Cover Reveal for The Town Santa Forgot

It is with glad tidings that Undawnted's DL Mullan reveals the cover art for The Town Santa Forgot: 

I had a fun time creating this book cover, and I had even more fun teasing my readers about it. I create my own covers. Digital art is one of my passions. I began producing my own line of digital art called: Spacescapes, circa 2000, and winning awards at Science Fiction Conventions as well as the Arizona State Fair.  

Over time, this art form went from art shows to the cover of many publications, not just my own. One of my first pieces of art won the best Western cover during an online book event. That was thrilling.

Today, I want to reveal to the general audience my creation for The Town Santa Forgot. I hope you find the art compelling, intriguing, and purchase-able! 

The Town Santa Forgot has its publication release party on my Undawntable Newsletter on December 18th. Please join us! It's free. It's fun. You could win your own copy of the novelette, The Town Santa Forgot. 

Cheers!

Have a great rest of your holiday season.

_____

A writer at heart, Undawnted's own creative spark, DL Mullan, began writing short stories and poetry before adolescence. Ms. Mullan showcases her literary talents by publishing her creative writing. She has short stories and poems published in digital and print collections, from academia to commercial anthologies. In addition, she writes novels, designs apparel, and creates digital art. Ms. Mullan produces her own book cover designs for herself and others. She is an award-winning digital artist and poet.

Currently, she has embarked on writing her multi-book Legacy Universe, Supernatural Superhero Series.

Join her Undawntable Newsletter for news and updates.

December is a Winter Frost Wonderland

2023 is coming to a close. Even though next year brings changes to our content and lineup as we grow, Undawnted continues spreading the Yuletide spirit in the now.

A Novelist Idea will have another graduation for completers of our newsletter's creative program, Hint of the Divine, but this curriculum will move from the newsletter to a fee-based membership in 2024. Stay tuned as Undawnted's Member's Only area develops. 

This last month of the year will see more events arise. The cover reveal party for The Town Santa Forgot will be hosted by our publisher: Sonoran Dawn Studios: Yuletide Jingle: Cover Reveal Party. December 9th-11th, this party will bring our audience new authors to follow and read, as well as contests and prizes. Don't miss your chance to celebrate the holidays with DL Mullan, especially her upcoming Winter Solstice and The Town Santa Forgot release parties (via A Novelist Idea Newsletter). 

Join now and be ready for more publication and cover reveals in the coming weeks. Undawnted's Winter Frost Seasonal Reads program helps with gifting and getting into the spirit of the season. 

This year has been wonderful for creativity and the imagination! 

Thank you all for your continued support of independent creators.

Have a joyous and fulfilling holiday season.

_____

A writer at heart, Undawnted's own creative spark, DL Mullan, began writing short stories and poetry before adolescence. Over the years, Ms. Mullan has showcased her literary talents by self-publishing several collections of her poetry. She also writes novels, designs apparel, and creates digital art. Ms. Mullan‘s creative writing is available in digital and print collections, from academia to commercial anthologies. As an independent publisher, she produces her own book cover designs as well as maintains her own websites. She is an award-winning digital artist and poet. 

 Keep up with her activities by subscribing to her monthly/quarterly A Novelist Idea Newsletter.

 

Off to the Races: December 21 through 25, 2021 for Family and Friends Time

The Undawnted team is going on a Staycation. 

It's not like we can afford a real vacation. We will be around. We have a lot of housekeeping to do to get our events and programs ready for 2022. 

So if you have a question, use our Contact form, and we will respond as usual. 

Otherwise, we will be updating and polishing the site, ourselves, and off some eggnog! 

What do you have planned for the holidays? 

Have a great and fireplace smoking week! 

 

*****

Movie Night with the Novelist is still on for this coming Saturday and Sunday, so don't fret! These movies are the last ones for 2022.

_____

Our news and updates, as well as Movie Night with the Novelist, are now on our A Novelist Idea newsletter!

Join our Creative Tribe. 

Learn. Grow. Master... with Undawnted.

Onomatopoetry Workshop Added to Winter Frost: Holiday

Want to incorporate the holiday season and its spirit into your poetry?

The holidays are full of religious and secular meaning, symbolism, and stories of their own, so why not use these aspects as sources of inspiration for your own rhyming creations? 

For our Winter Frost Special Engagement series, Undawnted is bringing this poetry workshop to you. 

Learn to create holiday poems of your very own on the Onomatopoetry: Holiday Workshop page.

If you would like to learn more poetic forms, then visit Undawnted's Special Engagements: Onomatopoetry Workshops' page. 

 

Have a great and wonderful day.  

 

_____

UPDATE: Poetry workshops have been moved to our Premium Content page.

Learn. Grow. Master... with Undawnted.

