Solstice blog hop
I remember my first Yule. Inside the house you could see candles burning in hurricane lamps and handmade holders. We had decorated the house with pine boughs, mistletoe and holly.Outside, where we stood, a cold breeze was blowing and it was snowing lightly. The woman I would call Electra in one book had a bonfire of fallen branches burning in the clearing behind her house. We talked about the meaning of the season. Despite the cold, we drank a glass of wassail to celebrate of the holidays, and lit a real Yule log.
It was truly magical.
(Electra, at the time High Priestess, has since passed.)
Raised in one religion, I had tried others, but I couldn’t find a ‘place’ to belong. Then I met ‘Electra’ and her daughter. They introduced me to being Pagan, and I had found my ‘home’. From her I learned that my beliefs were my own to create. She believed more in the Celtic tradition, with a touch of the Egyptian beliefs.
When I wrote, I wanted to write about the kind of Pagan she and I were. So I did.
Even my paranormal erotica novel featured a normal Pagan – a Wiccan specifically and deliberately. (Although I have to add that most women don’t have werewolves for boyfriends – but even he is as close to a wolf in his changed form as I could make him.) In fact, those beliefs are part of almost everything I write – sometimes, though, not openly.
In celebration of Yule I’d like to give away either or both The Last Resort and/or Magic Bound. Just reference this blog!
Valerie Douglas is a prolific writer and genre-crosser, much to the delight of her fans. She reads and writes classic fantasy, romance, suspense, and as 
