After Christmas celebrations. #Elvis #parades #tradition #giveaway


The Holidays are hectic trying to shop for everyone one else, so myself and several other authors decided to get together and help make your Holiday brighter! To celebrate this festive season, I am bringing you several fabulous authors that are going to share how they celebrate and maybe a treat and decoration. We are also having a huge giveaway. One Lucky winner will get a Kindle Fire 7 and some gift cards to help fill it. Then each author is offering an ebook as individual gifts! So not only one winner but lots! Read to the end to see how!

So grab a cuppa your favorite beverage and settle in your favorite spot with a warm throw and enjoy!

Cat: Today our guest is Helen Henderson. Hello Helen. Are you ready for Christmas?

Helen: By the time this post goes live Christmas is over, so I had better be ready. The family gathering is over, the presents opened, the feasting ended, and we will have joined the hundreds of people lining the route of the holiday parade so popular down in the land of Elvis.

That said, the holiday season is not quite over yet. The pantry is stocked for a night of grazing to welcome in the new year. And the annual viewing of the Tournament of Roses parade is still a couple of days away. Although this year there is not quite the same excitement as last year when we watched for our town band and the special float the American Legion entered to celebrate their 100 years of service.

I have always said that the holidays are for the young. A thought reinforced with each generation. Although this year one branch of the family tree lost its matriarch, another was blessed to have four generations gathered. Thankfully for the wear and tear on the ears, not necessarily all together at the same time for every event. It does make for interesting decorating of the sugar cookies that we made as children and the tradition of which we have now passed along.

Another recipe we’re passing onto the next generation, one from the Old World, and traditionally made at Christmas and New Year’s holidays is lokse. You can still get them in Kindlemarts in Eastern Europe. However in our house, instead of cooking the thin, tortilla-like potato pancakes on the top of a coal-fired stove like our grandmother did, we used a heavy cast-iron frying pan on a gas stove. And we used a fork to spin the lokse in the pan so that it doesn’t stick rather than just using our fingers like grandma did.

You can find the recipe at https://helenhenderson-author.blogspot.com/2017/12/a-heritage-lokse-mfrwauthor.html.

Since I write fantasy my books my books have no Christmas tie-in as such. The closest activity characters celebrate is Turn’s End. They have special food, music and dancing, and the exchange of presents. One of my favorite Turn’s End celebrations is from Imprisoned in Stone when the sprites joined the festivities. The sprites gathered together into the shape of a horse, then real and sprite-created horses cavorted around the meadow to an ancient tune that floated through the night.

However, since the post appears close to New Year’s Eve, I chose to showcase Windmaster Legend. Not because of a year-end celebration it recounts, but because of the lantern festival. As the lanterns rise to the sky, they bear messages of hope and dreams for the upcoming year and reflection of thanks for the one past.

Title: Windmaster Legend

Series: The Windmaster Novels

Author: Helen Henderson

Publisher: BWL Publishing

Genre: Romance Fantasy

Heat Rating: PG

Pages: 200

Cover Artist: Michelle Lee

Fate conspired to keep Iol and Pelra apart. He loves the sea and wants his own ship. She hates the deep blue and has worked too hard to allow her dreams to be sidetracked by the lure of magic. Despite a beautiful woman on his arm every night, Leod wanted the one he couldn’t have—Pelra. His kin on the ruling council provided him the power to fulfill his desires, or to ruin those who refused him.

Exiled to distant posts, given impossible challenges, and subject to Leod’s machinations, Iol and Pelra only have the hope of a future together to sustain them. But can their love survive the accusation of witchcraft?

How about a little more?

To distract herself from the emotions rising at Iol’s closeness, Pelra read the handwritten notes on the sky lanterns closest to her. Some were thanks for a profitable year, while others were prayers for the one to come. Many were poignant remembrances of loved ones who had passed beyond the veil. The dream listed on one lantern clutched at her heart.

Air and sky together forever,
May our two lives be as joined.
With nothing between but a gentle zephyr.
Air and sky, bless our journey.


Even more than the words, the signatures, one small and neat, the other large and scrawling, had Pelra adding her own prayer that the wishes being sent skyward be granted.

Meet Helen Henderson.

Although the author of several local histories, and numerous articles on the topics of American and military history, antiques and collectibles, Henderson’s first love is fiction. Her work in the museum and history fields enables a special insight into creating fantasy worlds. The descendent of a coal-miner’s daughter and an aviation flight engineer, her writing reflects the contrasts of her heritage as well as that of her Gemini sign. Her stories cross genres from historical westerns to science fiction and fantasy. In the world of fantasy romance, she is the author of the Dragshi Chronicles and The Windmaster Novels. In her books, she invites you to join her on travels through the stars, or among fantasy worlds of the imagination.

You can stalk-oops-follow Helen online at

Blog:  https://helenhenderson-author.blogspot.com

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/history2write

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/777491.Helen_Henderson

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/HelenHenderson.author

Amazon:  http://amzn.com/e/B001HPM2XK

She loves to hear from her readers. Email her at helenhenderson dot author @ gmail dot com. Just be sure to put a book title in the subject line so she knows it’s not spam.

The Windmaster Novels

Windmaster

Windmaster Legacy

Windmaster Legend

The Dragshi Chronicles

Dragon Destiny

Hatchlings Curse

Hatchling’s Mate

Hatchling’s Vengeance

First Change: Legends From The Eyrie

Imprisoned in Stone

Hearth and Sand: Stories From The Front Lines and the Homefront

To help you have a happy Holiday season we are having a huge giveaway. Check out the prizes below.

Helen Henderson is giving a copy of Windmaster Legend to one lucky winner.

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