In the Still Midwinter

By Charlotte Henley Babb

Five stories of Christmas redemption and relevation--families, strangers, coworkers, and even the dear departed.

* Queenie's Christmas - A doll helps a girl and her mom find the spirit
* Cocoa and the Cat - It's dangerous to bring in a stray
* The Brick - Christmas is about surprises, right?
* Moon Dance - The magic comes just when a person needs it
* In the Still Midwinter - When the lights go out, will it be the worst party ever?

Being vulnerable helps people find the true spirit of the season despite the hype and expectations. Settle in with a cup of cocoa and enjoy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Charlotte Henley Babb
• Release date: Nov 28, 2015
• ISBN: 9781943850006

Charlotte Henley Babb

Charlotte Henley Babb has been writing since she was four, making up stories about fairies in the back yard and aliens in the forest. She has studied the folk stories of many cultures and wonders what happened to ours.She asks where the stories are for people over 20 who have survived marriage, divorce, child-raising, education, bankruptcy, and widowhood. She believes that the initiation of adolescence is only the first cut, not the deepest, and she continues to explore the second half of life for wisdom, thrills and the heck of it.She has taught writing for Greenville Technical College and the University of Phoenix. She's exploring the realm of steampunk and creative artificing.Apart from that, she hangs out in the Twilight Lounge, a nexus between the four dimensions of Faery, Mundane, Cyberspace and the HyperDrome.Charlotte is the author of an adult fantasy novel, Maven Fairy Godmother, released March 2012, which won a Sharp Write Book award for Fantasy in 2014, and Best Novel for Adults in the South Carolina Media Women Communications Contest in 2014. She has several fantasy short stories collected in Maven's Fractured Fairy Tales and PumpkinEater, as well as southern fiction in Walking Off Heaven's Shore, Just a Smidgen of Magic, and In the Still Midwinter. She wrote several stories in Port Nowhere, a shared world science fiction anthology, and random stories and articles. She presented "Fairy Tales and the Industrial Revolution" at Upstate Steampunk Con 2011, and has appeared on panel discussions at Dragon*Con 2011, ConCarolinas 2012 and 2015, Fairie Escape Atlanta 2012, and LibertyCon 2012. She presented at ConJuration in Atlanta in 2015. She has also presented at the Southeastern Writers Association annual conference.She loves fractured fairy tales for grownups and writes them for your enjoyment. Never miss a new release. Sign up for her mailing list at http://bit.ly/RedStilletos

Book preview

In the Still

Midwinter

A Christmas Anthology

Charlotte Henley Babb

Sign up for the monthly newsletter

and get a free Maven short story, Red Stilettos.

http://bit.ly/RedStilletos

Also by Charlotte Henley Babb

Maven Fairy Godmother

Maven's Fractured Fairy Tales

Just a Smidgen of Magic

Pumpkineater

Walking off Heaven's Shore

Coming Soon

That Darn Maven

20 Hours to Charles Town

Copyright © 2015 Charlotte Henley Babb

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 1519533810

ISBN-13: 978-1519533814

Cover Artwork ©2015 by Charlotte Henley Babb

Edition: March 2015

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission in writing from author.

Dedication

To Joanna Billingsley

my mother

for all the love she has given me

over the decades

Contents

Acknowledgments

Queenie's Christmas

Cocoa and the Cat

The Brick

Moon Dance

In the Still Midwinter

About the Author

Other Works

Walking Off Heaven's Shore

Maven Fairy Godmother: Through the Veil

Excerpt of Maven Fairy Godmother: Through the Veil

Maven's Fractured Fairy Tales

Just a Smidgen of Magic

Pumpkineater

20 hours to Charleston

Free Short Story: Red Stilettos

Acknowledgments

You know why and when and how

Bruce Cannon

Phil Carter

Donna Hammett

Misty Massey

Jeff Mullen

Holly McClure

Phil Ross

Patti Lee Thomas

Rachel White

Christopher Wilkerson

Queenie's Christmas

Stars shivered in the wind. The moon shone like a chunk of ice from a bucket. Debbie’s breath made small mists in the frosty moonlight. Maple branches scratched at the roof, or maybe it was reindeer? Snuggled in Granny's quilt that Mommy had warmed by the fire and wrapped her in at bedtime, Debbie held her breath and wished again that she had Queenie to hold.

She would lie still and listen until Mommy went to bed, then get up to wait for Santa. She had to explain to him that Queenie had disappeared from her bed three days ago, just vanished. Queenie wasn’t in the toy box under the bed, not in the closet, not in the kitchen, not in the living room. She was gone. If Santa could bring her back, then everything would be all right.

Queenie was a ballerina doll with brown eyes, just the color of Debbie's. Once she had worn a crown in her black hair. Her elbows and wrists moved like a real dancer. She could even point her toes, except for the foot Debbie broke. Debbie always kept Queenie's tights on to keep from losing her foot and to cover the red fingernail polish