Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

cj Sez: From my house to yours . . .

I pray your celebrations are filled to the brim 

with the love of family and friends.

The Lord bless you and keep you;

The Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.

                                                                                                            Numbers 6:24-26

Marilyn Johnston

(aka cj petterson)

Introducing author Khristina Atkinson.

cj Sez: Today, I’m excited to introduce another author from the upcoming MysteryThrillerWeek annual event scheduled to take place on Facebook in February.

Remember to mark your calendars: During the week of February 12-22, 2017, about 200 authors in the mystery/thriller genre and every sub-genre, me included, will participate in blogs, readings, takeovers, and, drum roll here, giveaways. I think you’ll have fun connecting with favorite authors and reaching out to meet new ones, like this one:

Say hello to Mystery Thriller Week author Khristina Atkinson  

Today, Lyrical Pens is featuring Khristina's hopelessly, completely, MADLY in love, book one in her “Lovin’ Lawmen Series,

Khristina says the historical romance (and mystery) is set in her paternal grandfather's home state of Kentucky, and the story starts in 1876 in Bardstown, Kentucky. 

Here’s the gist of hopelessly, completely, MADLY in love . . .

Lexi Donovan leaves home to visit her grandmother when her crush, Cooper Grayson, returns to Bardstown, Kentucky.  He immediately asks her father's permission to court her after she's already accepted an engagement ring from her best friend, Silas Reilly.  Silas hasn't yet found the courage to speak with her father, Heath.  He's a brawny man with a fiery temper, who's extremely protective of his only child.

​

Lexi comes back to town with a new husband, Luke Weston, and is about to deliver the wonderful news he's going to be a father when a shot rings out.  Is one of the men who claim to love her trying to murder her husband?

Find it on Amazon…it’s free right now on Kindle Unlimited. Can’t get a cheaper gift than that…for yourself—what the heck, for several of your BFFs.    

https://www.amazon.com/Hopelessly-Completely-MADLY-Lovin-Lawmen-ebook/dp/B01HT6KJQW/

Okay, you-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

cj    

PS: I’m going to publish a quarterly newsletter with writerly tips, tidbits, and etc. Drop me a note at cjpetterson@gmail and I’ll put your name on the list…early subscribers will receive a gift so also include a home address. AND another gift goodie: More than Friends, a 6-book bundle of novels for hours of R&R, available until Feb 2017. Click on Amazon to go directly there.

cjpetterson@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/CjPettersonAuthor

Choosing Carter -- Amazon Print  / Kindle / B&N print and Nook / KOBO / iTunes/iBooks

Deadly Star -- Amazon Print / Kindle  / B&N print and Nook / KOBO

Amazon Central Author Page:  http://amzn.to/1NIDKC0

Exciting times ahead . . .

cj Sez: The next few weeks of Lyrical Pens will be an exciting time for me. I’m thrilled to feature fellow authors from the upcoming MysteryThrillerWeek annual event scheduled to take place on Facebook in February.

Reminder to mark your calendars: During the week of February 12-22, 2017, about 200 authors from around the world who write in the mystery/thriller genre and every sub-genre, me included, will participate in blogs, readings, takeovers, and giveaways. Ten days to have fun connecting with some of your favorite authors and reaching out to read the work of new authors…like this one:

Say hello to Mystery Thriller Week author Armaan Dhillon 

Today, Lyrical Pens is featuring Armaan’s A Nazi War Criminal in India, a story filled with mystery and international intrigue

Armaan describes his story this way: “The book is about a Nazi war criminal, Alois Brunner, who was Adolf Eichmann’s henchman. How he fled from Syria and made his way to India. The main story starts in India.”

The Amazon blurb says:

 - Just after the end of World War II, Adolf Eichmann’s best man, Alois Brunner, fled to West

Germany, then Egypt and finally lived in Syria with the help of the government in return for the torture techniques the Nazis used during their Reich. 

But did he actually die there? Simon Wiesenthal claims that he died there when the civil war started but the location of his grave was unknown. There is no substantial proof for his death! And chances are that Simon Wiesenthal assumed his death due to the on-going Civil War even though they claim source who told them about his death was genuine. What if Alois Brunner never died and in-fact fled to India with the help of his contacts in the Syrian Government to avoid the Civil War since danger to his life increased.

