‘Once Upon a Christmastime with the Oprah Show’ and how it inspired CHRISTMAS ONCE AGAIN… by Jina Bacarr
December 11, 2019 by Jina Bacarr in category Jina’s Book Chat, Writing tagged as books, Christmas, holiday, piano, tradition, treeOnce upon a Christmastime, I had a fun experience with the Oprah Show that has remained a fond memory… even if it took a different path than the show planned…
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‘Ring… ring… ’
I was halfway out the door when the telephone rang. I slammed to a halt, clutching my car keys, my purse slung over my shoulder. Who could be calling me this early in the morning?
It was 8 a.m.
I was running late for a meeting and the last thing I needed was another telemarketer trying to sell me carpet cleaning for Christmas.
Then it hit me. I remembered the Christmas tradition story I wrote about my mom and her old piano and sent to the Oprah Show.
I swallowed hard. It was 10 a.m. in Chicago. Oprah Time.
I grabbed the phone and mumbled a breathless, ‘Hello… ’
‘Hi, this is the Oprah Show calling.’
‘Did you say Oprah?’ I gulped, my heart pounding like a million elves working overtime.
“Do you have time to talk?” the producer asked, hopeful.
I cleared my throat. ‘Yeah, sure… no problem.’
Wait till I tell my boss why I’m late today.
‘Awesome. We received your story about your Christmas tradition… ’
I tossed my purse and car keys onto a chair, my pulse racing out of control. ‘Yes?’
‘We’d like to use it for a segment on our holiday show.’
‘You do?’ I said, my voice squeaking like a little kid seeing Santa Claus.
The producer chuckled. ‘Yes… now here’s what we need from you.’
Knees wobbly, I fumbled in my purse for a pencil while the producer give me instructions on what happened next. Tears misted in my eyes. I couldn’t believe it. My Christmas tradition was going to be on Oprah.
I let out a deep sigh. If only my mom could see this, praying somehow she did know.
My mother loved to play the piano, especially at Christmastime. She knew every holiday carol by heart and every year, she’d sit down at our old studio upright piano and take us on a musical trip to Bethlehem or a journey with the Three Wise Men or rock ‘n roll with Jingle Bell Rock.
We lived in the Pennsylvania woods when I was a kid and one Christmas we were snowed in and couldn’t get into town to buy a tree. So my mom decorated our old piano with shiny, silver tinsel and red and blue and green balls with a gold star on top.
After all, a piano is made out of wood, and that wood was once a tree.
So why not a Christmas Piano Tree?
My mother passed away a few days before Christmas many years ago. I didn’t have the heart to trim a tree that year. Then I remembered her Christmas piano tree. I decorated that same old, wonderful studio upright with Christmas ornaments that year and I do so every Christmas since then as a tribute to my mom.
It was an exciting time after the Oprah Show producer called. They asked for photos of my Christmas piano tree, then we taped the segment for my holiday tradition with me reading what I wrote about my mom. The sound crew added holiday music and I got all ready to watch the show when it aired…
But the show ran overtime, so my segment didn’t make the national broadcast. I was devastated, but the Oprah producer promised she’d do something for me.
She did. The next year the Oprah Show ran my old home Christmas movies and used them as part of their promo for their holiday show.
So here’s my pretty young mom at Christmastime hanging up Christmas stockings.
Awesome…
When I wanted to write a Christmas time travel story, I thought about how much I missed my mom every year and those wonderful holidays when I was a kid in Pennsylvania. If only I could go back in time and see her again and tell her how much I loved her…
I dedicated CHRISTMAS ONCE AGAIN to my mom. It’s the story of the Arden Family during World War 2 on the home front with Kate, the older daughter, as the heroine sending the man she loves off to war in 1943… she never sees him again.
Then years later she has the chance to go back in time and warn him about a secret mission gone wrong in France. Will he believe her?
All she wants for Christmas is to save the man she loves…
Christmas Once Again is available at e-tailers everywhere, print, and audio book, too!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Jina
PS – some of my favorite scenes in Christmas Once Again are when Kate reconnects with Ma…and their wonderful moments together.
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CHRISTMAS ONCE AGAIN is on sale for 99 cents for a limited time!
US Amazon https://amzn.to/2pcz2eN
UK Amazon https://amzn.to/31rF4pZ
Audio US https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YL6KG3W
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2 0 Read moreEncouragement to Take a Leap – by Kitty Bucholtz
December 9, 2019 by Kitty Bucholtz in category It's Worth It by Kitty Bucholtz, Writing tagged as Goal Setting, It's Worth It, Kitty Bucholtz, new beginnings
I’ve been attending the Malmö International Rotary Club for the last few months, and in November I gave an “ego speech.” It sounds a little too self-centered to be comfortable 🙂 but it’s basically a “getting to know you” speech.
I wanted to share the real Kitty, but I still didn’t want it to center on me. Then I realized I could do with the speech what I try to do with my podcast episodes, and even in my fiction: encourage the audience in their own lives. Interestingly, I found myself veering slightly from my notes in the end and telling the club that I was thinking about starting a new project to better use my gifts…but it would be scary and I hadn’t had the courage to take the leap yet.
Here’s the speech. If you’re thinking about starting something new, or even if you’re just planning your work for next year, I hope it encourages you. Let me know what you think.
