On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

ME!!!


Since all my guest authors have been answering my holiday profile questions, I'll answer them now too!


What, if any, winter holiday do you celebrate?
I celebrate Christmas. I am pretty religious and advent is my favorite season. I love the anticipation and the idea of joyful and active preparation. I love the songs and the lights and the decorations and hanging out with my family!


What is my favorite family holiday tradition/recipe/story/etc?
I don't think that I have a favorite tradition. I guess the most enduring thing is that I end up visiting my mom at some time during the Christmas season and whenever it is that we get together ends up being Christmas for us. I am also a bit of a wrapping fiend. 


What is my favorite holiday story?
I absolutely love Amy Lane's If I Must as well as Jane Seville's A Very D Christmas (Jack and D are definitely in my top ten m/m couples).


What is my favorite thing that I have written?
I am particularly attached to Broken. Although, my favorite bit is the flashback to Danny and Charlie. I am currently working on their story and it is probably what I like the best so far. It is really hard to write though because I know how it will end so I generally end up in tears after a writing session.


For today's giveaway, I am doing a drawing for a custom written ficbit. You can either create two characters for a Friday First Kiss OR you can pick two characters I have written about previously and pick a situation to put them in and I will write it. Just remember that I will be posting it here on my blog and I try to keep that SFW. =)


If you have signed up for the whole event, you are already signed up for this drawing. If you haven't then you can comment below for an entry. Entries close 12/24 at 6 pm EST.


Also, this is your LAST CHANCE to answer trivia questions! You can find today's answer by exploring this blog. I am reopening all previous trivia questions so if you missed one you can email me at kchayes54@gmail.com with answers from any of the trivia questions I have already posted as well as the one below for one entry per answer in the mystery book drawing. DO NOT post your answers in the comments.


Trivia Question: How many Friday First Kisses have I written and, if you have read them, which one is your favorite?


And now I am going to share a bit of my Charlie and Danny story. It is technically a prequel to Broken but you will get it better if you have read Broken already. BEWARE, this story is not going to be an HEA or even an HFN. The Charlie and Danny flashback in Broken is of Danny's death. I just can't stop these two talking in my head so here you go:


Charlie and Danny Excerpt:

I knocked on the door and opened it slowly when I heard a muffled “come in” from the other side. I let Junior enter in front of me. You can always tell the animal lovers right away. No matter how sick they are, their eyes light up like Christmas as soon as they catch sight of Junior. 

The woman grinning at Junior from the hospital bed must have been eighty years old if a day. Her skin was sagging in deep wrinkles around her face and there was something very off about her coloring. In the instant before she saw Junior, a look of resigned determination crossed her face, like nothing good could come through that door but she would deal with whatever did come through with dignity.

But as soon as she caught sight of Junior, that look vanished as quickly as a cat in a thunderstorm. She glowed with joy. That’s what I love about doing this. I am so shy that I could never strike up a conversation with a random stranger. Much less a conversation that would supposedly make them feel better about being in the hospital. But with Junior in tow, I barely have to talk. Of course I introduced myself and explained about Pets for Patients but then I just got to sit there while Junior brought a little joy into her dreary day.

After about ten minutes, I excused us and looked down at my list of patients. There was one more patient on the Oncology floor that had been approved for a visit. Daniel MacGregor, Room 24. I had never been to visit him before, and a lot of the oncology patients were frequent flyers as the nurses liked to put it. Just from the name I imagined some stooped old Scotsman with yellow teeth from smoking his pipe and a whiskey roughened voice. Don’t know why. But there you go.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. When I opened the door it was to find a teenage kid in the bed, wrestling with some sort of tubes or wiring that had gotten tangled. From what I could tell he had average length dark blond hair. I couldn’t really see much else of him. Until he wriggled further around still trying to right whatever was wrong with all the stuff attached to him. Then his hospital gown slipped open and I could see all of the back of him.

“Umm… Can I help you with something over there?” I said hesitantly, trying not to look at his naked butt, but not really having anywhere else to look. He flipped back over so he could face me and I was struck first by the supremely annoyed look on his face and second by the intensity of his hazel eyes. I realized he was probably a little older than I thought he was to begin with, maybe 18 or 19 years old.

“Yeah, my remote control box cord got tangled with my oxygen tubing and now I can’t manage either.” He said this as if this was a tragedy that could possibly bring about the end of the world. It was all I could do not to laugh. I walked over to the other side of his bed and saw the remote control had fallen off the bed between the rails and had somehow been wrapped around tubing that went to his nasal cannula. I bent over and untangled the mess, putting the box back on the bed in his reach and letting him readjust the nose pieces of the oxygen comfortably.

“Apocalypse averted,” I said cheerfully. He just sort of stared at me a bit. Crap. I shouldn’t have said that out loud. We stood there staring awkwardly at each for what was in reality probably a couple of seconds but seemed like an eternity.

Finally, he broke the silence and dully asked, “So, who are you and what part of me do you want to poke?”

Be on the look out...hopefully I will have this done before spring and sub it out! I'll keep you posted.

Also, don't forget to become a follower!!! Six more followers before Christmas and I will be able to make that $10 giftcard giveaway become a reality. =)