Winter Frost Seasonal Reads 2020 Begins

Cold nights sitting by the roaring fireplace with hot coc
oa in hand is what the chill of winter's frost brings us.

The holidays are being celebrated with parties. Carolers make their rounds through neighborhoods, People shop at the local businesses for gifts. Children have sugar plums dancing in their heads.

What to do on those long winter's nights? But read, of course! 

Here are some of my reads for your reading list:

Fiction
Novels  
Nocturnal Redemption: In the Eye of the Beholder
Professor Ryan Blackburn is about to discover a world beyond her own imagination where vampires, werewolves, and magical gypsy witches exist.

*****  

Poetry Chapbooks 
Turquoise 
With everything that happens in this world, you're stronger than you know.

Long Form Poetry
Memoirs of a Psychotic Painting Elephant
You may want to think twice about drinking alcohol after this.
 

 Winter Reads and Workshops run December 1st to February 28th

 

It's Time for Some Autumn Cider 2020

As the evenings turn cool, fire pits are decorated with people cooking marshmallows and wearing sweaters. 

The holidays are close at hand. First, we get to enjoy the descending darkness into longer nights. We get costumes and candy... and fireside stories from beyond.

How do you get your fall fill? Well, read, of course!

Join Undawnted on her Autumn Cider Seasonal Reads. 

Autumn Reads and Workshops runs September 1st to November 30th.

Holiday Poetry with a Political Twist

The 12 Days of Geoengineering
By: DL Mullan

On the first day of spraying the atmosphere,

the geoengineers gave to me:

scratchy itchy skin and

full-fledged Morgellons Disease

On the second day of spraying the atmosphere,

the geoengineers gave to me:

Strontium Burnt Lungs

And full-fledged Morgellons Disease

On the third day of spraying the atmosphere,

the geoengineers gave to me:

A Depleted Ozone Layer

Strontium Burnt Lungs

And full-fledged Morgellons Disease

On the fourth day of spraying the atmosphere,

the geoengineers gave to me:

Aluminum induced Alzheimer’s

A Depleted Ozone Layer

Strontium Burnt Lungs

And full-fledged Morgellons Disease

On the fifth day of spraying the atmosphere,

the geoengineers gave to me:

Rickets from Solar Radiation Management 

Aluminum induced Alzheimer’s

A Depleted Ozone Layer

Strontium Burnt Lungs

And full-fledged Morgellons Disease

On the sixth day of spraying the atmosphere,

the geoengineers gave to me:

More Lies about Global Warming

Rickets from Solar Radiation Management 

Aluminum induced Alzheimer’s

A Depleted Ozone Layer

Strontium Burnt Lungs

And full-fledged Morgellons Disease

On the seventh day of spraying the atmosphere,

the geoengineers gave to me:

Now it’s called: Climate Change

More Lies about Global Warming

Rickets from Solar Radiation Management  

Aluminum induced Alzheimer’s

A Depleted Ozone Layer

Strontium Burnt Lungs

And full-fledged Morgellons Disease

On the eighth day of spraying the atmosphere,

the geoengineers gave to me:

Barium caused Renal Failure  

Now it’s called: Climate Change

More Lies about Global Warming

Rickets from Solar Radiation Management 

Aluminum induced Alzheimer’s

A Depleted Ozone Layer

Strontium Burnt Lungs

And full-fledged Morgellons Disease

On the ninth day of spraying the atmosphere,

the geoengineers gave to me:

Tree Fungal Infections

Barium caused Renal Failure 

Now it’s called: Climate Change

More Lies about Global Warming

Rickets from Solar Radiation Management 

Aluminum induced Alzheimer’s

A Depleted Ozone layer

Strontium Burnt Lungs

And full-fledged Morgellons Disease

On the tenth day of spraying the atmosphere,

the geoengineers gave to me:

UVC that Disinfected My Skin Right Off

Tree Fungal Infections

Barium caused Renal Failure 

Now it’s called: Climate Change

More Lies about Global Warming

Rickets from Solar Radiation Management 

Aluminum induced Alzheimer’s

A Depleted Ozone Layer

Strontium Burnt Lungs

And full-fledged Morgellons Disease

On the eleventh day of spraying the atmosphere,

the geoengineers gave to me:

Dying Oceans and Beached Whales

UVC that Disinfected My Skin Right Off

Tree Fungal Infections

Barium caused Renal Failure 

Now it’s called: Climate Change

More Lies about Global Warming

Rickets from Solar Radiation Management 

Aluminum induced Alzheimer’s

A Depleted Ozone Layer

Strontium Burnt Lungs

And full-fledged Morgellons Disease

On the twelfth day of spraying the atmosphere,

the geoengineers gave to me:

Tic Tac Toe Lines in the Sky

Dying Oceans and Beached Whales

UVC that Disinfected My Skin Right Off

Tree Fungal Infections

Barium caused Renal Failure 

Now it’s called: Climate Change

More Lies about Global Warming

Rickets from Solar Radiation Management  

Aluminum induced Alzheimer’s

A Depleted Ozone Layer

Strontium Burnt Lungs

And full-fledged Morgellons Disease

*****

Have a safe and wonderful Holiday Season!

