Christmas Week Guest Blog and Giveaway: Magic on a Winter's Night by Carol Berg

UPDATE: The winner of a signed copy of FLESH AND SPIRIT by Carol Berg is Sandy Shin! Congrats! Please send your physical address to contests(AT)knightagency.net.

First a little bit of introduction, and then onto Carol Berg's awesome post! This week we're celebrating the holidays with a line-up of guest bloggers, including Carol, Michele Lang, Michelle Celmer, Twila Belk and a very special mega-blog on Friday featuring New York TImes bestselling authors Marjorie M. Liu, Rachel Caine, Christie Golden and Nalini Singh! As part of the celebration ALL of the authors are giving away signed copies of their books and TKA is hosting a special scavenger hunt!

There are TWO ways to win. Each day this week (Dec. 14 - Dec. 18) a guest blogger will give away a signed book to one person randomly chosen from the comment section. Also, at the bottom of the post there will be a scavenger hunt question. The answer can be located somewhere on the author's website. Send in all 5 correct answers* to the scavenger hunt questions, and you will be entered in a drawing to win the TKA Suprise Christmas Stocking overflowing with books and holiday treats!!!

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Magic on a Winter's Night

People often ask me when I became a storyteller, and I tell them I didn't even begin writing until halfway through my software engineering career, when my kids needed less of my off time. But a few nights ago when the moon was full, bright enough to cast shadows, and I stood at my bedroom window looking out on the foothills of the Rockies, I realized that the roots of storytelling went back a lot farther, back to when I was a kid. It wasn't something that happened during the day. That was time for school and playing outside, family business, and reading, reading, reading - my favorite pastime. No, this other thing happened at night.

Nighttime always had a magical feel to it back then. In a Texas summer when the weather was hot, my sisters and I would lie out on quilts in the back yard to catch the breeze and watch the stars, wondering what it was like "up there." And we'd watch the planes go over and wonder who got to ride on them, where they were going, and what it was like.

Autumn brought Halloween, the night we could take off down the street on our own, wading through the dry leaves. We'd scare ourselves with ghost and goblin sightings as we raced between porch lights.

In the spring, it would rain at night, and I'd raise the bedroom window as far as I could, because nothing smelled better. I'd breathe in the rain smell, along with the scent of gardenias and roses, and I'd feel the breeze and think about how it would be to live out there in the wet with nowhere to go. Rain changed things. Rain was like a magical curtain. I felt adventurous on those nights, because the house was dark and everyone else asleep. Sometimes I would get my doll and play with her beside the window because that was the time when she seemed almost real.

Winter nights were the best, especially clear nights with the moon so bright the trees cast shadows. Those nights were so bright and so quiet, and our street was so deserted that I could imagine fae creatures who came out only when the rest of the world was sleeping. Maybe they were people who lived with wild animals or who had the power to keep themselves warm on such cold nights.

Everything changed in the moonlight. Our yard - the big oak trees and the shrubs - looked so different at night. I was sure that if I were to venture out into the neighbor's back yard it would be an entirely different place than I saw in the sunlight. A long time later, when I first read Susan Cooper's "The Dark is Rising", I understood immediately what Will Stanton felt when he opened his front door and looked out on a world entirely changed.

By far the most exciting of those winter nights came at Christmas time, when I was half scared I would SEE fantastical creatures (because I had several years' solid evidence that they came) and I was half scared I wouldn't. So I pulled up the quilts and cracked open the window so I could smell the cold air. . .and listen. I imagined I heard sleigh bells. I imagined I heard whispers. I imagined I heard footsteps on the roof. I imagined. . .

That was the beginning, of course. Storytelling is not the process of setting words on paper.

Storytelling is wondering. It is asking how would it be if. . .? It is opening the window and imagining people who not oneself and who inhabit places that are strange and unfamiliar. It is seeing people and events in a light that makes them look real. Storytelling is heeding the scents and smells and sounds of the world, and allowing them to whisper a story in your ear. Imagine. . .

Author's Note: Mythopoeic Award-winning book BREATH AND BONE featured a race who danced in the moonlight on the winter solstice.

SCAVENGER HUNT QUESTION (1 of 5): What is the name of the main character in THE LIGHTHOUSE DUET series? Click here to visit Carol's website.

Also remember that you can win twice! Collect the scavenger hunt answers, and also leave a comment to enter a random drawing for a signed copy of FLESH AND SPIRIT! The winner of Carol's book will be announced in this post tomorrow morning.

*Please note, that the correct answers to the scavenger hunt questions must be sent in at one time. You must collect all 5 answers and send them in one email. Entries for the scavenger hunt will be accepted from Friday, December 18th thru Sunday, December 20th at midnight ET. The winner will be announed on this blog Monday, December 21st, 2009. If you have any questions about this contest, please contact contests(AT)knightagency.net.