{Cover credit goes to -starless. It's BEAUTIFUL! I especially love the little handprints of blood on the ice!}

~•~•~•~•~•~
Featured In The mystery "Trending Mysteries/Thrillers" Reading List
(January 12, 2019)

~•~•~•~•~•~
Featured In The WattpadFestivals "Christmas Special" Reading List
~•~•~•~•~•~
Featured In The @mystery "Happy Holidays" Reading List
(December 7, 2019)
~•~•~•~•~•~

~•~•~•~•~•~
began writing: December 2017
finished writing: April 25, 2018
~•~
published on: December 25, 2017
finished publishing: April 30, 2019
~•~•~•~•~•~

Constructive criticism is very much welcomed and appreciated.

THIS IS NOT MY
MOST RECENT DRAFT.
This is an older version. My newest draft is safely stored in Google docs, not to be shared quite yet. Still, I hope you at least enjoy the plot and characters in this one! 😊

In seminary class, our teacher announced that we'd be doing Secret Santa for Christmas. We drew a name from a hat, and before the Christmas Party, we had to buy our person a gift with $10 and then also make them something. With my luck, I got my sister's name... Miss_MegRicwayson. But I couldn't let her know it was me so that was a real pain trying to sneak around and avoid being detected as I worked on her gifts. She almost caught me a few times.

I bought her a music box that plays Fur Elise.

Then another one of my sisters (Shadow-Dragon02)and a close friend of ours who is awesome (AKpoet03) helped come up with the idea of writing a book as the thing we made. I quickly set to work on a story for my sister; one I thought she would enjoy. We used AKpoet03's color printer at her house to print the covers out after we designed them on our phones. (Shadow-Dragon02 was writing a book for the girl she drew from the hat too.)

The story was originally going to be a fantasy/teen fiction of a sort and I had already had part of the plot down. They were going to find baby reindeer and the magic of Christmas was going to help their family heal and grow closer. But...I realized I wanted a darker book, so I changed it.

Since I am a girl who just loves mystery/thriller, I couldn't resist writing a story consisting of that. And because it was Christmas of 2017, I knew a Christmas story would fit perfectly.

I was on a time limit, though, for the party was drawing nearer and nearer with each passing day. It was stressful writing part of the book within a couple of weeks, but I managed to do it, and the result was better than I thought it would be! After I paused my rush to take it slowly - despite how close the party was - I found it easier to relax and write. With a deadline, I was rushed, stressed, and irritated with myself. Slowing down my pace to enjoy the thrill of writing and doing what I love resulted in something amazing.

I didn't have the whole book done by the party because I encountered a slight bit of writer's block near the end of the deadline, but she still loved it and wanted me to finish it as soon as possible. And it gave me a chance to continue receiving inspiration instead of cramming a few ideas I had before into one crazy book! I got so many new ideas that I didn't previously have when the Secret Santa party took place that I know make my book unique. :)

Q&A to answer questions for my sister and why I chose this story with its specific elements to write for her.

1. Why this kind of Christmas plotline and not a more upbeat, teen fiction one?

For one, I had already written a young adult book about Christmas. It was called Christmas Is My Curse. When I drew your name for Secret Santa, and the idea to write you a story was proposed, I wanted to do a mystery/thriller because you like those and it would put a twist to one of our favorite holidays. :)

2. Why is it in 3rd person POV when you do 1st person POV 95% of the time?

I wanted to try something new for you! Since you're my forgiving sister, I wanted to experiment with something new while knowing you would forgive me if it ended up as a disaster. :P

3. Why are Meghan and Gordon divorced when our parents are not?

We are fortunate that our parents are together but not everyone has that. Divorce is, unfortunately, quite common. It also helped with the plot because, from the beginning, I wanted the family's relationships with one another to be tense and distant.

4. Why are the characters named the specific names they are?

I asked you what your favorite names were and you gave me the names used (except Meghan and Gordon). :)

5. Why did you decide on a Christmas story?

Because a Christmas story sounded appropriate for a Secret Santa gift in December.

6. Is there going to be a happy ending? And another question to tie with this one: Will any characters die?

Read it and find out. *evil laughter*

7. Are you going to try and publish this book in real life?

Probably! It would be amazing to publish it. It would be something along the lines of: Once Upon A Time, Dani H Published Her Story An Abnormal Christmas Which Only Exists Because Of A Secret Santa Activity That Happened In December Of 2017. 😂