Subject: 🔮 Exciting news from Jennifer Blackstream! 🕵️‍♀️


All right, it's holiday go time. If you're anything like me you're just now realizing we're a week from Christmas and you haven't finished Christmas shopping yet.


Don't. Panic. (Do as I say, not as I do)


You don't have to stop reading just because your hands are busying wrapping presents and you're running around your local store or examining online shipping dates.


Audiobooks can save you.


You can now grab any of the Blood Prince books in audio direct from my website, and have something to listen to while cooking, or shopping, or hiding in the bedroom yelling "Don't come in!" even though you're sitting there with a cup of coffee trying to relax and there's not a present in sight.


May I recommend "Dead to Begin With?" It's a short holiday audiobook featuring our favorite vampire, Kirill (aka Anton Winters, but this is before that). And if you buy the audiobook, you can add the ebook for free. (In fact, if you buy any audiobook, you can add the ebook for free)


Not sure how to download/read/listen to a book you buy direct from me? It's so easy even I can do it. Watch.


Oh! And did I mention that my soon to be stepson, Dylan Houston, has created some fantastic art of everyone's favorite witch PI? Check it out:

If you love it as much as I do, I have good news. You can get this fantastic art on a coffee mug or a hoodie! 

We have our first Dear Mother Abby!

Dear Mother Abby,


My husband & I were married in October 2022 and his grandchildren want to call me Miss J**** STILL! (We were both widowers when we met and dated for a year before we became engaged & married the following year). How do I handle this situation because frankly I am over it!! For one thing I'm NOT a Ms. I'm a MRS.


My grandkids call him "Pop Pop or grandpa....I love that mine were so accepting of him, they SEE how happy he has made me and it's wonderful. The Holidays are coming and I want to handle this tastefully and with a little bit of a bite, as it's very frustrating to feel outside of the family. Any help will be met with appreciation. Humor is great too.


Thanks, J******

Dear J****


How to proceed depends largely on why you want them to call you Grandma.


If you want them to call you Grandma because they love you and feel you are their grandma, then the best you can do is tell them you'd like them to call you Grandma and then leave it be and let them make the decision in their own time. Know that it's possible they will never call you grandma, not because they don't like you, but because they may never get to that place.


If you feel strongly about it, you can also ask your husband to speak with his kids. Perhaps if they know it's important to you and that you view the moniker Grandma as a sign of affection and acceptance, they'll get on board.


The truth is, you might be able to force the moniker, but you can't force the emotion that comes with it. It's possible you'll have to accept other signs that they like and accept you, such as spending time with you, and sharing details of their lives with you.

 

-- Mother Renard


J***


If you only want them to call you Grandma because you deserve the title as their grandpa's wife, their feelings toward you be damned, then carrying around an air horn during visits and blowing it whenever they call you Ms. J*** and following it up with "Please call me Grandma" or "It's MRS. J***" will certainly get the point across.


-- Peasblossom


Who is this weird woman who writes such stories?


So I'm driving in the car with my eight year old daughter and we're listening to Voiceplay (an amazing acapella group). They're singing "Enemy" by Imagine Dragons, and their bass dude, Geoff, lets out a deliciously deep evil laugh.


So I say to my daughter, "I wish I had a great evil laugh like that."


And she immediately responds, in a very serious tone, "Mom, if you want to be an evil genius, all you have to do is stick to the plan."


Then she returned to staring out the window.


I have questions.


Is she saying she has an evil plan ready to go and I just need to say the word? Does she have her own evil plan and she's encouraging me to get my own? Is the evil plan already in progress? Does this have anything to do with the "potion" I found in the fridge that seemed to be mostly water with some hair in it? Was it my hair?


Why don't they put this sort of thing in the parenting books?!


Sigh. Well, anyway. Happy holidays!


JB