Guess who? Read through our Q & A’s. Make your guess to who you think our secret elf is today. You can put your answer in the RaffleCopter attached below. There may even be a prize in it for you! Good Luck!
1. What are you doing for Christmas this year?
This year will hopefully be the same as every year. I will spend Christmas with my family. Loving winter, I always wish for snow on Christmas! I’m blessed with 3 boys and a wonderful husband and we all love to decorate the house. My husband reminds me of Clark Griswold in the movie “A Christmas Vacation”. He has to have a million lights on the outside of the house. Growing up, I never had a real tree so picking out a fresh pine or a spruce and tying it to the top of the car is one of my favorite traditions. My boys and I love to make new ornaments every year and our tree wears a hodge-podge of special ones, and homemade ones. We try to donate and participate in various charitable programs through the kid’s school. And we start the season off by fighting through the Black Friday crowds. At the horse park in Lexington, Kentucky, they do a big Christmas light show. That and ice skating downtown are two things we always try to do. We may get to travel to see my husband’s family in Eastern Kentucky and we will see my dad and stepmother who live about an hour away sometime close to Christmas. I will bake lots of cookies, make pumpkin rolls, fudge, pies and if we stay home, I will make a gorgeous turkey and everything else from scratch.
2. What would you buy us as a cool present?!
I love to shop! But I’m a bargain hunter and love the unique. I’d go to half-priced books and find you a signed copy of something rare or a vintage book by your favorite author.
3. What would you like to find in your Christmas stocking?
I love personalization. Don’t tell him, but I’d love it if my husband would print my book in hardback, if only for just the one, and put it in my stocking. Other than that, I like to know that my family really knows me and remembers my favorite chocolate orange or that I love silly socks. I got a kindle fire last year after having an original forever so I can’t think of anything else I want.
4. What’s your favorite Christmas memory?
I didn’t have much growing up when it came to material things. I had two much older sisters, a broken home and my family that had moved around from house to house trying to find a physical home. My father was raising us girls with the help of our newly acquired stepmother. He had just opened a restaurant in a small town called Inez, Kentucky, where the war on poverty started back in the 60’s. It was a big endeavor and a huge place with lots of overhead and expensive equipment like milkshake machines, pizza ovens and ice cream coolers- and not enough income. My grandmother ran a smaller diner across the street that had been there a while. My Mamaw was doing pretty well and bought all her young grandkids a Cabbage Patch doll for Christmas. She had lots of grandkids, having 11 living children herself. Now, this was the 1983, I was five years old, and that was the “it” toy! Check it out if you don’t remember. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sOlIvx7Pvs . I had never been a kid to, but rarely, get anything that wasn’t handed down or necessary, let alone a popular item. Everyone knew that my grandmother bought the very hard to get Cabbage Patch dolls with help from my uncle who was managing a K-mart a county over. Otherwise no amount of money could have bought them, they were that hard to find that year! She was hiding them in her guest bedroom closet, I remember seeing them and wondering when I would get mine. She wasn’t waiting for us to gather at her home, she was giving them to the parents to give to their kids. That was just her way. Maybe Santa Clause would bring them to some of my cousins, but I knew there was no such thing. But when it came time to give them out, there wasn’t one for me. Even though she bought one for kids whose parents were much better off than mine. She even got one for my sister who was 5 years older. Instead, she had gotten me a beautiful dark blonde haired doll in a black velvet dress that rocked a baby and played music. It played, “It’s a Small World After All”. I was crushed but I didn’t cry. I never let anyone see me cry after being made fun of for being the three year old little girl crying for her mom when I had first come to live around my father’s family. No matter, my father was livid and went to my Mamaw’s house and took one for me. Now, I am sure he told her about it, he didn’t just take it, but at the time, I thought he stole it for me. I remember it so well because I had been made to feel left out and my dad made sure I was included. The doll smelled like Cabbage Patch dolls smell, she had brown yarn hair in pig tails, a pretty pale blue dress with lace trimming and big fat cheeks. I don’t remember her name, but I never got another Cabbage Patch so she is still in my closet. Now that I am an adult, I remember my Grandmother’s excuse for getting me a different doll. She picked out my doll herself saying I acted so grown-up, that she didn’t think I would be into childish things like the popular toy. Plus, she said the doll looked like me and she knew I loved her music boxes. I would play with her mirrored one with the blue birds that played, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” for hours. My doll was meant to be a special gift. It was a better doll than the hyped up Cabbage Patch dolls that didn’t move or play music. I wish I still had that doll instead of that Cabbage Patch doll that strangely still smells the way it did when I opened the package. I will always remember the special relationship I had with my Grandmother.
5. What’s your favorite festive song or carol?
I love The First Noel and Bring a Torch Jeanette Isabella for something traditional. This is a hard question, I have so many favorites. The first thing I listen to is the whole Muppet Christmas Album with John Denver. I love Joni Mitchell’s River, and Shonen Knife’s Space Christmas… It’s a must for me, here’s the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H_-ia2M2M4
6.. In a Christmas fantasy land – who would be the famous figures, past and present, at your dinner table and why?
Really, I am just happy with my family being around the table. But I would invite Jesus because I’d love to ask him some questions and maybe I’d have proof to clear up some misunderstandings that cause some people to be judged by those who are supposed to not judge.
7. Again, in fantasy land or in reality – who would you like to grab under the mistletoe?
Only my husband, I don’t fantasize about other men for me, (even fictional ones) but I definitely do it for my characters, hehe – Really, I’m happy with what I have. We have been married for 14 years and together for 15, and I wouldn’t change a thing.
8. What would your perfect Christmas look like and would there be snow?!
My perfect Christmas is all my family being relatively healthy and happy. I’d like snow, a fire, some warm mulled wine, a good meal and smiles all around. As long as the weather cooperates, I have that pretty often. World peace and no hunger or evil in the world are too far-fetched for me to want for my perfect day. I’d be waiting a long time, but I hope people will continue to work toward a perfect world.
9. What have been the highlights for you from 2013?
I actually published my work this year! I had been posting my stories for free for a long time, and I loved doing that. But it feels like a career now rather than a hobby. I guess you can say I finally figured out what I want to do when I grow up! I have met a wonderful community of bloggers and authors that have been so supportive. I went to NYC for the first time this year and visited my sister who had moved there. My other sister and I got lost on the subway, and I found our way back by only being friendly and asking people on the train… and it worked. My middle son started band with his older brother, and I am very proud of all my children’s progress in school and life. Although my husband lost a job this year, he found a better one and we were able to keep the house we bought last year.
10. Any New Year’s resolutions?
Continue to write and taking off a few pounds before the New York signing wouldn’t hurt. I want to find balance between the writing world and my life. I am an author for life, I need to slow down and do what I love best, write.
11. What is 2014 going to look like for you?
I have two signings planned so far and plan to add more after I publish my next book. One is in NYC in March and one is in Huntington, WV in November. I plan to release the rest of my Sanguis City series as fast as I can write and edit them. And I have 3 WIPs right now, one is an erotic romance.
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Morgan Jane Mitchell