Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! May a little miracle touch all of your lives and bring you peace and happiness!

Friday Art & History Feature - Old Russian New Year's Greeting Cards

In the spirit of the holidays and because I'm a bit nostalgic about my childhood right now, here's a collection of old Russian and USSR New Year's Greeting cards. New Year was THE holiday that everyone celebrated for many years (since the government pretty much outlawed the celebration of religious holidays, like Christmas, during the Soviet years. Now people are back to celebrating those again, thankfully!)The Rusisan equivalent of Santa Clause is Old Man, orGrandfather, Frost (Ded Moroz), and he's often seeing with his granddaughter Snow Maiden (Snegurochka).

Note: All the cards say "Happy New Year" in Russian.

Enjoy!

 

 

Quote of the day

I feel like I really have to believe this right now.

No matter how many times you get knocked down, keep getting back up. God sees your resolve. He sees your determination. And when you do everything you can do, that’s when God will step in and do what you can’t do. 

  ~Joel Osteen, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

Contests & Giveaways in the Writing World - Week of December 9th

And do you know why it's ok? Because it's another week of great of contests & giveaways in the writing world, of course!

First up is a great excerpt from and a giveaway of Eternal Heiress by Charlene Roberts on Tina Moss' Blog! Hurry to check it out.

Next up is Candace's Book Blog 5th Blogoversary Giveaway with not one, not two, but four prize packages of great books! Don't believe me? Go see for yourself! 

Learn more about writer Jessica Lemmon on The Ever After Girls Blog (Including the answer to the question: Would you rather be trapped in a room with Tom Hardy for twenty four hours knowing that you’ll have to eventually kill him to leave, or be trapped in a room for twenty four hours, spending your last moments in his loving embrace—before he kills you.) Then comment for a chance chance to win one of her e-novellas Can't Let Go or If You Dare.

Check out the Blog Ring of Power Year in Review Bloghop and enter to win lots of great prizes. Check out Sandra Ulbrich's blog today for details.

Susan Heim is hosting Rachel Harrington today on her blog, who give some advice on writing and is giving away 2 copies of her e-book Sweet Poison.

 Looking for a writing contest? Enter the 83rd Annual Writing Competition from Writer's Digest? Early Bird entry deadline is May 5th. Prizes include a chance to win $3,000 cash, get a one-on-one attention with four editors or agents and much more. And the winner will be announced on the cover of Writer's Digest!

Write poetry? You still have time to enter the  $500 Julie Suk Prize for Best Poetry Book published in 2013. Check for more details.

Write Children's stories? Write a short holiday story (no more than 350 words) about Holiday Mishap, mix-up, miscommunication, mistake, or potential disaster, and enter the 3rd Annual Holiday Contest. The entry deadline is Friday, December 13th. Find out all the details on Susanna Leonard Hill's blog. There are lots of really amazing prizes to be won!

*As always, please contact me for the inclusion of your contests/giveaways into the Monday Contests and Giveaways in the Writing World posts.

Have fun and good luck! 

Also, don't forget to become a follower of this blog to make sure you catch giveaways coming soon!

A Writer's Christmas Wish List - Some Suggestions

 So what would a writer put on their wish list? Here are a few items that may be useful, interesting or just fun.

1. For those writers who don't find holding their laptops on their lap very comfortable or get burned by their overheated machines (as well as those whose cats insist on sitting on their lap while they are working), there's Lap Desks. There is a variety of these out there. The ones I think would work the best are from LapDawg:

Amazon has a number of a number of cool lapdesks as well, so check it out.

2. For those who like to keep track of the time they spend writing in one sitting, there are adorable timers that would look great on a writer's desk. How about this cute Kikkerland Owlet Kitchen timer that comes in a variety of colors?

Not into owls? You can't resist the penguins, I'm sure:

3. A subscription to a writer's magazine online, with multiple extra benefits and discounts with premium subscriptions might be just the thing for the writer in your family. Check out the Writer's Digest and Writer Magazine as just two of subscriptions to conciser.

4. Writer software, while not for everyone, might be a fun and useful addition to a writer's tool kit. There are actually a number of free ones - check out 10 of them in the article from TechRadar.Computing. Don't forget the Scrivener, a word-processing software to help writers to all kinds of important things, like outlining, storyboarding and organizing metadata. You can download a sample limited version to see if it is something you'd like.

(image copyrighted by Scrivener)

5. Writers love stationary - better believe it! Even if we mostly now enter our words onto a computer, we still love notebooks that we keep by our bedside or in our bag as we commute. And, of course, to write in notebooks we need cool pens. So don't forget about those little details that can bring a lot of happiness and joy to a writer. Check out these gorgeous notebook selections from Paperblanks.

6. And last, but not least, never forget that any writer is also an avid reader (I'm pretty confident making that generalization). So gift cards to book stores like Amazon, Barnes and Noble or any other book store would always be appreciated!

What are you putting on your writer wish list? What products would you find most useful or just fun?

Quote of the Day

It is the possibility that keeps me going, and though you may call me a dreamer or a fool or any other thing, I believe that anything is possible.
  ~ Nicholas Sparks