Tangled Lights and Silent Nights: A Holiday Anthology

In This Volume

The Moment I Knew I Would Love Ethan Forever 

by Brenda Vicars

Contemporary YA

When Polarity spends Christmas Eve with Ethan’s family, she discovers a side to him that she never knew. In a single moment, the unlikely combination of a deadly rattlesnake, a ten-year-old’s tears, and O Holy Night awakens Polarity’s understanding of Ethan, her own heart, and love.

Yuletide Homicide: A Liz Boyle Short Mystery 

by Kate Birdsall

Mystery

In this Christmas mystery, we follow Cleveland Detective Liz Boyle out of the squad room and into her personal life, where we see glimpses of her humanity, that she often conceals.

A Crazy Christmas 

by Kelly Stone Gamble

Women’s Fiction

All Cass Adams wants for Christmas is a new pair of boots, but her husband, Roland, has other plans. From the USA Today Bestselling novel, They Call Me Crazy.

Rowen’s Gift 

by Michael Meyerhofer

Epic Fantasy

A condemned man learns that not everyone is cut out to be a hero. A tie-in to the award-winning fantasy novel, Wytchfire, Book I in the Dragonkin Trilogy.

A Merry Mugging 

by Claude Bouchard

Crime Thriller

From USA Today Bestselling Author of the Vigilante Series. What better time than Christmas for the Vigilante to show some heart?

A Vanderbilt Christmas 

by Nicole Evelina

Historical

Aspiring suffragist Victoria Woodhull has finally secured an entre into New York high society thanks to an invitation to Christmas Eve dinner at Cornelius Vanderbilt’s house, but her low-class family threatens to ruin everything. A tie-in to the award-winning novel Madame Presidentess.

Another Bloody Festival

by Ciara Ballintyne

Epic Fantasy

Desperate to be the world’s leading research wizard, the genius Alloran makes a fateful decision that ends in bloodshed and changes the course of the world’s future. A short story prequel to The Seven Circles of Hell.

Holiday in Hartland

by Gail Cleare

Women’s Fiction

It’s Christmas Eve at the lakeside cottage in Vermont where Bridget Reilly has been living alone. Soon her daughter Lizzie, born twenty-five years ago and adopted by the birth father’s family, will arrive for their first holiday together in this continuation of Cleare’s USA Today bestseller, The Taste of Air.

Some Carry-Tail: A Gabriel & Orson Story

by Victor Catano

Urban Fantasy

Gabriel’s quest to find his witchy girlfriend, Sheila, the perfect Christmas gift gets derailed by a family swindled by a street Santa. It’s up to him and Orson, his magical bulldog, to set things right.

A Twin Oaks Christmas 

by Reece Taylor

Contemporary Romance

Featuring Hannah and Lee from Bless Your Heart. Celebrate the holidays in the town of Twin Oaks at the annual Christmas Festival. It is a fun-filled time with a heart-warming, unexpected family reunion.

The Christmas Jacket

by Diane Byington

Women’s Fiction

Faye desperately wants a high school athletic jacket for Christmas, but her family is too poor. Featuring Faye Smith from the award-winning historical novel Who She Is.

A Muse-ing Christmas: Ms. Parker Teaches Santa—Shakespeare Style

by Kelley Kaye

Mystery

English teacher Leslie Parker is the super-sleuthing sidekick to Emma Lovett, the protagonist for the Chalkboard Outlines Cozy Mystery Series. No one gets killed in this holiday assignment, but it’s up to Leslie to keep Maisie from murdering iambic pentameter.

Building Cairns 

by Darren R. Leo

Contemporary Fiction

Frog, from The Trees Beneath Us, is innkeeper, cook, den mother, and therapist. Hikers come and go through her life with no idea what they do to it.

A Katie Christmas

by Erica Lucke Dean

Contemporary Romance

Featuring Cooper and Katie from To Katie With Love. Before crashing Katie’s birthday party, Cooper was firmly stuck in the client zone. Desperate to change that status, Cooper shows up at the annual client-appreciation holiday brunch determined to win Katie’s heart.

