So the RWA Golden Heart Finalists Class of 2012 (“The Firebirds”) have a blog that I’m part of called The Firebirds Blog. It’s cute, and although we all struggle to keep it up regularly (because everyone is writing books!), we tap in when we can.
A few years ago, we used to do “Fiction Fridays,” where we’d participate in “Round Robin” storytelling: one of us would write a short segment of a story; we’d ask readers to vote on what happened next; and then the next Firebird would pick up the story and write the next segment. These were SO MUCH fun to do, and we all had a great time writing together.
One of my favorite stories was a Christmas one that I wrote with friends KD Fleming, Tamra Baumann, and A.J. Larrieu. I love all these ladies, and we’ve all published books and worked closely together since.
And – since Christmas is right around the corner – I thought I’d share the story here!
I hope you enjoy this little lunch short story called “Christmas Magic”:
Christmas Magic
Part 1
By Lauren Christopher
Heath Davidson shrugged off his officer’s jacket as he pulled another “holiday meal” from the freezer. He had about five of them – meals with red-and-green holly cartoons decorating the boxes that were supposed to make him feel more festive – but they weren’t doing the trick.
As he stared at the microwave heating instructions for his first one, wondering if this holiday was going to be like every other, he heard it.
Or her, rather.
He heard her.
Her giggle drifted up the stucco stairwell they shared to their second-floor apartments – a lyrical, girlish note he’d become accustomed to over the last few months. A sound that wasn’t supposed to make him turn toward the front door with a frozen dinner in his hand, wondering if he should go see how her day was; a sound that shouldn’t have made him glance at the clock and wonder if she realized how late it was; a sound that shouldn’t have made the blood in his chest suddenly warm. But it was one that, embarrassingly, did all three right now. …
To read the rest of my part, click here.
For Part 2, by KD Fleming, click here.
For Part 3, by Tamra Baumann, click here.
And for Part 4, by A.J. Larrieu, click here.
