What Was Your First…?
Favorite Holiday Memory
By: Emily Carrington
What was your first holiday memory?
During this time of year, when so many cultures and subgroups are celebrating, I thought it would be fun to talk about my first holiday memory. My family growing up celebrated my birthday (December 24) and Christmas back to back. However, as regular as the presents and the tree, as familiar as the carols and the church services, was this: I was sick every mid-to-late December, usually with a cold or an ear infection. Now, I’m not sharing this to drum up sympathy but to show what a great family I had back then. There was always laughter and kindness, presents, hot tea, and medicine. I was lucky to have a family experience that reminded me I wasn’t alone in illness.
That’s what I want to talk about for two of my holiday books: how we’re never alone, whether we’re gifted with biological or chosen family. You see, this year my wife’s parents are excluding us from the holiday traditions, choosing a “separate but equal” policy, which, by its very nature, is never equal. On the other hand, I have my wife and her service dog, who always seems to know when I need cheering up. He tends to bring me his current favorite squeaky toy and share lots of licks.
For me, holidays are all about coming together, and that’s what the holidays are about for Peter and Abe from Compassion Fatigue and Charlie and Luis from My Two Front Fangs. For each couple, it’s found family that relieves their hearts, and it’s sharing traditions that fills them with joy.
What are your treasured first holiday memories?
Compassion Fatigue (Marisburg Chronicles 1)
Peter Campbell, a deaf man who teaches sign language classes, believes no one would ever love a bisexual man. When his new veterinarian, Dr. Abe Yoshida, shows him he’s wrong, Peter is left with the monumental task of coming out to his teenage daughter. Can his growing love for Abe give him the courage he needs?
The holidays are the worst time for Dr. Abe. He recently lost a patient, and the circumstances leave him struggling under a burden of guilt. Adding to his depression, as the COVID-19 pandemic worsens, he finds himself the victim of anti-Asian hate crimes. Then he meets Peter, a compassionate, partially in the closet bisexual man. Will Abe let love heal his heart, or will suicide’s sour music bewitch his soul?
Changeling Press/Univeral Link
My Two Front Fangs (A Pack of His Own 6)
As the holidays approach, Luis and Charlie are looking forward to spending time together. But after Charlie’s mother commits suicide, a whole host of problems arise to threaten Charlie and Luis’s marriage. Can the healing promise of Christmas save them?