Monday, December 8, 2008

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!




In all my years as an author--and I just finished #36, so I've been doing this for a while--I've never written a Christmas story before. But I finally got that opportunity with this month's release, Kansas City Christmas. It's the fourth and final book in my bestselling Precinct: Brotherhood of the Badge miniseries for Harlequin Intrigue. I've always wanted to do a story set in Kansas City at Christmas time because it's such a beautiful city at that time of year--let me tell you, the folks down on the Plaza have known for decades about how to decorate up a fancy party for the holidays.

I'm sharing some pictures from the Plaza area, just south of downtown Kansas City. The J.C. Nichols Plaza was one of the very first shopping "mall" districts in the U.S., if not the first. It is designed with striking Mediterranean style architecture, and bears a resemblance to Paris, France with its many public fountains, bridges, walkways, sculptures and works of art. You'll find many nationallly and internationally famous stores there, as well as some classy boutiques and specialty shops. Plus, it's a mecca for entertainment, playing home to theaters and a wide variety of restaurants from top notch elegance to eat with your fingers casual dining--including, imho, the best barbecue place on the planet!

While it's truly a beautiful city any time of the year, come the holidays, Kansas City does it up right. With well over a million lights, the Plaza is lit up every year on Thanksgiving evening, giving the place an ethereal holidy glow. Every rooftop and and building is lit up with a string of lights (that stay up year round--whew! maintenance is time-consuming enough--can you imagine that project of taking down and putting up that many lights every year?). The lights then are on every night throughout the holidays. Stores stay open late and, of course, you can enjoy the nightlife of entertainment, or take carriage rides (they even have a Cinderella pumpkin carriage for the most romantic of you). You can enjoy it simply by bundling up and walking the wide sidewalks and checking out the amazing store window displays, then step inside for a hot toddy or cup of cocoa. Yum.

So, like I said, Kansas City Christmas is my first Christmas themed novel of romantic suspense. And, because the Plaza and the lights are so much a part of what I associate with the season, I made a point of having my characters, Det. Edward Rochester Kincaid and M.E. Dr. Holly Masterson, stop down on the Plaza. Edward has a real thing against Christmas because of traumatic events in his life--he's a dark and tortured hero if you like the type. Holly, on the other hand, sees Christmas as a way to celebrate life and honor her family (she's endured some trauma, too). This isn't just a story about finally catching the bad guys and healing a wounded family, it's about discovering the power of love and the strength it sometimes takes to love again.

In my family, besides the Plaza, Christmas decorations are a big deal. My mother has a Santa Claus room, decorated for Christmas year round with just about every type of Santa and Christmas ornament--including some rare antiques and handmade ones from kids and grandkids. My hubby has a Star Trek tree. As long as we've been married, his November birthday has been easy to buy for--he wants whatever Star Trek ornament Hallmark is releasing that year. Now we've gotten so many space ships and Tribbles and captains, that we had to get him a tree of his own. Growing up, too, I was allergic to pines and other Christmas trees, so my dad built a Scandinavian cross-bar tree with hooks for all the ornaments. My mom and brothers and I decorated it with paint and ribbon, and over the years it has truly become a work of art. It stays up in the Santa Claus room year-round, too. It'd be sort of like taking down all those Plaza lights if we tried to change it.

So what do holiday decorations mean to you? Autumn colors at Thanksgiving? Lights at Hanukkah? Colorful presents under the tree? A special collection of ornaments? A neighborhood competition to see who can use the most wattage and electricity? A special town or neighborhood?

I hope you enjoy Kansas City Christmas and the rest of my Brotherhood of the Badge books from Harlequin. And I hope you have a safe and wonderful holiday season, decorated just the way you like it!

Julie Miller
www.juliemiller.org

20 comments:

  1. I stopped decorating for Christmas after my parents passed away because I live alone and usually spend Christmas with my older brother. But I love to drive around the town and look at decorations put up by people on the outside of their houses. There are some really extravagant ones.

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  2. Thanks for tracking us down, Ellen! Welcome.

    When I first moved to Nebraska with my husband, that was one of the things that impressed me. My goodness, folks go all out with their Christmas lights and lawn decor here. I've even been to farmsteads where they put lights on their pivots and windmills and outbuildings. Seems to be something about the wide open spaces of Nebraska that makes people want to really light up the place. I imagine our city is bright enough for planes to see us at night--maybe even spaceships in outer space! ;-) But we love to pile in the car and drive around and see who has outdone whom with their decorations. Some are over the top for me, but many are absolutely gorgeous!

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  3. One interesting thing that we do here is have an illuminate boat parade. I live on a bay which is part of the intercoastal canal and lots of people have boats and at Christmas time they decorate them and have a parade along the bayfront.

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  4. Sounds cool, Ellen!

    Julie Miller
    www.juliemiller.org

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  5. Julie,

    Growing up on the border of Kansas/Missouri, I have been to the Plaza at all times of the year. Christmas is definitely one of my favorite times to go there, but if you have been there you know there are thousands of people there.

    There are other times I love to go there. We have a arts and crafts show in the fall, which is great. There's also a book fair in May, which is only a couple of years old, so it's still growing.

    Will look forward to reading this story.

