I'm pleased to welcome James Cudney back to Cozy Up With Kathy today. James writes the Braxton Campus Mystery series. Sleigh Bell Tower is the eighth book in the series and will be released next week.
I’m thrilled to be back on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Blog Tour with Lori Caswell and the entire team who loves books as much as I do. Many thanks to Cozy Up With Kathy for the opportunity to be a guest on this blog in the tour. Today, I want to share some holiday traditions with each of you… and I would love to hear what your traditions are!
I have a lot of aunts, uncles, and cousins. When I was a child, we all lived within 15 minutes of each other on Long Island. Celebrating the holidays together was always a favorite part of the season. We typically got together with my dad’s side of the family on Christmas Eve. He and each of his siblings would take turns hosting the event. My mom and I would go to church around 4pm for Christmas Eve mass, and then we’d meet everyone else wherever the event took place. If we were hosting it, my dad would keep things cooking before we got home from church. The food was always grand, and the presents were even grander. There was a competition for who decorated the best packages, and everyone exchanged gifts… mostly because it was 3 siblings and 4 cousins, so it was the smaller side of the family. I loved being with them and my grandparents, and I was always amazed at the books and clothes they’d buy. I was an easy kid to shop for – I never wanted anything except for books and clothes!
On Christmas morning, I wasn’t allowed out of my bedroom until both my parents were awake. My mom insisted that we have breakfast first, but we were allowed to open our stockings while at the dining room table. I usually helped cook, and I would invent ways to walk into the living room to glance at the tree and all the presents underneath it. I’d also hear someone yelling at me to get out of the living room or I’d lose a present for every time I was caught sneaking in there. Ouch! I hated losing presents, even though that never really happened. My grandparents lived with us, so they would come over after breakfast (they had a separate entrance on their side of the house) and exchanging their own presents with each other. My other grandfather would drive over in the morning too, so I sometimes had to wait until 9am to open presents. This might explain why I have no patience for anything anymore!
In the afternoon, my mom’s side would get together. They also took turns hosting, but with 5 siblings and 15 cousins, it was a huge affair. We also couldn’t afford to buy presents for everyone, so each family was assigned another family and had to buy the gifts for them. Sometimes, if you were the godparent to someone else in the family, you’d get them a gift too. I loved seeing everyone on Christmas, and it was always a special time of year. Now, everyone’s scattered across the northeast, and all the cousins have grown up and gotten married. Several have kids of their own, and all our grandparents have passed away. It’s very different, but we do call each other throughout the day.
Now that I’m grown up too, and in my own relationship, I’m sharing other traditions. My in-laws buy ornaments for everyone in the family as part of the gifts. I love seeing the tree change from year to year (it’s now been 10 years we’re together) and experiencing the memories of all the past holidays. For the last few years, Ryder and Baxter, our dogs, have taken photos at Christmas, and those become the cover for our holiday card the next holiday season. As I share this post today, I will also reveal that I just bought a house in Connecticut, where I’ll be moving in 2022. It’ll be our last Christmas in NYC, and next year, I’m hoping to invite all the families over to our place for the holiday season. A time for new traditions! How about you? Tell us all about your favorite traditions this holiday season!
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Sleigh Bell Tower: Murder at the Campus Holiday Gala (Braxton Campus Mysteries) by James J. Cudney
About Sleigh Bell Tower
Cozy Mystery 8th in Series
Setting - Pennsylvania
Publisher: Next Chapter (December 20, 2021)
Hardcover: 276 pages Paperback: 276 pages
When Bell Towers decides to build their newest boutique hotel in Wharton County, Braxton establishes a hospitality program as part of their university expansion. Despite the Ingram and Lynch family ties to prominent citizens, a dispute over the proposed landsite pits citizens against each other.
One takes matters into their own hands and slays the hotel magnate during the campus holiday party. As the list of suspects increases, long-lost family members are anxious to keep their secrets from being revealed, complicating Sheriff Montague's ability to determine the murderer’s true motive. Even Kellan is forced to cast doubt on his friends and colleagues when it becomes obvious someone he knows committed the ultimate crime.
April and Kellan are also celebrating their first Christmas and Hanukkah together, exchanging gifts based on the classic Twelve Days of Christmas song. While they trim the tree, light the menorah, and experience all the traditional holiday festivities with the kids, Nana D delivers her sarcastic brand of humor and endlessly tortures the town. Among Eleanor's surprise news, Augie's new girlfriend, and Myriam's hilarious demands, Kellan's dealing with unexpected holiday drama.
The poor guy simply wants to spend the merry season with his family before he's forced to trek to Scotland to fulfill his promise to the late Constance Garibaldi. What kind of quest has the psychic sent him on now?
About James J. Cudney
Background
James is my given name, but most folks call me Jay. I live in New York City, grew up on Long Island, and graduated from Moravian College, an historic but small liberal arts school in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, with a degree in English literature and minors in Education, Business and Spanish. After college, I accepted a technical writing position for a telecommunications company during Y2K and spent the last ~20 years building a career in technology & business operations in the retail, sports, media, hospitality, and entertainment industries. Throughout those years, I wrote short stories, poems, and various beginnings to the “Great American Novel,” but I was so focused on my career that writing became a hobby. In 2016, I committed to focusing my energies toward reinvigorating a second career in reading, writing, and publishing.
Author
Writing has been a part of my life as much as my heart, mind, and body. At some points, it was just a few poems or short stories; at others, it was full length novels and stories. My current focus is family drama fiction, cozy mystery novels, and suspense thrillers. I conjure characters and plots that I feel must be unwound. I think of situations people find themselves in and feel compelled to tell the story. It’s usually a convoluted plot with many surprise twists and turns. I feel it necessary to take that ride all over the course. My character is easily pictured in my head. I know what he is going to encounter or what she will feel. But I need to use the right words to make it clear.
Reader & Reviewer
Reading has also never left my side. Whether it was children’s books, young adult novels, college textbooks, biographies, or my ultimate love, fiction, it’s ever present in my day. I read two books per week and I’m on a quest to update every book I’ve ever read on Goodreads, write up a review, and post it on all my sites and platforms.
Blogger & Thinker
I have combined my passions into a single platform where I share reviews, write a blog and publish tons of content: TRUTH. I started my 365 Daily Challenge, where I post about a word that has some meaning to me and converse with everyone about life. There is humor, tears, love, friendship, advice, and bloopers. Lots of bloopers where I poke fun at myself all the time. Even my dogs have had weekly segments called “Ryder’s Rants” or “Baxter’s Barks,” where they complain about me. All these things make up who I am; none of them are very fancy or magnanimous, but they are real. And that’s why they are me.
Genealogist & Researcher
I love history and research, finding myself often reaching back into the past to understand why someone made the choice he or she did and what were the subsequent consequences. I enjoy studying the activities and culture from hundreds of years ago to trace the roots and find the puzzle of my own history. I wish I could watch my ancestors from a secret place to learn how they interacted with others, and maybe I’ll comprehend why I do things the way I do.
Author Links
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, I knew I’d stumbled upon my passion again, suddenly dreaming up characters, plots, and settings all day long. I chose my second novel, Father Figure, through a poll on my blog where I let everyone vote for their favorite plot and character summaries. It is with my third book, 