Category: Michael D Young

It is here: the advent of the Advent event!

I know it’s not quite December yet, but I’m sure you’re already starting to hear those carols on the radio. I’m doing this giveaway before Christmas starts, because the anthology I just came out with is meant to be read as an advent calendar, which means you’ll need it before December 1st.

This promotion will go on for 12 days and will have 12 great prizes from the authors who helped make the anthology a reality. Each day, I will highlight a different couple of stories from the anthology and their authors, and go into the prizes that will be offered. To enter, just follow the instructions on the Rafflecopter widget below.

Dates November 7th-18th.

Purchase the book here: http://amzn.com/1479266248

Or visit this site for more information: http://adventanthology.wordpress.com

Here’s a glimpse into our first two stories:

“O Come, All Ye Faithful” by Betsy Love

The evening news came on the television set. Depressing, that’s all it was. Christmas was supposed to be the best time of the year, and yet so many people were lonely and hurting and hungry. At least Claudia wasn’t hungry.

If only she could stop thinking about that trip to Bethlehem, the one she’d never experience since the accident had taken her sweet Joe from her.

How clearly she remembered that day. Was it really only a few months ago? Claudia had watched her husband take the expensive nativity off the shelf. “But Joe, we just can’t sell it,” she said as he dusted the pieces, wrapped them in the original packaging, and tenderly placed each one in the box.
He smiled down at her. “It’ll be like trading one manger for another.”

Later that morning, they headed off to the antique dealer. Joe was certain the set had gone up in value. It had, nearly three times. Joe tucked the money into the envelope along with the rest of their savings. A smile never left his face as they drove across town to the travel agency, but they didn’t make it. A drunk driver ran a red light, hitting the driver’s side.

“A Real Tree” by C. Michelle Jefferies

“What does he think he’s doing?” I asked my twin sister, Ellie. Outside the front window, my father wrestled with a gigantic pine tree. I sat at the kitchen table, my homework piled in front of me. Christmas break had started that morning, and I had homework to do if I wasn’t going to be behind when school started again. My twin pulled a sheet of sugar cookies out of the oven and placed another in. “Couldn’t we just have a hologram tree like everyone else?”

“Kai, you forget. Dad lived on Earth. He likes to do things traditionally,” Ellie said as large mechanical hands washed the dishes in the sink and placed them in the dishwasher. A second pair of hands waited near my twin’s shoulder. She had to remind MAT, the housekeeping program, that she was capable of making cookies without its help. An old, scratched record belted out a choir singing Christmas tunes. My mother was upstairs wrapping presents. The house was stocked to bursting with holiday food.

“It’s stupid,” I said. “Doesn’t he know what he looks like, fighting with a tree that’s bigger than he is?” At least he could use a hover-lift—it’d save me some embarrassment. I leaned back and pulled at the blond hair that kept falling in my face. While I looked like my dad, down to the green eyes, my twin was a striking image of my mother, with dark red hair and blue eyes. Her pale skin rivaled my mother’s in whiteness. Everyone remarked how the two of us were carbon copies of our parents.

And here’s a look at one of our prizes:

An autographed copy of “The Hidden Sun” by J. Lloyd Morgan

a Rafflecopter giveaway