Rebecca Forster Featured Author
December 7, 2019 by Rebecca Forster in category Featured Author of the Month tagged as December Feature Author, Josie Bates, Lost Witness, new release, Rebecca Forster., The Witness Series
She marketed a world-class spa when it was still called a gym, did business in China before there were western toilettes at the Great Wall and mucked around with the sheep to find out exactly how her client’s fine wool clothing was manufactured. Then Rebecca wrote her first book and found her passion. Now, over twenty-five books later, she is a USA Today and Amazon bestselling author and writes full-time, penning thrillers that explore the emotional impact of the justice system. She earned her B.A. at Loyola, Chicago and her MBA at Loyola, Los Angeles. Rebecca has taught the Business of Creativity at University of California Long Beach Writers Certificate Program, UCLA and UC Irvine extension. Married to a Los Angeles Superior Court judge, she is the mother of two grown sons and spends her free time traveling, sewing, and playing tennis.
December 1st sees the release of Rebecca’s newest novel Lost Witness the eighth in the Josie Bates Witness.
It’s two in the morning and an aging cargo ship lies off the Port of Los Angeles. Deep in the bowels of the vessel, an important man is dead and the woman who killed him is mortally wounded. On shore another man staggers out of the sea determined to save the woman before she dies or the ship sails. Exhausted and terrified, he goes to the only person he trusts to help, Josie Bates. He brings with him a history she can’t ignore, a problem that seems insurmountable, and a plea she can’t refuse. But Josie is up against international law, maritime justice, a Port Authority that doesn’t want anything to get in the way of profit, the U.S. Coast Guard who dances to the tune of politics and a captain who swears the people in question were never on his ship. With the clock ticking, Josie becomes ever more desperate to prove the woman is real and get her safely ashore. What Josie doesn’t know is that the sands of time that are running out may be her own.
More Books by Rebecca Forster
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A New Month . . . and Missing the Old
December 6, 2019 by Linda O. Johnston in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston tagged as December, Harlequin Romantic Suspense, Linda O Johnston, new release, romantic suspense
November is over. That’s notable in many ways, including that we’re now in the final month of this year.
And for me, one of the notable matters is that I’m no longer Author of the Month on A Slice of Orange!
I was so delighted to have had that honor last month. The blog website mentioned it with wonderful graphics showing quite a few of my books. I saw it posted several times on Facebook, and I posted it myself, as well.
It was a good month for it to happen. I had a new book released then: Colton 911: Caught in the Crossfire, a Harlequin Romantic Suspense book. As I mentioned here last month, it was my first book in the HRS long-lived series about the Colton family, which is large and has family members living in branches all over the country. A Colton is a hero or heroine in each of the books in that series, so it contains lot of highly romantic members.
And now? Well, my next Colton book will be a February 2020 release: Colton First Responder.
Anyway, thank you so much to A Slice of Orange, and to Marianne Donley, for the delightful recognition. I loved being Author of the Month!
Some of Linda’s Romantic Suspense Novels
1950s Holiday Movies: Stories to Remember by Janet Elizabeth Lynn and Will Zeilinger
December 3, 2019 by Janet Elizabeth Lynn and Will Zeilinger in category Partners in Crime by Janet Elizabeth Lynn & Will Zeilinger tagged as 1950s, holiday movies, Vintage 1950s
Christmastime is when the movie industry shows off their talents through art, storytelling and most of all, by making memories.
Though this movie was made in 1947, I just had to include it in the 1950s line up. One of my personal favorites during the holidays. The movie is a comedy-drama written and directed by George Seaton and based on a story by Valentine Davies. The story takes place starting Thanksgiving Day to just after Christmas Day in New York City. It centers around a department store Santa who claims to be the real Santa Clause. He is taken to court and a court trail begins to determine his sanity. It stars Maureen O’Hara, John Payne, Natalie Wood and Edmund Gwenn.
It is interesting that Maureen O’Hara originally did not want to do the movie since she had just moved to Ireland. But after she read the script she changed her mind and moved back to the US for the film.
This 1951 film of Charles Dickens’ classic novel is a British adaptation. It stars Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge, and was produced and directed by Brian Desmond Hurst. A London miser who, despite his wealth, refuses to make charitable contributions or provide holiday food to his sole employee, Bob Cratchit, an indentured servant played by Mervyn Jones. On Christmas Eve, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of past, present and future.
By the way, Sim and Michael Hordern (who plays adult Jacob Marley and his ghosts) reprised their roles two decades later with their voices to Richard Williams’ 1971 animated version of A Christmas Carol. Clive Donner, who edited the 1951 version, later directed the 1984 version.
A 1952 British drama film, centers around an English clergyman who neglects of his grown children, in his desire to support his parishioners. This becomes apparent during a family Christmas gathering. It was released in the U.S in 1954 . Starring Ralph Richardson, Celia Johnson and Margaret Leighton.
The tale was originally a British stage play then adapted for film.
An American musical film, released in 1954, was directed by Michael Curtiz. A successful song-and-dance team (played by Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye) become romantically involved with a sister act (portrayed by Rosemarie Clooney and Vera-Ellen) with whom they team up to save the failing Vermont inn of their former Army commanding general.
Originally Fred Astaire was cast opposite Bing Crosby. However, Astaire declined the project. Donald O’Connor was then signed to replace Astaire. However just before shooting begin, O’Connor had to drop out due to illness and was replaced by Danny Kaye.
For family fun during the week of Christmas why not gather the family together and have an old fashion holiday movie night and watch these movies together, as a family, like they did in the 1950s?
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