Convergence

by Stacey Roberts

Humor

A Jewish boy with a girl’s name discovers a Christmas miracle. His mother is not happy about it. From the autobiographical Trailer Trash with a Girl’s Name.

Caesar’s Gift 

by LeTeisha Newton

Dark Romance

From International Bestselling Author of Whispers in the Dark, featuring the beloved Caesar St. Clair of Vanquished. Ashlyn gave Caesar everything he ever wanted—love, marriage, a son, and the darkness he craved. Now he’s on a mission to give her the world for the holidays.

A Gift for Momma 

by Debbie S. TenBrink

Mystery

Featuring Lieutenant Jo Riskin from Warped Ambition, a Jo Riskin Mystery. When Jo meets a young runaway on Christmas Eve, she’s determined to reunite him with his family and help them give each other the most important Christmas gift of all.

Literally Christmas 

by C. Streetlights

Contemporary Fantasy

When Natalie takes a job as an elf at Santa’s Enchanted Forest, her cynicism toward the holiday becomes overwhelming. Now, after eating one of Santa’s Christmas cookies, Natalie must accept that perhaps not everything about the holiday is exactly what she thinks it is.

Father Christmas 

by Timothy Woodward

LGBT Fiction

Sean Jackson is determined to come out to his dad over the holidays. Will the spirit of Christmas help his dad accept Sean’s sexuality, or will Sean’s coming out ruin the holiday for his whole family? A continuation of the ALA Rainbow List novel If I Told You So.

And Mercy Mild 

by Justin Bog

Contemporary Fiction

Seeking redemption, a mother of two daughters examines her past, makes a bold change to her present, and hopes for a future not haunted by her memories. And Mercy Mild is linked to the story Hark, from the holiday collection Hark: A Christmas Collection.

LifeAfter

The LifeAfter Project is a pathway to awareness.

Created by world-renowned Rock and Celebrity Photographer, Michael Strider, partnering with Supermodel Julie Anderson and entrepreneur Brian Whitfield. The trio has a goal fueled by a passion, that passion is to shatter the stigma and spread awareness to three taboo topics that underscore society today: Suicide, Substance Abuse, and Domestic Violence.

The term LifeAfter was born from the idea there is life after any problem someone may have, no matter how severe they feel it may be. We believe that no matter the problem, things can and will get better. With your help, together we can ensure that those in need see that light.

Proceeds from the LifeAfter Project will fund organizations that have a positive impact on suicide prevention, drug addiction, and domestic abuse.

Our Mission

The LifeAfter Project aims to reach out and provide assistance for those who struggle with thoughts of suicide, substance abuse, or domestic abuse. All these things are related to mental illness. Our goal is to educate, inspire and spread awareness. We hope that our efforts will help eradicate the stigma associated with this insidious epidemic.

http://lifeafterproject.org/

Tangled Lights

and

Silent Nights

The Moment I Knew I Would Love Ethan Forever

by Brenda Vicars

We were only sixteen, but in one moment I knew I would love Ethan forever. It happened at his grandmother’s farm two days before Christmas. His grandmother had invited us to a cookout—just our family and his. It was at the end of a warm December day. That sounds weird— warm December —but in south Texas warm days and nights in the Christmas season are common. We had finished eating and everyone was sitting on the back porch in lawn chairs drinking iced tea and watching the dying embers in the barbeque pit glow orange wavers among the black charcoal and ashes.

Ethan’s chair was next to mine, and I was hoping now that the meal was over and the sun was setting, we would take a walk alone, steal a few minutes. My family would be leaving town the next morning, and this was the last time I’d be with Ethan for weeks or even months. He had whispered to me earlier that we’d take a walk after dinner. But neither of us had anticipated how his youngest sister, Keisha, would attach herself to me. To her five-year-old mind, I was a delightful new playmate. Braced with her favorite doll and a handful of tiny dresses and accessories, she wedged herself between my and Ethan’s chairs.