Alois Brunner comes to India with a new identity and settles down in New Delhi in a locality where he meets a college student (Rohan) and befriends him. Does Rohan finds about his real identity? Rohan’s only trust is his best friend Dhruv! Or maybe one Indian Army officer comes into play to get Rohan out of trouble. What will happen in the end? Who ends up getting manipulated in the whole event?

Look for it on Amazon…it’s free right now on Kindle Unlimited. “Free” makes for a great gift for yourself and for several of your friends.    

https://www.amazon.com/Nazi-War-Criminal-India-ebook/dp/B01MXPTCKY/

Okay, you-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same. And be sure to stop by on Wednesday to read about MTW author Khristina Atkinson's latest novel.

cj 

PS: I’m going to publish a quarterly newsletter with writerly tips, tidbits, and etc. Drop me a note at cjpetterson@gmail.com and I’ll put your name on the list…early subscribers will receive a gift so also include a home address.

AND another gift goodie: The More than Friends 6-book bundle of novels for

hours of R&R is available until Feb 2017 cover

Amazon

cjpetterson@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/CjPettersonAuthor

Choosing Carter -- Amazon Print  / Kindle / B&N print and Nook / KOBO / iTunes/iBooks

Deadly Star -- Amazon Print / Kindle  / B&N print and Nook / KOBO

Amazon Central Author Page:  http://amzn.to/1NIDKC0

Getting to be the season . . .

cj Sez: During any break in the action (shopping, decorating, wrapping, cooking), December is a month of reflection for me. What did I do this year? What did I accomplish? Or not.

Mostly, the month delivers a mixed bag of cherished memories. The following is from a short memoir I wrote for the anthology Christmas is a Season 2008, published by Linda Busby Parker’s Excalibur Press. To be clear, there are four kids in this story: My sisters Phyllis and Sonja, my brother Eric, and me. I was the only cranky one. Here is an excerpt from “The Blue-Eyed Doll.”

Christmas in Detroit was totally different from Christmas in Texas. There were no relatives to join us for Christmas in Detroit—my mother’s family remained behind in Texas, and my father’s remained in Sweden—and because Daddy wasn’t working, there was neither money for a bountiful smorgasbord table nor any money for toys. After many long and hushed-voiced conversations between my parents, Daddy added our names to a list of needy children. Although he couldn’t give us gifts, he was determined to find a perfect Christmas tree. He spent hours walking from tree lot to tree lot. He had two requirements. The tree had to be cheap, and it had to be a sweet-smelling, short-needled balsam, because his family in Sweden never used common long-needle pines as Christmas trees.

Late one night, shortly before a nearby tree lot closed for the season, Daddy paid fifty cents for a tree with a crooked trunk still holding onto a few limbs, but the tree showered needles to the floor with each touch or the least shake. We decorated our tree with multi-color construction-paper chains, red cranberry strings, and four of Daddy’s work socks. Mama and Daddy pronounced it beautiful.

Just before dinner time on a Christmas Eve so cold that the snow crunched underfoot, three smiling men in dark, thick, woolen coats knocked on the front door. One carried a cardboard box filed with government surplus food and the other had two armfuls of gifts wrapped in red and green paper.

Inside one package with my name on it was a beautiful doll with blue eyes and long, black lashes, curly blonde hair and a blue dress. It was the only doll I ever got for Christmas, and I hated it. I hated it because, suddenly, like I believed the strangers did, I saw myself as poor. The doll stayed in its box until Mama gave it to a neighbor girl several years later.

Before that first Christmas in Detroit, I had never thought of myself as needy or poor. Even when I was walking barefoot through our cotton fields in Texas, wearing a dress Mama had stitched by hand out of a flower-printed feed sack, I felt sheltered and loved, lacking nothing. That blue-eyed doll changed my perception of myself and my family and changed how I felt about Christmas for twelve more years.

My nineteenth Christmas was my first-born’s first, and I decided Christmas needed to become magical again. I spent weeks buying food and preparing desserts for my own family smorgasbord—minus the lutefisk which, happily, I couldn’t find that year in Detroit. On Christmas Eve, my mother brought her cardamom rolls, my father fixed his Swedish fruit soup, and my siblings brought friends and appetites. We read the Christmas story, exchanged small gifts, sang carols, lobbed wrapping paper balls, and giggled like kids. I re-discovered the family Christmas of my early childhood. On Christmas morning, Santa surprised my husband by filling one of his socks with an orange, an apple, a chocolate bar, a quarter, and a handful of walnuts.

