Season's Readings

<p>In this new addition to the Sweet Funny and Strange® series of anthologies the multi-award-winning Bethlehem Writers Group LLC returns to its roots. As denizens in and around Bethlehem Pennsylvania (also known as Christmas City USA) we were happy to make our first anthology a collection of holiday tales. But one volume just wasn't enough. Now in our eighth anthology we're returning to the theme to bring you twenty-one new stories that span the holidays from Thanksgiving through New Year's Eve. Emwryn Murphy's sweet tale tells about a chosen family's Friendsgiving crashed by a blood relative who might or might not be happy with what he sees in As Simple as That. Jerome W. McFadden once again reveals his humorous side in his story about a would-be Santa who gets into trouble in Flue Shot. A. E. Decker shares an intricate Christmas fantasy about The Goblin King's Music Box. And Paula Gail Benson gives a new twist to a traditional symbol for the New Year in Star of the Party. Beyond these holidays Diane Sismour writes about Krampusnacht Debra H. Goldstein about Pearl Harbor Day and Peter J Barbour about Hanukkah. Other favorite BWG authors including Jeff Baird Ralph Hieb D.T. Krippene Christopher D. Ochs Dianna Sinovic Kidd Wadsworth and Carol L. Wright also share their holiday musings.</p><p></p><p>In addition this volume includes the 2023 and 2024 award-winning stories from the Bethlehem Writers Roundtable Short Story Awards. Sally Milliken the 2023 first-place winner presents The First Thanksgiving. From 2024 we have our top three winners with first-place winner Rhonda Zangwill's Oh! Christmas Tree second-place winner Bettie Nebergall's Just Ask Santa and third-place winner Mary Adler's Narragansett Nellie and the Transferware Platter.</p><p></p><p>We hope you enjoy these holiday gifts and that all our readers experience the very happiest of holiday seasons.</p>