She dropped the wardrobe items onto my lap. Her dark brown eyes, so much like Ethan’s, darted from the clothes to my face and implored me to love this game as much as she did. She thrust a pink dress at me. This is Ellen’s favorite outfit. She watched as I looked it over.

Oh! I turned it from side-to-side. Beautiful.

Ethan, from behind Keisha’s back grinned at me. Unlike most guys his age, he didn’t need to roll his eyes or put on a macho show of being disinterested in his sister’s childish play. He honored her interests with the same respect he’d give someone his own age.

Keisha stripped her doll and took the pink dress from me. Now when she puts on her ball gown, we have to take her to the palace to dance.

I helped her slip the doll into the new outfit. That sounds like fun.

As soon as the doll was dressed, Keisha grabbed my hand and tugged. Come on. The palace is this way. She angled her head toward a gazebo about twenty feet from the house.

I laughed. Okay, we’re going on a journey to the palace?

Yes. She glanced over her shoulder at her ten-year-old sister. Theresa, you can come, too. Keisha paused to wait until her shy sister pushed herself up from her chair.

I didn’t think Theresa had said a word during the whole visit, and every time I tried to bring her into a conversation, she shrank into herself.

Ethan stood as if to come with us, but when we stepped to the edge of the porch, Dad said to him, How about if I help you lift the grill and clean it? I think the pit has cooled enough.

Keisha, still clasping my left hand, led me off the porch. I stretched my free hand out to Theresa, but she seemed not to see me. She kept up with us, but she walked several feet to my right.

There were dozens of cedar fence posts, at least seven feet long, lying parallel in rows on the ground in front of the gazebo as if someone were planning to build a fence. Stepping carefully onto a post, Keisha dropped my hand so she could stretch both arms out to mimic balancing on a tight rope. She walked across the posts. This is the moat around the palace. Be careful and don’t fall into the water. There’s alligators and monsters in there.

I started walking across them as well. Each post moved a little as I stepped on it, but the posts were so close together that their rolling motion was blocked by the next posts. After a couple of steps, it was easy to balance and follow along. Whoa. Alligators and monsters? Are you sure it’s safe?

Theresa giggled. I had never heard her do that before, and even in the dimming light, I could see that she had a big smile. She said something softly as she held up her arms to do the same exaggerated, balancing walk that Keisha and I were doing.

I couldn’t pull my eyes off of Theresa as I continued stepping across the posts—it was so cool to see her finally having fun. What did you say, Theresa? I couldn’t quite hear you.

Her eyes met mine.

My stomach lurched.

The post under my foot mushed and rolled. It gave way as if I had stepped on someone’s leg instead of hard wood. A sizzling buzz hissed from my left. It was the tail of a rattlesnake, vibrating. To my right, between Theresa and me, the snake’s fist-sized head lifted. I had stepped on the middle of a long rattlesnake stretched out between two posts. The snake, at least five feet long, gaped its mouth wide open. Its fangs were too close to Theresa. She stumbled backwards onto her back on the ground. Her head raised. She stared at the snake’s darting tongue inches from her feet.

I’m not sure how, but suddenly I was holding a squealing Keisha, high off the ground with my left arm, and I was reaching toward Theresa with my right. She watched frozen, staring at the snake organizing its body into a coil.

Ethan materialized, with his back to me, between the snake and me, holding a long stainless-steel barbeque fork in one hand. I was relieved that he was with us but terrified he would get bitten. He bent over the snake. His broad back and shoulders obscured my view of his hands, but I could see the tines of the fork in front of the snake’s head. Ethan was luring the snake or distracting it with the fork. I sensed, rather than saw, Ethan’s hands moving, slowly and then with shocking fierce force. In a flash the snake’s head whipped out and away from Theresa, the long fork dropped to the ground, and Ethan took several side steps. In the dim light, he held the snake’s struggling tail with both hands, just high enough so that the head was still on the ground.

