Spotlight on New Christmas Story Released Today: The Unwanted Christmas Guest by Penny Estelle

Welcome, Penny Estelle to the J.Q. Rose blog!  

Congratulations on your release today of your first Christmas story. The Unwanted Christmas Guest is a contemporary romance. Can't wait to hear all about it!

A contemporary romance just in time for Christmas

I can’t tell you how excited I am that my very first ever Christmas story is being released today.  The Unwanted Christmas Guest is a story about Elizabeth McMurphy, an up and coming high powered attorney, who is after vengeance.  Her sights are set on one of the richest and most powerful families in Colorado. Steve York is an obnoxious reporter that thinks the ice queen has gone too far and does all he can to get under her skin.

When one of the worst blizzards in history, hits Colorado and leaves a hurt Steve York, stranded with Elizabeth in a mountain cabin, she must decide to either take care of him, or throw him out to fend for himself.

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Excerpt

“What’s going on here? Where the hell are my pants?”

      Elizabeth practically jumped out of her skin. Steve stood in the bedroom doorway, wearing only some tight fitting pink sweats.

“I found you after your car went nose to nose with a tree.” She crossed her arms. “The question is, what were you doing up here in a snowstorm? Were you coming up here to spy on me?”

      “Jesus, my head hurts.” Steve groaned and sat at the kitchen table. “And don’t flatter yourself.” He brought up his hands to rub his eyes and push on his temples. He started to say something when a giggle and a round of undistinguishable sounds caught his attention. Steve stared at the little girl, a whisper of a smile on his pale face. “You have a daughter?”

      She chose to ignore the question. “Again, Mr. York, you were headed…where?”

      “I was going to see some friends in Granby, then on to Steamboat to spend the holidays with my family.”

      “You figured on taking a short cut on Badger Springs Road?”

      “Basically,” he muttered. “I had a phone in my pants pocket…” Steve looked down at the pink sweats. “Yours, I presume?” At her nod, he asked with a smirk, “And you’re the one that took my clothes off?”

      “Junior, my neighbor.”

      “If you’ll allow me to use your phone, I’ll call Triple A and get myself and my car out of your life.” He reached over to Katy and she latched onto his finger, the brightest smile ever illuminating her sweet face.

Elizabeth quickly picked her up, as if he would contaminate her by his touch.  “Phones are out.”

      “Internet?”

      “Nope.”

      “How the hell do you live here?” he asked irritably.

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Please find The Unwanted Christmas Guest and my other stories at my  MuseItUp Publishing author page.

Feel free to stop by and check out my other stories and/or leave me a message.  I love visitors!

www.pennystales.com

www.pennyestelle.blogspot.com

https://twitter.com/Pennystales

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5820078.Penny_Estelle

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http://www.amazon.com/Penny-Estelle/e/B006S62XBY

Update on Shopping on Thanksgiving Day, This Week

Lovely plants, Bougainvillea, grace the landscapes in Florida.
The blossoms are abundant on these graceful beauties this year.

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Did you venture out shopping during the Black Friday (early Turkey Day) shopping craziness? We enjoyed a lovely turkey dinner, all the goodies, and a delightful time with friends on Thanksgiving Day.  After stuffing ourselves, we decided to "get some exercise" by shopping for the 32" TV at the big box store. Oh yeah. 

Let me just say we expected a crowd, but the turn-out exceeded our expectations. After so many negative comments about stores being open on Thanksgiving, I was under the impression not many folks would get out for the bargains. Boy, was I wrong!  Finding a parking spot was cra-a-a-zy! Our friends dumped us out of the car so we could get a place in line while they searched the parking lot for a bit of space to park the car.

Talk about a line! The TV was only on sale from 6 -7 pm. But this year if the store ran out of the TV's, and you know that's going to happen, the clerks would hand out a voucher for you to get it delivered to the store before Christmas. At least we knew the effort to get to the store and stand in line would guarantee we would get the product eventually. Fingers crossed. 

Let me note that I am a Pollyanna and always trust and believe what someone tells me. 

ALL of the lines for the products available from 6-7 pm were located, not in the electronics area of the store, but in the aisles of the grocery department. So glad I hadn't planned on picking up any groceries! High flying balloons identified the items' locations. Lines of shoppers snaked throughout the grocery aisles and across from the grocery section into other sections.  It was a bit odd to see the huge pallets of sweet potatoes and potatoes shoved into the cards and wrapping paper aisle.

Talk about congestion. I must congratulate the clerks in charge of crowd control on keeping their cool and not whacking those folks who tried (and some succeeded) in cutting in line. Everyone, folks in line and workers, were courteous and unbelievably patient. We saw reports on the news about angry crowds and misbehaving shoppers, but we did not experience that in our corner of the world. 

Now to answer your question, were we successful in our attempt to get the television? The store ran out of televisions as we suspected they would. In fact, the rumor in the line was they began giving out the TV's before 6 pm in order to help control the crowd. So we did get the One Hour Guarantee Voucher, stood in line to pay for the product at the cash register, then spent an hour on the Internet on their site to register our purchase and order the television. 

So I know you're scratching your head and wondering why we put in all that time? Because, wait for it, it's fun! And we saved a bundle on a 32" television. We paid $98. plus tax which totaled up to  $104.37. Now we just have to wait and see if and when the store will text us to let us know the TV is in their store so we can pick it up before Christmas. See? I am a Pollyanna because I know they will keep their promise.

Did you hit the stores over the USA holiday weekend? How about you folks in other countries? Do you experience the madness of Black Friday sales?

This Week:

Friday, December 6--Penny Estelle's new Christmas story releases this Friday. Come on over to the J Q Rose blog and celebrate with us!!