books doing something, well, a little different.

In Liz’s book The Spirit of Christmas, her heroine is a do-gooder. Mary Paige feeds strays, works at shelters and buys coffee for curmudgeonly old grumps. She doesn’t do it because she expects a reward – she does it because that’s who she is. So rather than make bookmarks or pander for readers, Liz decided to celebrate the do-gooders of the world by creating a place where friends could share their stories of the “angels” in their lives…and a place where these angels could be rewarded.

In Hope’s Book, Last Chance Christmas, she has a heroine, Lark Chaikin, who has never celebrated Christmas.  Lark is lost, war-wounded, and completely without family.  She doesn’t even know it, but she needs a place to call home.  She finds it among strangers who open their hearts and their doors for her.  And of course she has a little help from a Sorrowful angel.  To Hope, there are angels everywhere, not just among the church ladies who show up at your doorstep with casseroles whenever life throws you a loop, but everywhere.  If you drop your cynicism you can see them – the angels with kindness in their hearts who do small unsung things that make the world a better place.

Realizing we couldn’t do all this without a little help from our friends, we asked some other authors, many of whom have Christmas books out this season, to join in and share the special people in their lives who make the world a better place. Visit each day to read about how some of the top authors in the industry are blessed by the presence of special people, and, yeah, many will do giveaways, so there is something more in visiting each day than just gaining a happy glow.

And not only will we celebrate the angels in the lives of these authors, but we want you to share your stories of “angels” in your life by nominating someone who embodies the spirit of the holidays. At the conclusion of the twelve days, we will choose one angel to receive a $100.00 VISA gift card as a token of our thanks for being, well, themselves. There will be special gifts given every day for our commenters, and don’t forget to check out Liz’s Angels and Hope’s Angels on the tabs above to read about some special people we’ve encountered who’ve made our lives a little brighter with their selflessness.

Thanks for joining us in this celebration, not of our books (though we celebrate them, too), but of people who make life sweeter for those around them.

Cheers!

Hope Ramsay and Liz Talley