Support Indie Authors

Vote with your dollar and purchase from Independent Artists and Authors.

Winter Frost Seasonal Reads... Nocturnal Redemption: In the Eye of the Beholder.

Sonoran Dawn Studios Fiction Spotlight on Lulu. 

Winter is Now in Session

December has begun my Winter Reads.

So check out my sidebar menu and see what  I have available for this season!

Have a great and wonderful holiday season!

Countdown to Yule

The UK's Telegraph has a countdown application and Winter Solstice is about 2 hours away.

Here is the link to the article with that meter:  When is the 2015 winter solstice? Everything you need to know about the shortest day of the year.

Not everyone in the world celebrates Christmas. There are a number of different celebrations during this time of year. One of which is Yule.

Yule harkens back to Odin and Norse mythology. It is a time to butcher livestock for their meat, the mead/ale was ready in their casks, and the freezing weather was the death cycle of nature. 

The Winter Solstice became a celebration of life, and the upcoming renewal of spring. 

So this night of the longest darkness and shortest light, be thankful that tomorrow begins the cycle of renewal. 

For the Sonoran Desert:

9h 55m Tomorrow will be 0m0s shorter.

Enjoy the legends, the history, and the holiday spirit.

Hot, Dry, and Sunny with a Touch of the Holidays

The desert is a strange place to live.

Heat and monsoon storms can make the summer months nearly unbearable. The rest of the year, except for six weeks in the winter, makes up for this hot uncomfortable weather. I for one cannot wait for autumn.

I have been searching for a way to be celebratory in the fall without falling into the religious/consumer trappings of the modern world.

If you want to give thanks or presents, why is it only on designated holidays?

Governments or churches should not be setting the standard. As a free thinking adult, I should be setting my own course. I should be my own role model.

So as the heat lingers I have been plotting my days of celebration for this autumn. From simple meteor showers to feasts, my non-conformist ways should not make my life dull or uninviting.

If you could make your own holiday schedule, what would it be?

Have a great and wonderful day!  

The Holiday Reminder

It’s the holidays again
and you are feeling blue
There are no presents
There is no tree
There is nothing around for you
The bitterness is not from the cold outside
but from your endless empty heart
Hopelessness has taken hold inside
Instead of sitting there wishing
for objects that do not matter
Be thankful for what you do have
for it is probably more than most
Look around and invite friends over
and raise such a clatter!
Drink with a merry toast to all
You do not have to have what is material
or need to feel discontent
As long as love and good cheer
is in everything you do everyday
So open your heart with happiness
and brighten the holidays with a smile
All you need is there for the taking
It is real and alive and waiting
but only if you believe in the goodwill
of all the inhabitants of the Earth
It’s not about religion
It’s not about money
It is the idea that we are more
than a shell of flesh and blood
we are so below as above
spirits with an abundance of love
so throw off the yoke of taking
and begin to receive what is yours
The holidays are not about things
It’s about if you care more for others
than what can be purchased at the stores.

 ---~o0o~---oOo---~o0o~---oOo---~o0o~----oOo---~o0o~---

 Publication Credit: Villa de Paz Gazette. December 24, 2014.

Time Passes When You're Ain't Having a Good Time

Vertigo.

Spin you round and round and you haven't gone anywhere. Awesome! I have been having dizzy spells for a while but today was a full on vertigo episode. 

I guess that is my Yule present this year! 

All I wish for the holidays is to gain some measure of health. Being ill is not fun or a vacation, it is hard work. Plus with everyone burning in their fireplaces... really, in Phoenix? Yeah, it's sooo cold to be smoking the rest of us out of our lungs.

I am in bed like i have been most of this year. I need a new mattress. That's not going to happen either. 

Hmmm... something needs to go right here. What can I think of? Sleep. I can sleep the night and day away. Maybe I will gain enough sleep credits to be well enough to do some writing. 

I think I found my New Year's Resolution. 

Sleep. 

Have a Safe and Wonderful Holiday Season!

Home Alone for the Holidays

That is one thing that upsets me about the holidays. Since I am chronically ill and no one wants to help me out: I am home alone for the holidays.

I have always been ultra responsible. Clean. Non-smoker. No drugs. No alcohol. 

