Pix-N-Pens Publishing: December 2014

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Does Your Nativity Set Have Personality?

Nativity sets are a beautiful reminder of Who the Christmas season is all about, so we asked our authors to describe their characters' or their own Nativity sets. Each Nativity is unique and original - just like our characters and our authors.

From Jerusha Agen:

Oriana Sanders from This Shadow has a favorite Nativity set. It’s not fancy at all, simply made out of colorful pipe cleaners, glue, and a cardboard box, but it’s beautiful to her because it was made by the students in her afterschool program at the inner city middle school where she taught. The kids surprised her with the handmade Nativity the Christmas Oriana had to stop teaching. The bittersweet blend of blessings and sadness in her life that Christmas are all wrapped up in that simple little Nativity scene—the picture of love come to Earth, made by little hands with love.

From Sheryl Holmes:

The Nativity set I have is fashioned by an Italian artist, with beautiful expression detail, colored in tan and gold and brown making it appear quite real.

From Fay Lamb:

Libby’s nativity set is a live one. She has hired some unemployed folks to live out the scene at her business, Happily Ever After Gardens.

From Betty Noyes:

Ceramic manger scene, complete with Baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the three Wise Men on camels, and the shepherds with some of their sheep—all backlit with candles.

From Julie Arduini:

Sara Bivins, the town matriarch and Ben’s recently widowed grandma, has a special set that her husband carved for her early in the marriage.

Do you have a favorite Nativity set? Share it with us!

Join more of the Five Golden Days of Christmas here:

Tuesday's Blogs:

PNP: Does Your Nativity Set Have Personality?

WIP: Authors and Characters Dream of Christmas Vacations

Sheryl Holmes: Give Hope: Dump an Omelet in the Trash

WIP: Romantic Suspense Author Living on Faith

Tracy Ruckman: Christmas at Rumi Rancho

Julie Arduini: The Focus of Christmas

Betty Owens: Authorview: Elizabeth Noyes

Fay Lamb: On the Ledge: A Very Special Mom

Monday's Blogs:

PNP: Writers’ Favorite Christmas Songs

WIP: Writers Play Secret Santa on Characters

Sheryl Holmes: Give Hope: Carry!

PNP: Rare Rabbits in Bolivia

WIP: Just Don’t Take Her Chocolate!

Tracy Ruckman: Romance, Suspense, Cruises, and Retirement: An Author’s Life

Julie Arduini: Christmas Present Memories

Fay Lamb: On the Ledge: Is that All?

Debra Butterfield Interview with Elizabeth Noyes

And be sure to mark your calendar! We're having a Facebook Party on Friday, December 5, and you're invited! We're giving away books, jewelry, Christmas ornaments, a Nativity, gift cards, and more!

Cancer Survivor and Mom of Nine Offers Hope All Year Long

Over 100,000 people are expected to be diagnosed with colorectal cancer this year. Today, we celebrate the life and recovery of one colorectal cancer survivor.

Sheryl Holmes, author of Towdah: A Cancer Surivor's Song of Hope, now spends her time sharing joy, hope, strength and courage with others who face challenging circumstances. Her website is entitled Always a Song of Hope, and her joy is contagious to anyone who encounters her.

Sheryl Holmes is a daughter of the Most High King and desires to see His sparkle her life everyday.

She is a wife to a most steady and patient man. They have nine biological children together - 5 boys, 4 girls - 2 sets of twins within the bunch; she home educated her children for eighteen years!

Currently, she is a substitute teacher in the local public schools. Sheryl thinks it's the best when she can read, and cuddle, and dance, and sing, and create with colors and food and gardens. She enjoys words and delights to write them down in notes and lists and poems and letters. Ideas are her favorite!

Sheryl is a cancer survivor and Towdah: A Cancer Survivor's Song of Hope is her first book. She has also co-authored The Christmas Tree Treasure Hunt and has been published in Life Lessons from Moms and Life Lessons from Dads via Write Integrity Press. More than all of this, She loves the Lord Jesus Christ and believes He is the only one and true source of HOPE.

Born and raised in Massachusetts, Sheryl is a New England girl. She attended the University of
Massachusetts in Amherst Massachusetts and was awarded the Chancellor's Talent Award Scholarship and holds a BA in Dance. She obtained her MA in Dance Movement Therapy from Antioch New England College in Keene, New Hampshire.

Sheryl is an active member at Dwight Chapel's Christ Community Church in Belchertown, Massachusetts.