Over the years, I’ve replaced the cotton work socks with velvety monogrammed Christmas stockings that Santa fills with gift cards and Godiva chocolates, but today, the only things missing from my re-claimed Christmas memories are those wonderful Swedish dishes that only my mother and father could prepare to perfection.

Having a child of my own opened my eyes to my father’s great love. I had to become a parent myself to understand the sacrifice of pride it took for him to publicly acknowledge his family as needy. It was my father’s way of ensuring that his children’s Christmas was more than just another date on the calendar. Now, when I remember my first Christmas in Detroit and the blue-eyed doll, I see those gift-giving strangers for what they really were—my father’s Magi.

If you haven’t already, write down your special memories … they’ll escape you if you don’t.

I’m in the process of starting a quarterly newsletter, more like a flyer filled with info tidbits—name to be determined. This is a huge learning curve for me because I haven’t worked with anything like MailChimp before. I’m praying for patience and an open mind. Do please send me a note at cjpetterson@gmail and I’ll make sure you receive a copy when I get it up and running. Prizes will be awarded to early sign-ups. 

cj Sez: Thanks for stopping by. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same. And the More than Friends bundle of six romance novels is still available for under a buck on       Amazon 

cjpetterson@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/CjPettersonAuthor

Choosing Carter -- Amazon Print  / Kindle / B&N print and Nook / KOBO / iTunes/iBooks

Deadly Star -- Amazon Print / Kindle  / B&N print and Nook / KOBO

Amazon Central Author Page:  http://amzn.to/1NIDKC0

“Reading and writing, like everything else, improve with practice.” Margaret Atwood

cj Sez: There once was a saying that writers should write what they know. Well, you can put that fairy tale to rest.

   Remember Agatha Christie? English-born Christie was a home-schooled child, studied vocals and piano as a teenager, took up nursing in her early twenties, and published her first murder mystery in 1920. How about J. K. Rowling? Rowling, another English-born author and a single mother on welfare, said she got the idea for her fantasy Harry Potter series while riding on a train. The mothers of both women encouraged them to read and applauded their childhood writing efforts. Christie and Rowling are just two examples of successful authors who wrote what they wanted to read. But both women were avid readers before they were successful writers.

   The best advice a writer/author can get is to read, read, read…

“Read, read, read. Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it.”  William Faulkner

   You can start by reading books, magazines, whatever you can find in the genre you’d like to write. Imitate your favorite author at first. When you’re satisfied that you understand the rhythm and pacing of the genre, then you will develop your own writer’s voice and write your own story. 

   Writing what you love to read and writing what you know are not mutually exclusive. It’s the “only” inference of that adage that’s wrong. Writers naturally bring some parts of what they know (about people, places, events) as well as their imaginations to their manuscripts. They bring their writer’s “voices” as well. That’s what makes the story uniquely theirs.

   I think author John Floyd offers great insight into that in his recent SleuthSayers post (http://bit.ly/2g5RnDt). He says his stories are drawn from his life experiences, but he’ll “inject them with steroids” by asking “what if.” 

   “What if” is the question to ask when the action slows down and your character needs to face a new challenge to keep readers turning the page (and John’s short stories do that extremely well).

   I find the following quote thought-provoking and think I want to take up the challenge. How about you?

“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”  Haruki Murakami

  Okay, if you undertook the NaNoWriMo challenge, I hope you succeeded beyond your expectations. (Congratulations) If you missed by a few words, there’s always next year. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

cj

Here’s a freebie for Christmas . . .

Christmas Through a Child's Eyes: True Stories That Capture the Wonder of the Season

Free on Kindle Unlimited.  Cntrl Click on the name above or this URL:   http://amzn.to/2fWVZvk

And I’ll send a free print copy to the first three people who leave me a comment.

The anthology includes one of my childhood memories, called “Dancing with Daddy” and written under my maiden name of Marilyn Olsein.

The joy of Christmas often gets lost in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. For many people, fond memories of a childhood Christmas can bring back that special feeling. This book collects tales written by adults remembering their favorite Christmases of the past. This heartwarming collection evokes the true spirit of the season—the perfect gift to rekindle the true magic and wonder of the season. 

cjpetterson@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/CjPettersonAuthor

Amazon Central Author Page:  http://amzn.to/1NIDKC0

Choosing Carter  -- Kindle  /  Nook  /  Kobo   /  iTunes/iBook

Deadly Star --  Kindle  / Nook  / Kobo

Trouble rewriting? Guest author Kristina Stanley has an app for that

cj Sez:  Today’s guest post is by author Kristina Stanley who asks “Do you need help rewriting your first draft?” She’s got some tips and a new app to help. Take it away, Kristina:   

  

Whether you’re a plotter or a panster, you’ve completed a first draft. Congratulations!

