International bestselling editor and writer with over 35 million books in print, Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes in many genres, from science fiction to mystery, from western to romance. She has written under a pile of pen names, but most of her work appears as Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Her novels have made bestseller lists around the world and her short fiction has appeared in eighteen best of the year collections. She has won more than twenty-five awards for her fiction, including the Hugo, Le Prix Imaginales, the Asimov's Readers Choice award, and the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Choice Award.

Publications from The Chicago Tribune to Booklist have included her Kris Nelscott mystery novels in their top-ten-best mystery novels of the year. The Nelscott books have received nominations for almost every award in the mystery field, including the best novel Edgar Award, and the Shamus Award.

She also edits. Beginning with work at the innovative publishing company, Pulphouse, followed by her award-winning tenure at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, she took fifteen years off before returning to editing with the original anthology series Fiction River, published by WMG Publishing. She acts as series editor with her husband, writer Dean Wesley Smith, and edits at least two anthologies in the series per year on her own.

To keep up with everything she does, go to kriswrites.com and sign up for her newsletter. To track her many pen names and series, see their individual websites (krisnelscott.com, kristinegrayson.com, krisdelake.com, retrievalartist.com, divingintothewreck.com).

Winter Holidays edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Winter holidays mean lights, decorations, and delicious food. They bring about a sense of joy and a giving spirit that seems more abundant than at other times of the year.

This anthology holds a Hanukkah story, two stories about the solstice and two about some lesser-known holidays. Two authors made up their own holidays, and three looked at what people who don't celebrate do during the holiday season.

With so many creative ways to celebrate, this volume will surely lift the spirits.

Includes:
"Star Shower" by CJ Erick
"Winter Pariah" by Michèle Laframboise
"The Real Housewitches of Calafia County" by Dayle A. Dermatis
"The Year That Went into Extra Innings" by Brigid Collins & Ron Collins
"Christmas, Translated" by C.H. Hung
"A True Family Holiday" by Jason Adams
"The Miracle of the Lights" by Leah R. Cutter
"Everflame Gifts" by Ezekiel James Boston
"The Ten Days of Newtonmas" by Ron Collins
"Operation AngelCam" by Kate Pavelle
"Virginia's Last Old Christmas Eve" by Kari Kilgore

CURATOR'S NOTE

When I started putting together seasonal anthologies, I knew I didn't just want Christmas stories. Everyone writes Christmas stories, and yet there are forty other holidays that people can celebrate between Thanksgiving and New Year's, and I might be undercounting. So I asked some of the best writers I know to give me stories about winter holidays that aren't Christmas, and I compiled some of the best right here. – Kristine Kathryn Rusch

 
 

BOOK PREVIEW

Excerpt

The Holiday Season

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Maybe it's the abundance of lights. Or the decorations. Or the extra food. Maybe it's the smile on the faces of so many people this time of year. Or the extra willingness to help. Someone opening a door with a little more cheer than usual. Someone picking up an extra shift at work so that someone else can take time off. Someone volunteering at a shelter or giving a few extra dollars or simply laughing more.

Yes, I know. People do suffer at year's end. They have trouble because it seems like everyone else has someone to celebrate with. Or maybe they're uncomfortable because they don't have enough money. Or because they just lost a loved one.

A lot of my friends do not celebrate Christmas, either as a religious holiday or a commercial one. Many of those friends get aggravated whenever someone wishes them a Merry Christmas, because they hate the assumption that they belong to a specific group when they don't. A few swallow the greeting and wish a simple Happy Holidays. Others take time to make the correction. One of my friends gets actively belligerent about it.

I grew up in a household that celebrated a religious Christmas. My mother, a preacher's kid, marked the holiday with every single Protestant ritual possible.

After I left home, I moved to a secular Christmas. In my late twenties, after a divorce, I designed a holiday celebration for whatever friends needed one. The celebration included dollar gifts, a turkey (or lasagna) dinner, cookies, and story-reading around the fireplace. Those were wonderful celebrations.

But friends got married. Some died. Others (including us) moved away. Celebrations changed.

And as I got older, I met more and more people who enjoyed the season but celebrated holidays I did not. Some of the holidays like Kwanzaa and Hanukkah were holidays I was familiar with, but I did not know the traditions. Others were holidays I had never even heard of before meeting the friend who celebrated.

Then there were the people who made up their own holidays. They turned an event into a festive celebration or they had an annual party that created its own tradition.

For me, the winter holidays begin with the celebration of American Thanksgiving. It is, I think, my favorite winter holiday. I like the feasting. I like spending time with friends, with no expectation except the enjoyment of a good meal.

The holidays end on January 2, even though I would love to have them end on January 1. By then, I'm done with "special" whatever that might be, and I want a bit of normality back in my life.

Ironically, we don't have either holiday in this volume. If you want a Thanksgiving story or a New Year's story, you'll have to pick up the WMG Holiday Spectacular 2019, because those stories in our 2019 cycle are crime stories.

We do have a Hanukkah story in this volume, but nothing about Kwanzaa, which surprised me. We also have two stories about the solstice and two about holidays I'd never heard of—St. Nicholas Day and Old Christmas Eve.

Two writers made up their own holiday out of whole cloth (you'll see) and three looked at what people who don't celebrate Christmas do during the holiday season.

One story does involve religion, but the religion is sports-related, not some established religion that we're all familiar with.

Because this is the holiday season, almost every story here deals with family in one way or another. Some of the characters have lost their families. Other characters want nothing to do with theirs.

Family secrets get revealed. Family traditions get formed. And in more than one case, families fight with each other in rather dramatic ways.

But none of these stories is the same, and only a few come to similar conclusions. We have some stories with magic, and some without. A few with extraordinary events, and a few that center on the ordinary. All of them share a tone.

You will not find murder here or something terribly violent. You'll find stories like that in our companion volume, Bloody Christmas. Nor will anyone in this volume celebrate Christmas. Those who have actual religious or commercial Christmas traditions also appear in Bloody Christmas and, more specifically, Joyous Christmas, which is one of the most light-hearted volumes I've ever edited.

If you read all three together, you'll find a vast range of stories that touch on every holiday mood, from sheer joy to sheer despair. There's sadness in The Winter Holidays, but there's hope too.

Because that's what this time of year means to me: the end of the darkness, and the beginning of light.

Settle in. Be ready to laugh and cry and worry and dream. Be ready to celebrate the winter holidays with us.

–Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Las Vegas, Nevada