Why I'm Still Working

An author who hit the New York Times Bestsellers List made a promise that if she ever made the NYT List she would post her earnings on the book. She's kept her word. I wanted to share with you the realities of a published author. You've probably heard the mantra of "starving artists", but for some reason people tend to think that authors make millions or hundreds of thousands on their novels--especially if it becomes a bestseller. The reality is--not so. Many of us are the "starving writers" who pull a full-time job and write deep into the evenings and late at night because of this creative desire that we were born to do.

Granted, there are some out there whose books have grossed millions, like Stephen King, Nora Roberts, Nicholas Sparks, JK Rowling, Rick Warren, Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim LaHaye, whose income from their novels have gone on to include royalties from movie rights. But keep in mind they are "the few" and the rest of us (writers in general, not any specific writer of any genre) look to their success as inspiration and hope of what "is possible" to achieve in publishing.

The reality for the rest of us published authors is best summed up in the linked posts below. Although I don't personally read the genre that Lynn Viehl writes, as a fellow author, I very much appreciate her candid report.

The Reality of a Times Bestseller by Author Lynn Viehl (April 2009)

More on the Reality of a Times Bestseller by Author Lynn Viehl (November 2009)

A Traditional Christmas in Regency England

The Christmas Feast
Christmas dinner was typically around 4 PM. As the evening progressed a Christmas toast was given to the season and gifts were given out, usually this is when servants also received their gifts and children would sing Christmas carols for entertainment.


Since water was unsafe to drink, they usually had wine with their meal. (I haven't found a source that indicated what the children drank.) Roast Beef and Venison were the main course. Other meats included goose, pheasant, swan and peacock. The goose was most popular until the mid-century when turkey became a preference. By the Victorian period, turkey was the standard Christmas meat. Often, bakers cooked the meat for those households that contained small ovens. Many would pick up their food on the way home from church. Like today, stuffing for the bird, vegetables such as potatoes, beans, squash, and carrots, enhanced the meal.

For dessert there was Mince pie and Christmas pie. Recipes varied by region, but typical ingredients included beef, sugar, raisins, lemons, spices, orange peel, goose, tongue, fowls, eggs, apples and brandy. The pies were eaten each day for 12 days before Christmas to ensure good luck for the next 12 months of the new year. Talk about a chance to gain weight over the holidays!

Another dessert was Christmas pudding, a mixture of 13 ingredients (representing Christ and the twelve apostles) which was boiled in a pudding cloth. Ingredients included suet, brown sugar, raisins, currants, citron, lemon and orange peels, spices, crumbs, flour, eggs, milk and brandy.

Other desserts included Gingerbread and butter shortbread. Children enjoyed sugar plums and ginger nuts.

Christmas Carols

Caroling dates back to the middle ages. Songs such as: Here We Come a Wassailing, The Twelve Days of Christmas, The First Noel, Good Christian Men Rejoice and Greensleeves are all traditional carols from the Middle Ages. Caroling in the form of tramping from door to door had died out with the end of the feudal system in England and didn't revive again until the Victorian period. In Jane Austen’s era, family and friends typically spread good cheer in the comfort of their homes among gathered friends and family at balls, dinners, small parties, and churches.

O Come All Ye Faithful was first published in 1760, but not translated into English until 1841.

Joy to the World was first published by Isaac Watts' 1719 hymnal, The Psalms of David, but the modern version wasn't written until 1836.

Hark the Harold Angels Sing was first written in 1739 by Charles Wesley, amended in 1753 by George Whitfield, but the modern version of today wasn't written until 1840 by Mendohlsson.

Silent Night was written in 1816 by Joseph Mohr, but wasn't translated into English until 1863.

Christmas Trees & Decorations

Typically, Christmas trees didn't exist as they do now and did in the Victorian period. If a family did have a tree, it was a table top tree and quite plain. Decorations were live greenery with berries, including mistletoe. They burned the yule log as a tradition. It was HUGE and picked out and dried out from the year before. It wasn't brought in until Christmas Eve and hoped to burn through the night and all through Christmas day. They didn't exchange Christmas cards or multiple, elaborate gifts. If they did exchange gifts, it was usually one special hand-made item.