Now what? If you’re anything like me, you’re asking yourself:

                * Where do I start my manuscript rewrite? 

               * How do I keep track of all the writing tips I’ve read and apply them to my story?

        * What should I change to make my story better?

        * Am I ready to share my manuscript with others?

Wouldn’t it be nice to have an app that would help you through the rewriting process?

But First: What is Rewriting?

A comprehensive rewrite is the first step in the self-editing process. I’m not talking about copyediting or proofreading. You can do that after you’ve completed your rewrite.

Rewriting your first draft means analyzing your story from a high-level perspective and fixing any weak areas. You want to make sure that the story structure makes sense, the scenes are tense, there are no plot holes, and you haven’t left any subplots unfinished.

During the rewrite, you also take a hard look at your characters. How often do they appear? What are their goals? What gets in the way of their goals?  Characters will drive the tension in your story, and tension is what keeps a reader reading.

Finally, the rewrite should examine your settings. Do you make the most of your settings? How often do you use the same setting, and is it too often? Do your settings help with the tone of your scenes? Settings are key to keeping your reader engaged, so don't ignore them.

How can we help you?

We’re building Feedback, an app for writers that provides a guided approach to tackling comprehensive rewrites.

With Feedback, you can focus on plot, character, and setting. You can evaluate on a scene-by-scene basis or on overall novel structure. Feedback will show you the most important structural elements to work on first.

Feedback will guide you through the rewriting process by asking you questions specific to your manuscript, enabling you to evaluate your own story.

Once you import your manuscript, Feedback automatically captures information such as word count, number of scenes per chapter, character names, and chapter and scene breaks, using this information to create the first set of reports. Any updates to your manuscript will still need to be completed in the writing app you used to create your first draft.

Feedback helps you visualize your manuscript. Forget about yellow stickies or white boards. Feedback will draw character arcs, provide reports on scene evaluation, and show your rewriting progress.

Feedback is a learning tool. If you’re having trouble with a certain element of fiction, just click on the rewrite tip associated with that element and find out how to improve your writing. There’s no need to search through dozens of writing books to find the piece of advice you need.

On the technical side, Feedback will be a secure, web-based app. This means you will be able to access Feedback from any device you use.

Find out more:

Our goal is to launch Feedback in the spring of 2017. In order to create an app that is valuable to writers, we’d like your input on building Feedback. Sign up, and we’ll send you updates on the development progress and ask you the occasional question to help define the product. As a bonus, we’ll send you rewriting tips available only to our subscribers.

Are you as excited about Feedback as we are? Show your support by helping us spread the word and share this post. You can find us at www.FeedbackForFiction.com  

Your support means a lot to us, so thank you!

Kristina Stanley is the best-selling author of the Stone Mountain Mystery Series. Her first two novels garnered the attention of prestigious crime writing organizations in Canada and England. Crime Writers of Canada nominated DESCENT (Imajin Books, July 2015) for the Unhanged Arthur award. The Crime Writers’ Association nominated BLAZE (Imajin Books, Oct 2015) for the Debut Dagger. Imajin Books published her third novel in the series, AVALANCHE, in June 2016.

Her short stories have been published in the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and The Voices From the Valleys anthology. She is the author of THE AUTHOR’S GUIDE TO SELLING BOOKS TO NON-BOOKSTORES.

As the co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of Feedback Innovations, a company started to help writers rewrite better fiction, she made up her own job title because she thought it sounded cool!

Find out more about her and Feedback at www.FeedbackForFiction.com

cj Sez: Thanks so much for stopping by, Kristina, and best wishes for great response to your new app. Okay, you-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

PS:  Don’t forget about that great gift idea…the Amazon sale on More Than Friends …99 cents for 6 romance novels! Click on this URL to order: http://amzn.to/2dnqnLJ

cjpetterson@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/CjPettersonAuthor

Amazon Central Author Page:  http://amzn.to/1NIDKC0

Choosing Carter  -- Kindle  /  Nook  /  Kobo   /  iTunes/iBook

Deadly Star --  Kindle  / Nook  / Kobo

A bit of show don't tell

cj Sez: Time for a couple of show-don’t-tell examples, and these are wonderfully wrought by a master. Take note of the beautiful switch from passive voice to action that carries the reader along with the story.

