The Uncial Letter

We've a special treat for you this month.

Well, actually, we've several special treats for you. The first ones are this month's releases. We're celebrating the upcoming holiday season with a seasonal story with a twist, as well as serving up two stories to introduce our Novel Bytes line of short reads for busy people.

Get an early start on Christmas with Susanne Marie Knight's Regency Time Travel, HAVE CHRISTMAS CARD, WILL TRAVEL. When Meredith receives a mysterious Christmas greeting twelve days before the holiday, it starts her on a journey of discovery and romance.

C.S.Fuqua writes unique stories, and we are especially pleased to bring you one of them. "Eyes of a Child" is a provocative, moving tale of a desperate man who only wants the best for his child-and how he tries to get it. We guarantee that you won't soon forget this one.

It's always a special treat to read something by Lesley-Anne McLeod, and her offering this month is both timely and thoughtful. "Love's Liberty" is a tender romance that reaffirms our belief that love can heal a soul in pain.

Our second treat for you will be our December offerings: three free downloads, so when you can steal a moment for yourselves, you'll have something to wonderful to read. You may have already read these holiday classics, but they're worth re-reading. And because we're offering them in our six usual e-book formats, you can load them on your e-reader or your computer and enjoy them a new way. Check our website around 8 December for these special treats.

We have to confess, we're sort of sappy about the midwinter holidays-all of them. There's something about outdoor lights and brightly wrapped gifts and family gatherings that make the long, dark winter easier to face. It's truly a time for sharing, so we asked our authors to share something with you. What, we wondered, was the best, most wonderful, memorable or moving gift they had ever received. Here is our third special treat-their responses:

Sheila Simonson (A Cousinly Connexion, February 2007): It's not very romantic, but my favorite birthday gift was the year my mother decided I should have money instead of Useful Objects like sweaters or underpants with the days of the week embroidered on them. I was coming up on fifteen, it was July (bad time for birthdays), and I had my first real job as opposed to babysitting, which then paid $.50 an hour. I came home late after a day "shocking" grass, had dinner with my parents and five siblings, and Mom brought in the chocolate cake. Next to it was a money tree with real dollar bills waving in the wind of my shock and surprise. I blew out all the candles. I chunked the cash and my paychecks into my college fund because I had figured out that was my best chance to escape from eastern Oregon. I guess what pleased me most was my mother recognizing that I was now a grown up. PS. I also got myself a checkbook with my name on it.

Rob Shelsky (Miss Annabelle's Yankee, April, 2007): The best gift I ever received, not counting the love freely given to me by others in my life, was a trip to Europe. It woke me to all sorts of wonders and possibilities. Truly, it expanded my horizons, made me see farther and better, gave me a greater perspective on just about everything. The effects of that trip, and the wonderful memories have never gone away. Special moments forever frozen in my mind, like sitting at a sidewalk cafe along the edge of the Grand Canal in Venice, sipping espresso, watching the sunset peach-colored mist descend on the cathedral domes. Nearby, gondolas rocked, tethered to their barber poles, just feet away from us. Beautiful! Exquisite!

Jana Richards (Her Best Man, February, 2007): My favorite birthday gift wasn't totally unexpected. In fact, I knew of its arrival for nine months. But there was a time I wasn't sure I'd ever receive such a gift. When my first pregnancy ended in miscarriage, I wanted to try again soon. Anyone who's ever had a miscarriage will tell you it's something that's always in the back of your mind, even when things seem to be going fine. So when I found out I was pregnant again I was thrilled, but cautious. We told a few people but kept pretty low-key about our news, preferring to wait until the critical 12 week mark had passed. When the first 12 weeks passed uneventfully, I knew everything would be fine.

Lesley-Anne McLeod (Clemmie's Major, January, 2007; The Beggarmaid, March 2007): On my fortieth birthday, I received forty helium-filled balloons-a surprise from my husband and our daughter. The balloons were delightful, of course, but it was my six-year-old daughter's excitement that was the true gift. Her anticipation as she waited for the balloons to be delivered, her rapture at their beauty and her joy at giving her mother such a wondrous present were my real gift. She had tried very hard to keep the secret, but her questions about whether I really liked balloons and when I would be home to accept a delivery had been a give away. But she didn't know that, and I was as surprised-I hope-as she could have wished. The expression on her small face as I accepted the balloons was all the gift I needed on that birthday or any day at all.

