Halloween Bash!!!!!! LAST DAY!!!!!!!!!!

AUTUMN HARVEST: FALL BETWEEN THE PAGES BLOG HOP TOUR (Sept 19-26) 

1) HAVE FUN!!!

2) INVITE ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS!!! SPREAD THE WORD!!!

3) THIS TOUR STARTS: Monday, September 19, at Midnight (Arizona Time)
    THIS TOUR ENDS: Monday, September 26, at Midnight (Arizona Time)
    Winners will be drawn and posted September 27th! ***

4) MEET AND MINGLE WITH ALL THE AUTHORS & BOOK PAGES! EXPERIENCE A NEW DESTINATION AT EVERY STOP! PARTICIPATE IN EVERY BLOG CONTEST AND BE ENTERED FOR CHANCES TO WIN MULTIPLE PRIZES! EVERY BLOG VISITED IS ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY TO WIN!!

5) PARTICIPATION AT ALL BLOGS IS RECOMMENDED, BUT NOT REQUIRED. REMEMBER, THE MORE BLOGS YOU HOP, THE BETTER YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING PRIZES. EVERY AUTHOR & BOOK PAGE IS WAITING TO MEET AND INTERACT WITH YOU, SO PLEASE BE SURE TO SHOW THEM SOME LOVE!

6) DID I MENTION TO HAVE FUN? WHOO! HOO!! HERE WE GOOOOOOOOOOOO!***Authors & Book Pages have full discretion to choose an alternate winner in the event any winner fails to claim their prize(s) within 72 hours of their name being posted or after notification of win, whichever comes first. Anyone who participates in this blog hop tour is subject to these rules***

When I was growing up in France, I knew what Halloween, the Fourth of July or Thanksgiving were. American movies and TV shows all featured scenes or episodes set on those iconic holidays, so even though we do not celebrate them in France we are still familiar with them.

Knowing what happens on these days however is different from taking part and celebrating them. My first ‘taste’ of an American celebration was two days after I first arrived in the U.S. for a vacation here. I’ll always remember that Fourth of July, the picnic, the fireworks – but looking back, I think I remember it more because I had a great time than because it was Independence Day. For me, the significance of the day was lost.

It’s the same thing for fall celebration like Halloween or Thanksgiving. I never dressed up as a kid for Halloween, never went trick-or-treating, so when I open my door to the neighborhood kids and hand out candy with my hubby, I have no connection to it all. At Thanksgiving, to be honest, going to my in-laws dinner to eat food I don’t particularly like feels like a chore. (Although, to be doubly honest my hubby doesn’t care much for it either!)Things finally started changing when my hubby and I started making those traditions our own. For example, for Thansgiving, rather than turkey, we roast a duck, and try a new recipe every year. For Halloween, we light candles around the house and have a candle-lit dinner in between opening the door to the kids (unless we get otherwise occupied, in which case we just leave the candy on the front steps… ahem..!)

Maybe when we have children things will change again. I like sewing, so I’ll probably make their Halloween costumes. Maybe when they learn about Thanksgiving in school they’ll want us to have a ‘proper’ celebration. And maybe, at last, I’ll have this emotional connection toward these American customs that I’ve been struggling to find, and won’t feel anymore like I’m outside looking in.

I thought I would try to share that disconnect through a flash fiction, a very short story featuring characters from one of my novels, CheckMate. Meet vampire Lilia and her human Mate Vincent. They recently moved into a new home and Vincent took that opportunity to go back to an old tradition, but it’s not so easy for Lilia… 1000 words exactly... I hope you'll enjoy!