The snake scrambled to crawl away, but all it could achieve was a desperate, continuous zig-zag motion on the ground with its head. Ethan moved farther away from us, one sure step at a time, never taking his eyes off the snake, never giving the snake more than its small piece of earth to work against. When he reached a sidewalk bordered by a low stone wall, Ethan stopped walking. Slowly, he took one hand off the snake. He waited a few seconds as if to make sure he could manage to keep his hold with one hand. With his free hand he reached down to the wall, grasped a large rock and brought it down with frightening force onto the snake’s head. He struck the head two more times making it a flattened smear on the cement.

Dad stepped up with a shovel and pressed it onto the snake’s body just below the head. You can drop it if you want. I’ll hold it until it stops.

Ethan dropped the snake’s tail, and the body whipped around, seeming as strong as it had been when it was alive. Ethan’s mother took Keisha, now chattering about the snake, from my arms. Mom wrapped her arms around me.

Ethan squeezed my shoulder with one hand. Are you okay? His voice was clear and steady.

Yeah. My voice shook.

He looked over my shoulder toward his mother. Where’s Theresa?

She’s okay, his mother said. I checked her. Thank God, no one was bitten. She stepped forward, still holding Keisha, and reached for Ethan.

He accepted her embrace. Where is she? Theresa?

His mother looked around for her and said, Maybe she went into her room.

Ethan pulled away, I’ll go see her.

Ethan’s grandmother stepped a little closer to Dad, who still had the writhing snake clamped down with the shovel. I’ll put some kindling on the barbeque coals—make a little fire to burn the head so none of the pets get ahold of the fangs or poison glands.

Ethan pushed back out of the house, letting the screen door slam behind him. She’s not in there.

Everyone stilled, even Keisha stopped her retelling of the snake story.

For frantic minutes we darted in all directions, calling Theresa’s name and searching the grounds with flashlights and cell phones.

I collided with Ethan’s mother in front of the house. She glanced at me with a start and punched at her phone. I’m calling 911.

Ethan’s voice came out of the darkness. I’ve got her. She’s okay. He walked past us carrying Theresa like a baby. She was in her climbing tree. We followed him around the side of the house to the back porch. He settled into a chair with Theresa still in his lap. As if there was some silent signal, everyone hushed and gave Ethan and Theresa space. His grandmother turned her attention to her fire building. Mom, Keisha, and Ethan’s mother went into the kitchen and started making dish-rattling, clean-up sounds. The snake’s body was still now, and Dad was digging a hole—I guess to bury it.

I stood, uncertain where I should go, unable to take my eyes off Ethan and Theresa. She lay quiet, eyes closed, still curled against him. Ethan caught my eye and patted the chair next to him. As I approached, he pulled my chair flush against his. I quietly collapsed into it.

Here we were in the same spot we’d been only minutes earlier, but so much had changed. I caressed his arm that lay on the arm-rests of our pushed-together chairs. The same arms that minutes ago had been so strong and courageous were now gentle and comforting. He shifted and put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer. I rested my head against the front of his shoulder, placed one palm on his chest, and felt the steady beat of his heart.

He kissed the top of my head and then leaned his cheek against my hair. Everything is all right now. We’ll sit here until we feel better. His grandmother must have plugged in her Christmas lights because we were suddenly surrounded by red, green and blue lights.

Theresa opened her eyes and gazed straight into mine. I had smiled at Ethan’s words, but her sad expression flattened the budding relief I was feeling.

With one palm still on Ethan’s chest, I rested my other hand on Theresa’s knees. It’s okay, Theresa. The snake is gone. It can’t hurt anyone now. Ethan saved us. He was so fast and brave and smart. Everyone is okay.

I hoped my words would bring a smile, but instead two giant tears flowed from her eyes. She didn’t make a sound, but her chest heaved up and down.

Her tears made my own eyes well. Theresa, what’s wrong? Are you still scared?

She shook her head.

From somewhere in the house, Oh Holy Night started playing.

Ethan squeezed my shoulder. And he began to speak to Theresa in a tone that reached into my heart and made me realize when a man’s deep, strong voice becomes gentle