Wattpad brings you a guest post from Samantha Young, writer of “Blood Will Tell”, the first book in her Warriors of Ankh series.
A short literary and film guide to getting into the Christmas Spirit:
I love Christmas. Not because of all the presents and the mad shopping trips. If anything, the mad shopping trips are enough to put a person off Christmas. No, I love Christmas because the concept of Santa is pretty freaking magical. And as a writer I love anything that is pretty freaking magical.
Okay, I’m not going to lie, when I was kid I liked the presents part. Of course I did. Our family didn’t have a lot of money but my mum and dad scraped together everything they could throughout the year so that by Christmas morning we’d walk (run in a zombified state from lack of sleep) downstairs to the sitting room to find a pile of presents for each of us. But mostly the excitement was in where those presents had come from. I remember vividly on Christmas Eve waiting until my mum had closed the door to my bedroom and then tip-toeing over to my bedroom window. I’d peek out of the curtain and stare up at the night sky for ages, waiting to catch a glimpse of Santa and his reindeer. Sometimes I swore I even heard their hooves on the roof of our house, and I’d swap stories with my friends when I got back to school, each of us agreeing that yes, Santa’s reindeers did in fact land on our roofs!
Somewhere along the way the magical part, the part that really mattered to me, dissipated. It was kind of heartbreaking actually. So now, I have to look for inspiration to feel the magic at Christmas time. What better place to look for inspiration than in the imagination of writers and filmmakers? Are you all expecting me to mention How the Grinch Stole Christmas? Well, I have but not because I know much about it. I’m from the UK and Dr. Seuss, and in particular, The Grinch, is more widely known in the US. I think that’s kind of unfortunate but we do have our own Christmas books—such as The Snowman. I grew up reading Raymond Briggs The Snowman, and I love it. I still remember finding it in my stocking when I was five years old—my parents having cottoned on to the fact that I already thought books were best. thing. ever.
My number one series of books/films to get me in the Christmas spirit may be a surprise to some, and maybe understandable to others: The Harry Potter Series.
Yes. The Harry Potter Series. I will read those books and watch those movies without fail every December. One: they always have the Christmas scenes which in the movies make our own Christmas celebration look like utter crap in comparison, and two: the films came out at Christmas and for a few years there I had back that anticipation of expecting to see something truly magical around that time of year.
And finally, let’s not forget A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Whether you like the Dickens classic or not, you cannot deny that the Muppets pulled off one hell of an adaptation.
I just don’t get that Christmassy feeling without watching Michael Caine converse with a dancing Muppet in a hula skirt.
Read Samantha Young’s “Blood Will Tell” on Wattpad!
What would you do if you were born to be a predator? Would you fight your natural instincts or give in to your nature?
Eden is a soul eater closing in on her Awakening. Her family has convinced her that soon she will have to take a life in order to save her own. It’s a decision Eden doesn’t want to deal with even as her hunger for souls grows stronger every day.
To complicate her impossible position, new guy in school Noah Valois’ determination to befriend her puts Eden in touch with a humanity she’s never known. Addicted to his company, his friendship and affection, she becomes more and more terrified that giving into her hunger will mean losing him forever…
… But when she discovers that Noah is not what he seems, his betrayal forces her to face two choices. One will offer her revenge and the destruction of a boy she loved. The other may offer her a life of eternal redemption…