In an unprecedented, one-of-a-kind anthology, six contemporary authors contribute a wide variety of holiday-themed stories featuring the series characters that have populated—or will populate—their bestselling novels.
Betsey Kulakowski launches her series character, travel-adventure-show host Lauren Grayson (The Veritas Codex) on a hunt for the Christmas demon—Krampus. Robert A. Brown and John Wooley’s correspondents from The Cleansing series (Seventh Sense) tackle a 1930’s rewrite of “The Gift of the Magi.” Kenneth Andrus sends Nick Parkos, his military thriller agent on a case involving international intrigue and a very special gift. Tamara Grantham introduces the characters and world from her forthcoming Warrior Kingdom series (Of Dragons and Druids). And William Bernhardt sends his crusading attorney Kenzi Rivera (Splitsville) to solve the mystery of a missing family heirloom—with lives hanging in the balance.
So pull up a comfy chair by the Christmas tree, put on your holiday music, grab a glass of eggnog, and get the Christmas spirit with this unique collection of wonderful stories.
William Bernhardt is the author of over sixty books, including the bestselling Daniel Pike and Ben Kincaid legal thrillers, the historical novels Challengers of the Dust and Nemesis, three books of poetry, and the ten Red Sneaker books on fiction writing.
In addition, Bernhardt founded the Red Sneaker Writers Center to mentor aspiring writers. The Center hosts an annual writers conference (WriterCon), small-group seminars, a monthly newsletter, and a bi-weekly podcast. More than three dozen of Bernhardt’s students have subsequently published with major houses. He is also the owner of Balkan Press, which publishes poetry and fiction as well as the literary journal Conclave.
Bernhardt has received the Southern Writers Guild’s Gold Medal Award, the Royden B. Davis Distinguished Author Award (University of Pennsylvania) and the H. Louise Cobb Distinguished Author Award (Oklahoma State), which is given "in recognition of an outstanding body of work that has profoundly influenced the way in which we understand ourselves and American society at large." He has been nominated for the Oklahoma Book Award eighteen times in three different categories, and has won the award twice. Library Journal called him “the master of the courtroom drama.” The Vancouver Sun called him “the American equivalent of P.G. Wodehouse and John Mortimer.”
In addition to his novels and poetry, he has written plays, a musical (book and score), humor, children stories, biography, and puzzles. He has edited two anthologies (Legal Briefs and Natural Suspect) as fundraisers for The Nature Conservancy and the Children’s Legal Defense Fund. OSU named him “Oklahoma’s Renaissance Man.”
In his spare time, he has enjoyed surfing, digging for dinosaurs, trekking through the Himalayas, paragliding, scuba diving, caving, zip-lining over the canopy of the Costa Rican rain forest, and jumping out of an airplane at 10,000 feet. In 2013, he became a Jeopardy! champion winning over $20,000.
When Bernhardt delivered the keynote address at the San Francisco Writers Conference, chairman Michael Larsen noted that in addition to penning novels, Bernhardt can “write a sonnet, play a sonata, plant a garden, try a lawsuit, teach a class, cook a gourmet meal, beat you at Scrabble, and work the New York Times crossword in under five minutes.”
The anthology contains stand-alone stories by series writers Robert A. Brown & John Wooley, Betsey Kulakowski, William Bernhardt, Tamara Grantham, and more. What a deliciously ookie tale Brown & Wooley spin in their story via letters, sucking me into the 1930s with magical transformations and growing love, but a deep malevolence in that town, in a spin on an O. Henry classic (“The Gift of the Magi”). That was probably my favorite of the anthology. For tension, “don’t do that!” vibes, and more, Kulakowski tells a Krampus tale that left me wanting more in the best way. Then there’s Attorney Kenzi Rivera, helping out her assistant’s parents, who are on the brink of outright divorce if a missing heirloom stays missing. Can Rivera find it? And, can she keep the secret of her eggnog from her family! Other authors’ tales round it out. Something to love for everyone. Best, each of these give a tease of series by these authors.
This a collection of very different tales all centered around Christmas time. There is a favorite story for everyone. It good to have a good mix of all genres.