Author Julie Carobini

This is Chauncey. My friend, Susan, has a rather dark sense of humor and has made it a tradition to give weird ornaments at Christmastime. She's part of a group of friends of mine in Orange County, CA - the OC girls, I call them - and since we missed our annual Christmas party last year, we met a couple of weeks ago at a posh restaurant in Newport Beach (Enchiladas = 22 bucks!).

So anyway, I chose the first gift: a PRETTY glass stocking to hang on the tree. It was red and sparkly and I loved it ... but then my (so-called) friend, Sharyl, STOLE it. So I had to choose again, and you guessed it, I got this little guy here. I've named him Chauncey in an effort to not be quite so scared of him.

This is the second time I've been stuck, er, graced by one of Susan's gifts. In fact, the last one was so HIDEOUS that he made it into a scene in Fade to Blue. In that scene, the hero and heroine meet at a church bazaar at the table of an "artist" who had created the most unlovely Christmas ornaments ever (except for Chauncey, of course). They were hand-painted golf balls that should have stayed on turf. In an act of chivalry, the hero of Fade2Blue bought a box full of the sad ornaments - and forever sealed himself within the heroine's heart.

Other than finding his way into a book, that gloomy little ornament didn't stay in the Carobini household long. In a prophetic twist, he landed back in the Christmas ornament pile, all spruced up and gleaming in a fancy wrapping paper when an unsuspecting Susan plucked him from the gift table. It was only right.

As for Chauncey, I promise not to become too attached ... after all, our annual Christmas get-together is only six months away ... (insert evil laughter here).