Author name: DahliaDW

When one thinks of tradition at this time of year, Thanksgiving, Christmas etc. spring to mind.  But what of those ongoing traditions, the ones that we practice every day and pass on to others? In those times the lights were out, in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy,  I realized that as a parent, I’ve passed on the tradition of creativity. During the day, the little ones would gather around the coffee table with their crayons, colored pencils and more sheets of white paper than I care to count.  They would draw, argue, discuss, draw some more and produce a book, which then was ‘published’ through the use of numerous staples. How did they learn/want to do this?  Children imitate what they see.   I remember when I was writing some story or another and my oldest son came into my office and saw my feverish scribbling on a lined note pad. 

Friends to lovers stories always touch my heart, and my holiday offering, Second Chance Christmas, is an example of this trope.  I’ll let you in on a little secret, these characters, Zach and Naomi, were the first romance couple that I ever created.  Their story was a mess, (and I knew it in retrospect)  and was my first rejection. When I read that first rejection email, my face got hot.  It was two days before I could tell my husband that the story I had worked on for the last month had been rejected.  He, of course, was supportive, compassionate, and insistent that I get right back on that writing horse and keep going.  I set their story aside, but eventually discovered that they had come so alive in my head that they had to have a story, even just a short story, of their own. And thus, the story