References:

Literary Liasons - http://www.literary-liaisons.com/index.html

The Jane Austen Centre - http://www.janeausten.co.uk/magazine/page.ihtml?pid=335&step=4

Regency Yuletide - http://regencyyuletide.blogspot.com

CFBA Book Tour - "The Christmas Glass"

The
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
The Christmas Glass
GuidepostsBooks
by
Marci Alborghetti


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:



Marci Alborghetti has been writing only slightly longer than she's been reading. In seventh grade she received her first writing prize for a zany Halloween story. The prize? A five dollar gift certificate to a local bookstore. She was hooked. The Christmas Glass is her fourteenth book, and she is currently at work on a sequel as well as a non-fiction book about service. Some of her other books include: Prayer Power: How to Pray When You Think You Can’t, A Season in the South and Twelve Strong Women of God.

She and her husband, Charlie Duffy, live in New London, Connecticut and the San Francisco Bay area. While in New London she facilitates the Saint James Literary Club.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

In the tradition of The Christmas Shoes and A Christmas on Jane Street, the heartwarming story of The Christmas Glass shows how, today as always, the Christmas miracle works its wonders in the human heart.

In the early days of World War II in Italy, Anna, a young widow who runs a small orphanage, carefully wraps her most cherished possessions -- a dozen hand-blown, German-made, Christmas ornaments, handed down by her mother -- and sends them to a cousin she hasn't seen in years.

Anna is distressed to part with her only tangible reminder of her mother, but she worries that the ornaments will be lost or destroyed in the war, especially now that her orphanage has begun to secretly shelter Jewish children. Anna's young cousin Filomena is married with two-year-old twins when she receives the box of precious Christmas glass.

After the war, Filomena emigrates to America, where the precious ornaments are passed down through the generations. After more than forty years, twelve people come to possess a piece of Christmas glass, some intimately connected by family bonds, some connected only through the history of the ornaments.

As Christmas Day approaches, readers join each character in a journey of laughter and tears, fractures and healings, as Filomena, now an eighty-four-year-old great-grandmother, brings them all to what will be either a wondrous reunion or a disaster that may shatter them all like the precious glass they cherish.

If you would like to read the first chapter of The Christmas Glass, go HERE.

Send Your Questions & Suggestions

With the new year approaching, I'd like to know if you, my blog readers, have questions about writing and publishing that I haven't covered. For my readers who aren't writers, are you enjoying the book reviews and author interviews? What about the historical topics and facts I've covered? Have these been interesting? Would you like to see more devotionals? I'd like you all to tell me what you'd like to see from my blog.

One thing I'd like to do for the rest of December is post reviews and book announcements for new Christmas stories that have been published. I have an interview coming up with fellow Abingdon Author, Myra Johnson. She'll be discussing her new book, One Imperfect Christmas. After I finish reading Missy Tippens' A Forever Christmas, I'll write a book review, and plan to cover a couple of other books.

Also, I plan to give everyone a chance to share some Christmas recipes, family traditions, and a special event or gift that touched you. I believe that sharing moments like these help keep the true meaning of Christmas alive in our hearts. They're fresh, gentle reminders of what God can do through the season and throughout the year. I hope you'll participate.

Start sending your questions and suggestions!

Christmas at Billy Graham Museum

For those of you who live within driving distance of Charlotte, NC or are interested in the ministry and history of the Billy Graham ministry, I'd like to tell you about Christmas at the Billy Graham Museum. The outside of the museum is built in the shape of a barn and looks like a renovated farm, obviously to represent the Graham farm.



It's a free and wonderful experience for the whole family everyday after 5 PM except on Saturdays. They offer free horseback carriage rides on the estate. The lines can get pretty long and it is on a first come, first serve basis. Last year it was cold and we let my father-in-law sit inside where it is warm because of his health. When we were getting close to being next, my husband went to get him. I only mention this as an alternative for the elderly or disabled. We brought those self-heating coffees and those kept us quite warm and so I would recommend it, although you can buy coffee or hot cocoa inside, as well as eat dinner.



They also give every family a free Christmas keepsake ornament. You can visit the Billy Graham farm house where Billy grew up to age nine. His father built the home in the 1920's and they have it decorated with furniture and appliances as it was back then. Please be aware that only the first floor is available for touring, but I still thought it was worth the visit. The photo to the left is the outside image of the house, which has been relocated to this spot. The original site was on Park Road, a few miles south of this location.



There is also a bookstore and a museum you can tour, as well as a live nativity scene outside, including a live camel and donkey. It's lit up and looks beautiful in contrast to the darkness. The photo to the right was taken by my phone camera. If you look closely you can see the camel sitting down on the grass in front of the nativity scene. You can also walk a short brick trail to the garden and where a monument is located.

Links to:
The Billy Graham Museum
The Billy Graham Library