Anna Jones Buttimore

This Christmas I wish you all the best that the season of peace on earth and goodwill to all men has to offer: My your little darlings be angels in the school nativity play, not cows* May your panto hero actually be able to hear you shout "He's behind you!" May you remember to blow out your advent candle before it burns halfway through to next week* May your carol singers actually sing carols, rather than mumbling a half-hearted verse of "We wish you a Merry Christmas" and then holding out their hands for money* May the children remain peacefully asleep as Father Christmas places their filled stockings on their beds, and may they remain peacefully asleep until the sun has risen May you remember to put on your shoes when you go to church, and not find yourself standing in the foyer in your slippers trying to pass them off as a festive statement* May your crackers contain hats that fit, jokes that are funny, and novelty gifts that are actually useful*

I'm very grateful to have permission to reproduce here something by Carrie Stringham Teasdale. I've never met Carrie, but her words had quite an impression on me so I sought her out to ask whether I could share them on my blog.  As background this past Sunday, 16th December, was designated by a group of Mormon feminists as "Wear Pants [Trousers] to Church Day". They felt that being required to wear a skirt or dress to church is indicative of the oppressive and patronising attitude in the LDS church towards women. Now, whilst I'll readily admit that it is a patriarchal church, I personally have never felt less valued or respected in it, or in any way inferior to my brothers in Christ's church. I also only ever wear skirts or dresses because I find them way more comfortable than trousers. In fact, I don't currently own a pair of trousers (that fit). I have held some pretty major callings (on the Stake Public Affairs Council, YW President, Primary Preside

It occurred to me recently that there seems to be a pecking order for authors. That some command more respect and admiration, or are considered more talented, than others. At my first meeting at the writing group I attend we had a talk by one of the members. Her first book had been picked up by an agent and a bidding war had followed between two major publishers. She chose Harper Collins and was offered an advance and a three-book deal. Wow. I was pretty star struck, I admit. (I bought her books, by the way, and they were indeed extremely good. You could buy one here. ) I'm a published author too, but I don't have an agent, I didn't get an advance and Harper Collins isn't my publisher. I took a different route and was published by a small publisher serving a niche market. So while that still makes me a traditionally published author, it's certainly a step down from Michelle Cunnah's level. A few people in our writing group are self-published authors. If

As you can hardly have failed to notice, this week the book I wrote with my Evangelical Christian friend Hellen Riebold is free to download on Kindle. I've been making a nuisance of myself all over Facebook about it. I'm sure there are people ready to block me if I mention it once more. But you know what, it's a FREE BOOK! What's not to love? Someone asked me why I was offering my book for free. After all, isn't writing about making money? Even at 70% royalties on Kindle books, 70% of nothing is... er... (never was very good at maths)... nothing. There are several reasons why the book is free at the moment (only until Friday, though!): Amazon offered a free period as a promotional tool. It's almost automatic to set up (you tick the box and set the dates and that's it) and we trust that Amazon, who are after all also in the business of selling books, know what they are doing. They are losing royalties on every free copy too. If Amazon tell us that