I have taken care of everyone one else including their messes. When the tables were turned, good bye! and good luck! 

Even now I take care of other people's cats in the neighborhood. The man next door trapped and spayed a mother cat and her three babies. Then he stopped caring for them. One was so skinny and sickly, I scrounged up some food to give to her. Another sibling was ill and I had to give her up, my service cat, to the Humane Society to fix up and adopt out. (I so mourn for her everyday.) 

Then there's the man's renter. A drug addict with AIDS who doesn't help me out even when I demanded him to do so. I am left holding the bag and his grey, long-haired Russian Blue calico cat.

Four, 16lb bags of dry cat food, five bags of natural litter, and sixty cans of wet food a month to keep up everyone's cats on the block. Perhaps I should start a donation site and link it here so I can see if anyone can help me before I have to send half away to the Humane Society. I just cannot keep up.

So as I lay here in bed trying to stay warm, I am alone. The cats I do have inside love sleeping on my couches. They are great couches by the way, which I cover with towels. 

When my family left me, they left me with nothing. Literally. I had a bed, desk, computer chair. I believe that was all. They took everything else in the house including the appliances. 

My family was trying to further debase, torture, and punish me for being chronically and devastatingly ill. Part of which was their fault. They made me ill with black mold from a leaky sink. 

After not telling me for two years of the leak, I had to call for a handyman while I was trying to recover from the pesticide poisoning from my former employer... I was not a well woman to be doing anything. So my family left the black mold to grow in the particle board for seven months after I fixed the leak.

By the way, it takes less than an hour to remove the particle board from a sink cupboard... but that was too much to ask of my family.

By then, I was skeletal, allergic to practically everything because my immune system was already collapsed from the mercury poisoning. It just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?

My inheritance was also confiscated by my family as I guess payment of taking care of me when I had taken care of them for over ten years. My bills apparently weren't as important as their bills. 

So I am here. I should probably get out my copy of Home Alone just to cheer me up. Well, that's if I still have it and it too wasn't already confiscated like so many of my other possessions were. 

OMG, how depressing... I must find something good.

I did get furniture eventually when I received my disability. I discovered I didn't have to go into chemical laden stores to shop for furniture. I was so happy! 

I found a furniture store across town that was an outlet of sorts. I got a beautiful two-tone dining table, six chairs, a couch, and sofa for a very reasonable price. Good furniture too. I believe it is called Ashley Signature Furniture. Of course, I paid the close-out prices! I didn't have much to spend. 

I did find another online store with discounted furniture and got a wonderful bedroom set. I never had a bedroom set before. It's the warm dark cherry wood. 

Okay, I turned the bad into good. Wheew! That was a close one. 

So I better go harass my kitties, steal one to watch a movie with me as I cannot wait to sleep to see if Sugar Plums really do dance in our heads!

Have a great and wonderful night! 

P.S... my Home Alone dvd is missing ;(

Happy Yule Tidings

December 21st is the customary day of celebration for Yule. It's supposed to be the shortest day of the year. With the long night, the land lays fallow waiting for the warmth of the spring to come.

Pagans have celebrated this day of death and rebirth for as long as humans have marked the cycles. 

Other religions have taken the holiday and made it their own through political and religious might. So we have holiday after holiday during the winter season. 

I enjoy celebrating today because it feels purer than other days. I am not brainwashed to believe in a birth I know did not happen until March or pressured into being like everyone else. I can be me and celebrate what I chose, when I chose to do it.

Yule for me is about saying good-bye to the old. I have a lot of old to say good-bye to too. This year I have become quite independent as a disabled American. I have my ups and downs, my bad days and my good days. Everyday I am grateful that I can be who I am without ridicule, pressure, or disrespect from others. 

I am very ill. Nothing is really going to change that aspect of my life. There is only so many times your immune system can be collapsed, your liver compromised, your renal system infected, and your digestive system attacked to notice that your nervous system, heart, and lungs do not work as they should any longer.

Even though I am in bed more hours of the day than I am in motion, I still am grateful for every day that I am here. I have a lot to do! I am doing my art and writing my books. 

I am doubly grateful to be the editor and staff writer for my community online newspaper: the Villa de Paz Gazette. I only hope to continue writing great articles that impact the way people perceive reality. 

I am also helping my community fight off a vulture capitalist that wants to destroy our golf course for a housing development. It's nice to be back in the saddle again, even if it's a kid's pony ride. 

Yule like other holidays should bring out the best in you. 

Be happy. Be grateful. Be open. 

The universe is watching and waiting for you to open up to the possibilities that await. So take some time this busy holiday season and make a list. Check it twice. List all the things you are grateful for. 

With joy and gratitude in your heart, nothing is impossible: including a miraculous recovery...