    Sandy

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  6. Congrats on your first Christmas themed romantic suspense. All my holidays are old. I haven't bought new ornaments for a couple of years now. I love my old ornaments because I get nostalgic every time I dig them and put them on the tree. I don't really have any Thanksgiving decorations, but I do try to decorate for Halloween. Mostly I love buying and eating Halloween candy.

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  7. I like seeing houses covered in Christmas lights. However it cracks me up when I see a house with a Nativity scene on one side of the yard and a huge blow up Santa on the other side. My mom loves Christmas and we usually spend it with her. She decorates and trims the tree. I don't know why but I've never liked trimming a tree. Depresses me.
    I LOVE the changing leaves. The colors appeal to me greatly. Reds, oranges, yellows...I'm a Leo and those are Leo colors.
    Colorful presents under the tree just makes me want to open tham faster. lol!
    In the past my sister would send my mom and I a special ornament. They were cute. One year she got me a rat. Another year an ear of corn. These all had special meanings for us.
    Happy Holidays, Julie!

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  8. I adore Christmas romances! Christmas was never about anything for me more than family. We have two reunions--one for my mom's side in Florida, another for my dad's side in northern Alabama. Then my husband, sister, and I all sleep Christmas Eve at my parents and spend Christmas morning there exchanging gifts. We don't to get to see each other a lot because we've all spread out over the years, but we've never failed to gather around the piano in my grandmother's den to lie back and listen to her play carols.

    Christmas is so touching for me, too, because my husband never celebrated Christmas when he was young and it was so wonderful to see my family embrace him and show him what it really was all about. I love to watch him open presents every year, just to see the stunned look on his face, like he's realizing all over again the joyous, giving miracle that is family and home. Now he helps my dad put up Christmas lights. He's inherited the very important job of hunting up the perfect tree at the local farm and cutting it down. He loves every moment of it, and I can't wait to have kids just to see how special he makes this new tradition for them, too :)

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  9. Every year after Christmas Eve dinner we pack up the kids (now grandkid) and just drive around town to see all the lights and decorated yards. It is a very pleasant hour or two of nice, holiday spirit.

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  10. Julie --

    I, too, was allergic and had this sad little artificial tree when I was a kid. I fought it, wanted that real tree, but my parents wouldn't hear of it. The moment I had my own apartment, I had nothing but real trees -- one so big it bent along the nine foot ceiling. No more, though. I don't have enough energy to haul everything up from the basement two flights down, so now I content myself with lights strung along the windows, plants and candles.

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  11. I decorate with fall colored leaves and pumpkins for Thanksgiving and colored lights in the Maple trees in our yard for Christmas.

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  12. I enjoy the smell of a real tree and luckily no one is allergic in our house. I do enjoy having the Christmas decorations out, everything looks so festive. It's so much more fun putting out the decorations than it is putting them away.

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  13. Julie, I loved reading more about the Plaza. I also just finished reading your Christmas story. I loved it and the series! Was sorry to see it end.
    I have lots of Santas and sometimes leave them out until Easter. One of my favorite Santas is the Kneeling Santa. It just somehow serves as a reminder as to why the season is celebrated.

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  14. Loved your blog.

    I love Christmas SO much. My parents barely decorated for Christmas. We had a little artificial tree because of allergies and, every year I held my breath, worried Mom and Dad wouldn't put up the tree in time. I think it went up late Christmas Eve a couple of times. Then I got smart (in sixth grade, I think) and took over and did it myself! NOBODY complained!

    Of course, as a grown up, I've gone wild. I'm such a Christmas pack rat and USED to shop the after Christmas sales. :)

    I usually open the first storage box of Christmas STUFF early in November and start decorating around Thanksgiving. By the time I've opened the last box, I have no idea where else to put decorations--and it's almost Christmas. I even decorate the kitchen and guest bathroom. Once upon a time, I decorated trees all over the house, but it took until the end of January to put it all away.

    One year I thought it would be fun to keep up one tree and decorate it for every season. I even had a plan. Valentine's Day was kinda fun, but by March, I had no urge whatsoever to hang shamrocks on the tree... and back into storage the tree went.

    I have to admit--Kansas City at Christmas sounds wonderful and festive (SNOW???) Christmas lights on dead lawns in Houston in December don't have the same affect! (I grew up in Illinois.)

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  15. I love a good holiday book.

    I don't decorate a lot a Christmas. I used to when my son was young but not anymore. I do still put up a tree and I love wrapping the gifts for the tree. I also enjoy driving around and looking at everyones decorations. The last time I decorated the house, my hubby left the lights up until July and I said I would never put them up again and I haven't.

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  16. I agree, decorating is always more fun than putting them away. I always feel a little melancholy.

    And yes, we get plenty of snow in Kansas City!

    Julie Miller
    www.juliemiller.org

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  17. I've not read any of these Christmas stories, but will have to look into them

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  18. Congratulations to Ellen!!
    You're the prize winner today. Send me an email (you can get it at my website if it doesn't connect through here) and we'll talk about the prize book you've won!

    Thank you to everybody who stopped by to share your decoration memories (and nightmares? ;). Stay tuned for an exciting new post from another Intrigue author today.

    I'll be back to chat after Christmas. Now I'm off to write. Happy Holidays!

    Julie Miller
    www.juliemiller.org

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  19. Julie, I sent you an email hope it gets to you.

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  20. I guess if you don't like the dog's Jingle Bells, that the one the cows did wouldn't make your list.

    They are funny at least once a year.

    LOL

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