Love Bytes says hello and welcome to author DJ Jamison joining us today to talk about new release “Chance for Christmas”.
DJ talks about the holidays, shares an excerpt and brought along a wonderful giveaway to share with our readers!
Welcome DJ 🙂
Who’s ready for the holidays?
It gets a bit crazy in our household this time of year. We have three birthdays leading up to Christmas, four if you want to count my new book release, “Chance for Christmas.” Considering the time and energy I spend on a launch, we probably should!
One thing I love about the prevalence of holiday stories this time of year is reading about all the different holiday traditions. From mistletoe to favorite foods to family gatherings, we get exposed to lot of different ways people celebrate the occasion.
“Chance for Christmas” includes a few, as well. There is a scene with mistletoe because it’s a perfect writer’s device, but I have to admit I’m not sure I’ve ever seen it in real life. The holiday party, the drunk co-workers and the Secret Santa gift exchange — those I’ve seen many times over!
What are some of your favorite holiday traditions? Share them in the comments! And to aid you in your holiday shopping, I’ll be giving out $10 Amazon giftcards to two lucky winners!
Joe looked up at the mistletoe, a look of dismay on his face.
That was disappointing. Chance had thought, before Will interrupted, that Joe might want to kiss him even without the incentive of holiday tradition.
Chance laughed it off. “Relax. There’s no rule you have to kiss me.”
“I should be so lucky,” Joe said, a cute blush coloring his face. “I just can’t believe I didn’t see it before. If I had. …”
Chance raised his eyebrows as Joe trailed off, but he could guess where that statement was heading.
“You don’t need mistletoe if you want to kiss me, Joe.”
Joe’s eyes shot to his, and he licked his lips nervously.
“You’re so much bolder than you used to be. I’m still getting used to the grown up Chance Rasmussen.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Chance Rasmussen returns to Ashe, Kansas, eight years after his high school crush humiliated him with a sext that went viral. He’s low on holiday spirit with his personal ghost of Christmas past haunting him, but when his BFF asks him to attend a party as her fake date, he reluctantly agrees. The last person he expects to see there is Joe Stewart, the compassionate prosecutor he hero-worshipped during the lowest point of his life.
Joe Stewart is a great prosecutor, but when it comes to romance he’s out of his depth. He came close to love once, but the timing and circumstances were all wrong, so Joe ignored his feelings and threw himself into his work. But when two of his friends drag him to The Ashe Sentinel holiday party, placing him directly in the path of the man he let walk away, Joe realizes he’s been granted a second chance.
The spark of attraction is still there, but Chance isn’t planning to stay in Ashe past the holidays and the spectre of his past still looms large between them. Can they find a way to build a future together or will Joe only have Chance for Christmas?
Buy Link:
DJ Jamison is the author of the m/m romance series Ashe Sentinel Connections. She worked in the newspaper industry for more than a decade before becoming a freelance blogger and social media marketer. She’s married with two sons and four glow-in-the-dark fish that are miraculously still alive. DJ loves connecting with readers, especially through Facebook. You can join her group at DJ and Company.
My family is all scattered so we don’t have traditions anymore. I just like gathering what we do have around together & the eating!
Some of our traditions include: cutting a Christmas tree together as family and decorating it, as well as baking cookies with my mom. When my kids get older, I’ll start watching my parent’s Christmas tradition of action movies with them: Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, etc.
I don’t celebrate Christmas since I’m a Muslim, but I definitely think that reading holiday books count as holiday tradition, no?
Definitely — and whatever holiday you may celebrate, I hope you enjoy!
My favorite traditions was “mudik” or going to our hometown to gather with the big family, celebrated the holiday and had supper together; which sadly I haven’t done anymore since my gram’s passed away. Still have the good memory of those times though.
To answer Chance’s question, “Nah. It’s not bad at all. *winks*”
To answer the real question. LOL. We have this Christmas tradition called “Simbang Gabi” where people would go to church at night or at dawn, which most of the people prefer. It begins on the 16th of December until Christmas eve. It is told that if you complete the 9 days of simbang gabi, you would get any wish you want to be granted. TBH, I never completed the 9 days ’cause for one, I always get lazy (LOL) & secondly, I don’t believe on wishes getting granted. Meanwhile, every new year, we spend our time on an open church (which is far from us) where there are a lot of Holy statues, garden, & a lot of places to do some reflection. A really good place to start the new year. =)
My family is shrinking and so it is important to keep those we have especially at Christmas. I enjoy the dinner and remembering past fun, whole we make new fun. I would like some glow in the dark fishies.
We have lots of traditions, from watching our fav holiday shows to opening one gift on Christmas Eve and the rest on Christmas morning. One of my favorite traditions is our family house/tree trimming day – which is happening today. 🙂
Thanks for the post! Chance for Christmas sounds great.
I look forward to the homemade tamales friends bring on Christmas Eve!
I always enjoy family gatherings, whether in Christmas Eve or New Years’ Eve. We gather for dinner, eat an awful lot of food, sing carols and end watching some sappy movie together. That’s a lot of fun!
My favorite holiday tradition is putting up & decorating the tree. My kids are still small so all the deco ends up on the bottom branches, LOL. My little girl also makes the star each year. Since she plays it to shreds come January, it has become a tradition too.
Putting the tree up, listening to Christmas/holiday spirit music, eating pasteles, exchanging gifts, drawing holiday related things, and reading holiday books.
We don’t have any traditions except we have to have breakfast and be dressed before we can open our presents I can remember when we were young it was so hard we desperately kept telling everyone to hurry up!
The last few years our “traditions” have changed. The one that seems to be holding is to play bingo on New Year’s Eve with a bunch of friends and family.
Chance for Christmas is a great story. <3
driving around to check out the Christmas lights
Christmas lunch with the family – we do salads and cold meats as it’s way too hot to cook on Christmas day in Australia!
My brother always makes special cocktails for Christmas and New Years.
Congrats on the new release! I loved this book, truly wonderful. <3
Watching cheesy Christmas films while wrapping presents and writing out cards. Oh and eating my weight in my mum’s homemade mince pies yum!
really enjoyed the excerpt
jmarinich33 at aol dot com
I am lucky to be a member of a family of readers… so every Christmas Eve we each open one present… and it is always a book… to take to bed with us or share! On Christmas Day, after the presents are open and the meal has been demolished, we play cards or board games, and reflect on the year and talk about the new year to come. At some point in the holiday season, we all go out to a meal together to celebrate just being together without anyone having to cook or clean up. We are so lucky!
We don’t celebrate it. Even when we tried to it was pretty halfassed since we grew up without. We do try to get together to have a meal but it doesn’t always work out.
Congrats and thanks for the post. One tradition is more recent, with my partner, now new husband. He’s vegetarian, so cooks a tofurkey, and I’m not, so I have the turkey. Sometimes we share it with our chosen family, sometimes I get to eat it all myself (with a lot of leftovers that we joke about).