HAPPY HOLIDAYS Happy Holidays to all our faithful readers from the members of The Blood Red Pencil blog. We appreciate your loyal following and the great comments that have led to some beneficial discussions. We all truly learn from each other and you have proven that point through your responses. Whatever holiday you celebrate, may it be filled with good times, good friends, good food, and special moments. ------ Posted by Maryann Miller on behalf of all the contributors.

Holidays are a great opportunity to enrich your manuscript. The trick is not to just mention a holiday in passing, but to add vivid descriptions of how one is celebrated in your character's life. You can draw on this by your own experience. Think of a holiday, such as Thanksgiving. What's the weather like outside? That will depend on where you live and/or the climate vagaries of the fictional year you create. Who is invited to your character's house to celebrate the holiday? Who prepares the meal? The mother, the wife, the son, the daughter, one, some, or all? Who helps? How is the table set? That may depend on the station in life of your characters, whether they're well-off or perhaps just-married college students. What is on the menu? Does it reflect the main character's ethnicity, or perhaps some quirk? Many people eat turkey for Thanksgiving, but maybe your character is alone and eating spam. What about guilt? There are lots of possibilities for that, such as a ...