Kenneth L. Levinson (Final Argument, January, 2007): "I am not a cat person. Felines can be arrogant, selfish and downright snotty. But when my wife brought a gray and white male cat home for our daughter thirteen years ago, he and I instantly bonded-as though we had known each other forever. The friendship grew deeper over the years, and even more so two and a half years ago when he was diagnosed with cancer and we were told he had at most a month to live. By some miracle he was still alive and doing well last summer when the family took a 2-week Canadian vacation. As always, we left him at home with a caretaker and plenty of food. In the past, whenever we returned from a vacation, he let me know how miffed he was, but I had learned to mollify him by promptly feeding him. This year, he glanced up with a forlorn look from his basket and when he recognized me, he uttered an involuntary, "Yeep!" and came running over to greet me. I will never forget that moment. His cancer finally conquered him last week and we had to put him down. No words can describe how deeply I miss him, and how empty the house seems without him. He was the one gift that forever changed my life.

Michelle Levigne (Zygradon, March 2007): My first typewriter. I received it in my senior year of high school, after getting by on my brother's old, beat-up electric. I worked that thing into the ground, had to repair it three or four times, but we still have it for typing up those dratted government tax forms and business documents. Why was it the best gift? It gave me freedom to get my dreams and stories and 'scribbles' down on paper a whole lot faster than by hand - and keeping it all legible. There were different adjustments for different pitch, and I could type forever (well, for a long time) on those fabric ribbons. It even had an erase cartridge, which was quite a marvel after getting by on the manuals and dinosaurs we learned on in school. That typewriter was portable-I took it with me when I went on trips and knew I'd have a lot of "free time." I banged out a lot of first and second and third drafts on that baby, and earned a lot of money typing term papers in college and grad school. When I was engaged (read: temporarily insane) in college. I spent quite a few bored hours sitting in the computer lab, waiting while my fiance fussed with making his term papers print out all pretty. In the time he wasted, I could have typed his paper four times! One time, he was talking about how soon there would be computers people could take home and use for themselves, and he said, "We'll sell your typewriter and use it as a downpayment on a computer." That was the beginning of the end-he was threatening my baby! My best friend! I had an extreme fear and hatred of computers from that point ... until about 3 years later when I was working at a newspaper and we edited on computers and now I have gone through several computers of my own. How times change.

Susanne Marie Knight (Tainted Tea for Two, October 2006; Have Christmas Card, will Travel, November 2006): Tough question! My gift is a sentimental one-something given to me by my grandmother. Grandma Knight had ten children, and I have no idea how many grandchildren. She didn't give gifts or send birthday cards; the cost of doing so would've been prohibitive. So I never expected anything. One summer when we went to visit her, she asked if I would like a small purse. It wasn't really my style: white bumpy plastic with a matching wallet, but I felt as if it was a Gucci original. Why? Because with all her grandkids, she had asked *me*. I quickly said "yes!" and though I rarely used her gift all those years ago, I've always treasured it and the memories of my grandmother. Since that time, I've moved several places around the country and even halfway around the world, but I still have Grandma's plastic purse.

Judith B. Glad (Behind the Ranges series, October 2006; A Sisterly Regard, April 2007): In a life full of wonderful gifts, it was difficult to narrow it down. Perhaps the most memorable of all was the ring my husband gave me one wedding anniversary (which was also my birthday). It's a beautiful ring: a freeform golden cage wraps around a large, luminous freshwater pearl and is highlighted with sparkling diamond. What is precious about that particular gift, though, isn't the pearl, the diamond or the gold, but the words that came with it. When he handed it to me, with a twinkle in his eye and a sneaky little grin, he said, "This is your brass ring, for staying on the merry-go-round for twenty years." That's the real gift. A man with a practical mind and romance in his soul.

C.S. Fuqua (Eyes of a Child, November 2006): This one's easy. After two miscarriages, a difficult pregnancy, a c-section that began lateral and then went vertical due to transverse position complications, the greatest and most memorable gift was the moment the doctor held up our daughter and said, "She's beautiful." That gift has been giving ever since.

Lynne Connolly (Laura, May 2007): Mine was easy, and recent. It was my wedding anniversary this week. Out of the blue, my husband took me to a luxury country hotel, just the two of us, the first time we'd been away together since our children were born. Not only that, but knowing my love of history he took me to see Conwy Castle and Plas Mawr. I was astonished, and in love with him all over again.

We'd love to hear from you. Tell us what your most precious gift was. Who knows? If we get enough responses, maybe we'll share them with everyone in a future issue. You can always write to us at contest@uncialpress.com (No this isn't a contest, but stay tuned. We're thinking about another one. In the meantime, we're using the addy to listen to what our readers have to say.).

We'll be back in December, with a bit about our January releases. They are worth waiting for, and we're sure you'll enjoy them both. In the meantime, we hope you'll read and enjoy our current offerings (remember that URL: www.uncialpress.com) and will pick up your holiday gifts when they become available.

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Keep well and keep smiling.

Star (the Boss) & Jude (the Editor)

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