Tell: The house had a huge and beautiful front yard.

Show:  “The lawn started at the beach and ran toward the front door for a quarter of a mile, jumping over sun-dials and brick walks and burning gardens—finally when it reached the house drifting up the side in bright vines as through from the momentum of its run.”

(Can’t you just see that yard?)

Tell: The windows were open when I entered the room, the curtains flapping in a strong breeze that rattled the ornate picture frame on the wall.

Show:  “I must have stood for a few moments listening to the whip and snap of the curtains and the groan of a picture on the wall.”  

(You know from the whip and snap of the curtains that there is a sharp breeze coming through open windows.)

                        (Quotations from THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald.)

Do these two simple examples give you any ideas for your story? If you changed something, let me know how you did it, won’t you?

Now a word from our sponsor:  

   

In the six romantic stories that Crimson Romance bundled into a collection called More Than Friends, BFFs discover there's more to friendship than a few pats on the back and lending a shoulder to cry on when things get rough. Following is a blurb from one of the novels:

Sweet Texas Kiss: Gavin Cooper can't wrap his mind around why country music superstar Macy Young would end up inheriting his family home. Seeing his childhood memories handed over to the first woman to break his heart strings. Luckily, Macy can't sell the house for one year - plenty of time for him to find a way to get it back. Can a country star and a country veterinarian find a way to bury their animosity and rediscover their first love in the process?

The Amazon site says the sensuality level for the bundle is sensual. Fair warning on the advertising, my Choosing Carter is not.  

The More Than Friends bundle = six novels = hours of reading for 99 cents!  (And today, the Kindle version is 73 cents! Now there’s a great stocking stuffer for some lucky reader. Be sure to click the URL that follows to find this package, because there’s more than one bundle with that same name.     http://amzn.to/2dnqnLJ  

Stop back by Wednesday when Lyrical Pens hosts author Kristina Stanley who writes about a new app to help with rewrites.

Okay, you-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same. And if you’re closing in on the end of NaNoWriMo, KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.

cj

cjpetterson@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/CjPettersonAuthor

Choosing Carter  -- Kindle  /  Nook  /  Kobo   /  iTunes/iBook

Deadly Star --  Kindle  / Nook  / Kobo

Amazon Central Author Page:  http://amzn.to/1NIDKC0

Why "that" book?

cj Sez: I found the questions below at another blog and thought what a great idea. So, here are some questions for you authors and readers.  

What makes you want to buy a book – the cover or the blurb on the back of the book?

For me, it's both. As a reader the cover has to grab me, then the blurb has to make me want to know more about the story.

When you get into a story, what keeps you reading? Is it the bad boy hero or the tough, strong-willed woman or the cast of characters that help push the story forward?

Heroine or hero, I have to find a plot. I like to find humor and some quick repartee in even the darkest of moments. When my heroine is about to go where she’s shouldn’t go and has never been before, I want the scene to be scary, yet challenging but not convoluted. Does that make sense?.

What makes you like one author more than another?

I’m a wordsmith, but I’m not into graphorrhea*. That is, I love being enchanted by an author’s

voice…how s/he uses a few precise words and syntax to evoke some visualization and/or emotion in me.

                   *    graphorrhea \ı graf-ә- rē-ә \ n : mental disorder marked by the writing of a long succession of meaningless words.   “A novel of such great length and of so little worth could only have been written by someone caught in the grip of graphorrhea.”

If you’re into reading a series, when do you get tired of it…or do you?

I’m not usually a series reader because that requires I read the novels in a specific order.  That’s not to say I haven’t gotten caught up in a series. As long as the author keeps the story line and characters fresh, I haven’t had a problem reading a series. It’s when a series gets formulaic, the story line get stale, and the plot threads take the same direction over and over that I’m no longer interested in reading the next book.

Which brings me to reviews:  Do you take the time to write a review?

Constructive feedback is manna to writers who have spent hours, days, months, or years creating their story. Amazon, Facebook, Goodreads, etc., we watch these sites religiously because we want to know our strengths and our weaknesses . . . no trolls, please.

As an author, I look at the questions I've just explored and realize they are really questions I need to ask readers, because the answers would contain lessons I need to learn.

How about you? How would you answer these questions? So leave a comment, already.

