Guest Blogger - Leann Sweeney

Books and the Magic of Christmas
By Leann Sweeney

What is Christmas without books?

Okay, mostly cookbooks, but still .... I am kidding of course. Every year when I decorate for the holidays, the Christmas books come out. My two favorites are my copies of The Night Before Christmas and A Christmas Carol. If you think about it, both these stories have strong mystery elements. That's important, since I no longer read anything without a mystery.

But until I thought about these books in line with the theme of this blog, Mayhem and Magic, I realized I'd failed to look at the magic. There's a lot more magic in Night Before... and ...Carol than there is mystery. And isn't that what Christmas is all about? Magic?

Even when I no longer believed in Santa Claus, I wanted to believe. And that's why having kids is so great. It's another chance at being immersed in the magic of a very special time of year.

When it comes to other Christmas books, I'm too busy to read during the season and I miss the holiday when it's over, so picking up a mystery book with a holiday theme then just isn't appealing. That's strange, since my editor and I just talked about me writing a holiday themed book. We scrapped the idea and now I'm kind of glad we did! Instead, I will have a book out in May, The Cat, The Professor and The Poison—second in the Cats in Trouble Mysteries. And there will be at least two more cat mysteries after that. Now, it's time to get out a Christmas book and start reading ... I mean looking. For recipes.