Yep. Including my own. That’s right. Today is release day for an anthology called Bewitching Desires. Twelve interwoven tales about the witches of the Savannah Coven, including my own story, called All’s Fair: Love & Warlocks. I’ve jumped on the bandwagon. A quick Amazon search of “Halloween” in the book department gives me 19,302 options. A hell of a mega-bandwagon.
So why do we all do it? Why do authors write holiday-themed books? I mean, come on, aren’t they only really popular for a finite period of time each year? I mean, who wants to read a Halloween book in May?
Okay, I’ll give you that the popularity of our book – along with the 19,301 other Halloween-themed books available at the time I’m writing this blog (which is at the eleventh hour, so that’s a reasonably accurate number) – will probably significantly wane in November (when the Christmas/winter themed books start coming out – did I mention I’m in one of those anthologies, too?), and likely won’t pick up again until next fall, when the weather cools, the leaves turn colors, and we are in the mood for fresh cider and steaming, hot cinnamon donuts.
Me, I’m one of those readers who likes to read in my season. Beach-y reads in the summer. Halloween reads in October. Give me a sappy Christmas story anytime between Thanksgiving and December twenty-fifth. Hell, I’ll even stretch that one ’til New Year’s. But then I want to move on to those stories based in the winter, but not necessarily around the holiday. I remember the first time I released a book off-season (Candy Crush was released in January, but takes place in the fall). I was actually appalled with myself. In the book, there are leaves on the ground! The weather is just starting to cool! It’s football season, for God’s sake! But I was on the front end of a newly-published-author frenzy and I couldn’t help but push that “publish” button. It was time.
Okay, I was ready to sell some damn books. I’ll admit it.
Which is at least partially why authors continue to release holiday themed stories. Because readers like them. We love our holidays, whether they involve real life or the kind we can lose ourself in on our Kindle (or curled up on the couch with a paperback). We love to embrace the holiday cheer, whether by enacting traditions started by our parents, or through the pages of an excellent holiday story. Whatever or however it is, we love our holidays, and we like them to permeate every aspect of our lives – including the space on our Kindle or bookshelves.
Authors are happy to cater to this holiday obsession. Yes, it’s about selling a few books. Let’s face it, we all fantasize about making a living at this gig, and to do that, you need to – you know – sell books. But it’s also the inner reader in us. And the holiday fanatic. Because here’s a secret (not really): we’re just like you. We love to read. We love holidays. We love decorating. Trick or treating. Opening presents. Pretending, for that one moment in each year, that magic really does exist. Because it does. In our hearts, and in our books.
So yeah, I wrote a holiday book. A short story that’s part of an anthology. There are twelve all together in this book, and one of the coolest aspects is that they are all intertwined. They all revolve around this coven meeting on Halloween day. Characters show up in multiple stories. Plots are interwoven. It’s pretty cool. You should read it. During October.
Of course.
Oh, before you cozy up and get lost in the world of Bewitching Desires, be sure to enter the Rafflecopter contest. The prize is a gift basket full of witchy goodness!
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So, this book. The authors have a few social media sites you can check out. If you want.
Pinterest, where we drool over our inspiration: Bewitching Desires Pinterest Page.
The authors in this anthology call ourselves the Writing Wenches. And we hang out on Facebook and Twitter on occasion:
And yeah, our anthology is available pretty much wherever you want to buy e-boooks – and paperbacks.
Oh, and if you want to know more about the authors who wrote these cool, witchy stories, several of them hang out in my Facebook group, Come Wine With Tami. Don’t forget to pour a glass first!
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