In the meantime, you-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

cj

HOLIDAY GIFT GIVING NOTE:  To make your holiday gifting $$ go further, set aside a buck (less than the cost of a cup of coffee or a glass of tea) and buy “More Than Friends,” a bundle of six novels offered by Crimson Romance on Amazon—my novel Choosing Carter is included. For 99 cents, you can buy hours and hours of reading enjoyment for yourself, a BFF, or a grab-bag party gift. Check it out at…   http://amzn.to/2dnqnLJ

cjpetterson@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/CjPettersonAuthor

Amazon Central Author Page:  http://amzn.to/1NIDKC0

Choosing Carter  -- Kindle  /  Nook  /  Kobo   /  iTunes/iBook

Deadly Star --  Kindle  / Nook  / Kobo

Natural events and supernatural stories

cj Sez:  Lovers and star gazers take note . . . Get ready for one enormous, astronomical show!

Tomorrow, November 14, 2016, you’ll be treated to the biggest supermoon in almost 70 years!

According to scientists, tomorrow’s supermoon will be the biggest so far of the 21st century, and we won't see another one like this until November 25th, 2034.

Supermoon status occurs when the lunar orb will be near or at its closest elliptical-orbit point to the Earth…its perigee. High tides are a little higher, male deer begin to grow velvety antler nubs (“Full Buck Moon” is what the Native Americans called a July supermoon), and, according to some, lunatics run loose on the streets and werewolves howl their loudest.

The word lunacy comes from the Latin “lunaticus,” meaning, in modern language, moonstruck. Everyone knows that when the moon is full, the crazies come out. Right? Not so says science of the myth that spawned werewolves

It was feared that those affected by lycanthropy would grow extra long canines and feast on human flesh when the moon was full. (I’ve read that younger werewolves can transform when the moon is only 80% full; older werewolves need a 100% full.)

The theme of lycanthropy as a disease or curse became an accepted cinematic and literary theme in the 1941 film, The Wolf Man (Lon Chaney starred) which contained the now-famous rhyme:

Even a man who is pure in heart

And says his prayers by night
May become a wolf
When the wolfbane blooms
And the autumn moon is bright.

Wikipedia says the most prominent werewolf in the Harry Potter novels is Remus Lupin, who's portrayed as struggling with his curse and terrified of infecting someone. The series also includes a werewolf villain, Fenrir Greyback, who fits more with the older image of werewolves. The Potter books, while showing the intense threat the humans transformed to bloodthirsty monsters pose to the population, essentially use werewolves as a metaphor for marginalized groups who have been discriminated against in modern society.

The myth of full moons and werewolves became so popular that, in 1985, a team of scientists did a study on the concept that a full moon (full harvest moon or full wolf moon, or full snow moon, or full buck moon, et. al) could affect human behavior as it does the tides. You can rest easy. No evidence of such an effect was forthcoming.

Really? What about Little Red Riding Hood?  And what about this:  

In 2005, scientist Dr. Colm Kelleher and reporter George Knapp published a book detailing a scientific investigation of a ranch in Northeastern Utah where paranormal activity was taking place (Hunt for the Skinwalker). Despite not finding enough hard evidence for “scientific” publication, among the more than 100 incidents they described were large animals with piercing red eyes that they say were not injured when struck by bullets.

Other researchers tie the wolf creatures to ancient Navajo witchcraft practices. Many of the Navajo call these tribal witches Skinwalkers. Sightings of these creatures persist throughout the Navajo Nation, although few are willing to talk about it.

So why do we blame the full moon for strange happenings? Probably because we’re expecting the correlation, and we can point to that full moon for confirmation. All you have to do is take one look at the sky on November 14th, and you'll understand what all the fuss is about.

Okay, now that’s settled, You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same. By the way, you can sleep tight. Werewolves don’t exist…do they?

cj

HOLIDAY GIFT GIVING NOTE:  To make your holiday gifting $$ go further, set aside a buck (less than the cost of a cup of coffee or a glass of tea) and buy “More Than Friends,” a bundle of six novels offered by Crimson Romance on Amazon—my novel Choosing Carter is included. For 99 cents, you can buy hours and hours of reading enjoyment for yourself, a BFF, or a grab-bag party gift. Check it out at…   http://amzn.to/2dnqnLJ

cjpetterson@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/CjPettersonAuthor

Amazon Central Author Page:  http://amzn.to/1NIDKC0

Choosing Carter  -- Kindle  /  Nook  /  Kobo   /  iTunes/iBook

Deadly Star --  Kindle  / Nook  / Kobo