Cheese Week by Laura Hunsaker

 This is that week where time means nothing. What is time, even? 

In my household we call it Cheese Week because of this meme:

One of the things that threw me off, and had me miss my day (sorry all! I was due the 26th!). I work in a school so I do get a couple of weeks off, but what do you all do with this weird week after Christmas and before New Year's Day? Apparently  I eat too much cheese ;)

I like to leave my tree up until New Year's as well, so I'm literally in my pajamas, hanging out with my dog, watching too much Netflix, and reading all the books I got for the holidays.

I'm keeping this post short and sweet because  I would rather hear from you. What do you do with this time of year? Watch T.V. or read? Do a puzzle, travel? Tell me in the comments!

And if you need a book or two to hit your Goodreads goal, I have several short stories! Dreams of the Future is my latest, and it's a short novella/long short story. But Amethyst Heat is free, it's like 7 pages, and it counts on Goodreads ;) Just sayin'

My Short Stories/Novellas:

Vampires

Time Travel

Romantic Suspense

Look For the Magic by Laura Hunsaker

 In my free short story Amethyst Heat I wrote in a magical ring from the heroine’s aunt Gilly. She doesn't know that it's magic, of course. Not until something big happens. This ring sends our heroine back through time. When people ask writers how they get their ideas, which we do hear often, that's something that doesn't always have an easy answer. But with this story, I do have an easy answer!

I based the idea off of a ring my own aunt gave me when I was a child. While mine definitely hasn’t sent me through time, it does have a bit of its own magic.

See this ring?

My aunt gave it to me when I was seven. She passed away the next year, so while it was already special, that made it even more so. I wore this ring every day until I was ten when I lost it in the summer camp rec center pool. I searched so much for that ring, I had friends helping, camp counselors, and we didn't even catch a hint of the ring. In a crazy twist of fate, I found it 3 months later in the pool drain (that we'd already searched months ago!) when I was diving for (ha) rings.

I called it my lucky ring and wore it for years, even as beat up as it was from the pool filter incident, until I lost it on a choir trip in high school. We were going up to Utah for a couple of days, and I found it on the bus ride back. It was on the seat. I did not sit in the same seat as I had before. Seriously. Lucky ring, guys. So by this point I put it in my jewelry box so I wouldn’t lose it.

Amethyst Heat was the first thing I wrote (2009) and it's very super short, but even though my ring isn't an amethyst, it was the inspiration for the story.

Around 2016, the magic was still working, because I let my youngest wear it. She was three, and I never saw it again...until about two years later! My youngest found it on the ground in my room. We vacuum daily in my household. Daily. How is this ring just chilling on the ground for two years?! It’s once more in my jewelry box for safekeeping. Lucky ring is lucky.

Amethyst Heat is a very short story, about seven pages long, if that. And it's free!

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Add short story Amethyst Heat to your shelves on Goodreads



While out riding, Meg McMurray finds herself on unfamiliar lands. Gone are the long expanses of Oklahoma prairie, and in front of her are the wild Scottish Highlands. How did she come to be there, and did Aunt Gilly's amethyst ring have anything to do with it?

A sweet romance set in the Highlands of Scotland.