With a heavy sigh, Lilia surveyed the dining room. 
She should have suspected something was up when Vincent insisted they should renovate it right after they had finished with their bedroom. The house was large, almost a mansion, and every room needed some work. They had been scrubbing, painting, sanding, and staining almost since they had first moved in, and Lilia’s hands showed it. Her nails were ragged from where she had scrubbed paint and wood stain too harshly.
Lilia wished they could have hired someone, but buying their new home had depleted Vincent’s savings, while her own were less than they had once been. He had still found money to buy a dinner table and the six chairs that went with it, though. She had thought it was overkill – but then, he hadn’t told her he had this planned, not until just a few days earlier.
“Lilia, if you’re not going to help, can you at least get out of the way?”
Glaring, she stepped aside and allowed Vincent to enter the dining room. He was carrying a pile of plates topped by cutlery, and as she watched, he started setting the table. Lilia crossed her arms and leaned back against the doorjamb.
“Why five plates?” she said coldly. “It’s not like I’m going to eat.”
He threw a sly look toward her but continued to arrange the plates on the brand new tablecloth.
“You’re not even going to have some cranberry sauce?” he asked lightly, as though he hadn’t noticed how cranky she was. “I remember someone finishing the whole thing last year.”
Lilia huffed. “Last year, you made enough for two, not entire jars of the stuff.”
He finished and left the room again, presumably to get the rest of what he needed. He soon returned with glasses and a basket of bread rolls. He continued the conversation as though it hadn’t been interrupted.
“We’ve had guests for dinner before. This isn’t any different.”
She rolled her eyes at him, which was completely wasted since he had his back to her. “Honestly, Jordan?” 
That, at least, brought his gaze toward her; he knew it was never a good sign when she called him by his last name.
“Having your friends over for tacos in front of the television does not equal having guests.”
“Well, we didn’t have the space for it before, did we?”
He finished setting the table, and Lilia bit the inside of her cheek rather than point out he had placed the knives on the wrong side of the plates. It wasn’t like she cared anyway.
Vincent planted himself in front of her, hands in his jean pockets, and rocked slightly on the balls of his feet.
“What is it?” he asked quietly, tilting his head as he scrutinized her. “I thought you were okay with my father being here, and with Don and Jeanie coming over.”
Lilia shrugged and looked away. She didn’t mind any of them being around. Not anymore. There had been tension in the past, but she had grown used to Vincent’s family and friends. 
“If it’s not them, what is it?” Vincent insisted.
She sighed loudly again. 
“It’s not…” She waved at the table with an impatient gesture. “This isn’t me. This… Thanksgiving thing. It’s not...”
She finished with an annoyed grunt and a shrug.
“We’ve had Thanksgiving dinners before,” he pointed out with a small frown. “You never said anything.”
“That was just us,” she muttered. “It wasn’t…”
How could she explain to him when she didn’t fully understand it herself? 
It wasn’t the dinner part that bothered her. She had attended dinner parties before there even was a Thanksgiving, with tables and dishes infinitely more refined than what Vincent could cook – and he was a good cook.
What made her uneasy was that the Thanksgiving custom still felt alien to her. Even after decades of living in America, she still couldn’t think of it as her country. She would forever be an immigrant. No, it was worse than that. She couldn’t call any country as her own. France had started to change only a few years after she had become a vampire, and, for better or for worse, the republic it was nowadays was nothing like the monarchy of her childhood. 
None of it had ever mattered before Vincent; her allegiance had been to her Sire, and she hadn’t worried about her place in this country – or even in the world.
But now that she was being thrown into such an iconic American custom, she found herself… apart. A stranger in a strange land. If she had simply felt different from their guests, it wouldn’t have mattered. But to feel separated from her Mate was an entirely different thing.
“Lilia, love. Look at me. What’s wrong?”
Vincent cupped her face in his hand. He looked worried now. She shook her head, although not hard enough for his hand to fall away.
“Nothing. I’m just being stupid.”
“If it bothers you that much,” he offered, “you don’t have to stay here. I mean, it’s too late for me to call off the dinner, but if you’d rather go out…”
She thought about it for a half second before shaking her head again. Leaving would not make her feel any better. Besides, this was their home. This was where she belonged.
“Can we… pretend it’s just a dinner?” she asked slowly. “Nothing special, just a ‘welcome in our home’ party?”
Vincent leaned closer to brush a kiss across her lips. “Anything you want,” he murmured. “And if you don’t want me to invite guests next year—”
She stopped him with a kiss of her own. “We’ll see,” she said quietly. “Ask me again next year.”
She wasn’t sure a year would make a difference, but maybe what she had missed, all those years, had been anchor points. She had found one in Vincent, and now a second one with their lair. 
Maybe she finally had a home again.

I hope you liked this little glimpse into Lilia and Vincent’s lives! Check out my site if you’d like to read more about them.

And now for THE CONTEST! The giveaway is open to participants from all countries. There will be twenty winners. Count them! Twenty!

THE PRIZES:
Grand prize – an autographed paperback, winner’s choice amongst my paperback releases. This includes the new releases coming out at the end of September / beginning of October.

3 additional prizes: one ebook of each of my Halloween stories, one per winner, assigned randomly. The stories are Forget Ever After, Out of the Box 8 and Second Vision of Destiny.

16 swag prizes: assorted goodies such as romance trading cards, postcards, magnets, t-shirts, pens, notepads…

HOW TO PARTICIPATE:
* If you are not already, become a follower of this blog.
* Check the paperbacks that are potential prizes and in a reply to this post tell us which you would like to receive if you win (and if you feel like it, tell us why!)
* Make sure to leave your email address so we can contact you if you win!

BONUS ENTRY:
* For an additional entry in the contest, ‘Like’ this blog on Facebook!


That’s it! If you have any comment or question, feel free to drop me a note in the comments! And much thanks to Leanne for inviting me to play along this week!


Kallysten


Here is the link to the other blogs so you can enter more giveaways! LINKS