December Tea Party - Tamera Lynn Kraft and Dina Sleiman!!!

Hello and welcome to the lovely Shield's Tavern in Colonial Williamsburg. For a glimpse of our town and wonderful Christmas decorations on your way in, please see the previous post by our friend Cynthia. Once inside the tavern, pull up a chair and enjoy some festive Christmas treats along with our normal fare of beef pasty, tarragon chicken salat, potato-leek pye, and wild berry crumble. We also have a special selection of nice warm beverages, since I know most of you will be traveling far in your carriages in this brisk winter weather. So have a mug of mulled cider, chocolate, or coffee. We also have some "fortified beverages" in case you brought your men folk along. And since it is a tea party after all, we can offer some local herbal varieties like mint, lavender, or chamomile, but no imported British tea today!!!!

Our serving maid, Constance Chambers, is adamant on this issue. She is quite the patriot, and has made a real fuss over the issue. We're celebrating the release of two very different novels today, and Constance makes a brief cameo appearance in Dance from Deep Within, a contemporary by Dina Sleiman. But Contance's bold, independent spirit and the backdrop of Colonial Williamsburg inspire a young Muslim (Saracen or Mussulman to those of you from an earlier era) lady in the book to search out her own American identity and to seek true freedom in her life. Here's a little more about it:

Despite her conservative Muslim heritage, Layla Al-Rai longs for a chance to earn her degree in engineering and perhaps even...dare she dream...to choose her own husband. But young women from her background rarely enjoy such freedoms. When she finally talks her parents into letting her attend college, she is drawn to fellow twenty-something students, Allie and Rain, over a class project. Allie, the blonde ballerina, faces her own struggles as she deals with an ex-fiancé and a church she had hoped to leave behind. Rain, the bi-racial hippie chick, longs for something to believe in, but her questioning could cost her the love of her life. When Layla s childhood sweetheart reenters her world, it seems her dreams might become real. Until everything falls apart. When she meets truth face to face, will she find the courage to accept it even if it requires the ultimate sacrifice?

Join these three unlikely friends as they learn to dance to the song of the spirit. You can order Dina's book in print or for one of those new fangled ebooks here. Especially take note of the ebook price of $3.99. Not bad, even by Colonial standards. And Constance says to tell you that they'd make great Christmas presents too!

Our other featured novel today, A Christmas Promise by Tamera Lynn Kraft, is a traditional colonial novel, and perfect for the holiday. The main character, Anna is here from Schoenbrunn Village, Ohio to add her Moravian touches to this Christmas party. She has brought the sweet buns and coffee she’ll serve at the Moravian Christmas Eve Lovefeast. And she brought some wild roast turkey, potatoes, cabbage, turnips, sweet corn bread, and squash pie. 

She’s been boiling syrup for months to make sure she had enough sugar for the Christmas feast. And she decided to decorate the tavern with Moravian traditions such as a Christmas tree and candles and verses to hang on the tree. She brought a putz with a manger and the Bethlehem village to place under the tree. No Moravian Christmas would be complete without them. Here's a little bit about her story.

During colonial times, John and Anna settle in an Ohio village to become Moravian missionaries to the Lenape. When John is called away two days before Christmas to help at another settlement, he promises he’ll be back by Christmas Day. When he doesn't show up, Anna works hard to not fear the worst while she provides her children with a traditional Moravian Christmas. Through it all, she discovers a Christmas promise that will give her the peace she craves.

This title is part of Pelican's Christmas Holiday Extravaganza novella collection. It's also a great price at only $.99, and you can order it here. Be sure to snatch up a copy and curl up by our hearth to read it. We'll provide blankets and a rocker if you like. 

So again, welcome. We are so glad to have you. Please introduce yourselves and share with us where you hale from and what brought you out to Williamsburg on this blustery winter day. Let Constance and Anna know which refreshments you'd like. They'll be happy to serve you. 

Moravian Star ornament

Anna has also brought along some great prizes, so be sure to leave a comment for a chance to win a digital copy of A Christmas Promise and your own Moravian star Christmas ornament.  It looks beautiful!

We also have a lovely mob cap from Colonial Williamsburg for one of our guests! Please leave a comment (in character preferably!) to be entered for the prizes!

White mob cap from Colonial Williamsburg

For more info on today's authors, please visit their websites:
Dina's http://dinasleiman.com
Tamera's http://wordsharpeners.wordpress.com/

Colonial Roots Cross Cultures

by Dina Sleiman

My newest novel, Dance from Deep Within, is not Colonial...or even Federalist. So you might wonder why I'm here today. This contemporary style book takes a look at the lives of three young women today: a veiled Muslim, a bi-racial hippie chick of the post modern persuasion, and a blond ballerina. Not exactly the classic colonial subject matter.

But isn't that so typical of America. Even in colonial days we were a melting pot of religions and ethnicities. At some point each of our families began as strangers in a strange land. With Thanksgiving coming, we can't help but remember how the Pilgrims drew from the strengths of the Native Americans to survive in this strange new land.

Gina Welborn, Dina Sleiman, C.J. Chase, Deb Marvin, and Carrie Pagels in Williamsburg

Diversity is a hallmark of American culture. Yet when we think of Colonial Days it is easy to focus on the white, Anglo-Saxon side of the story. Last year when I visited Jamestown with my son's class, they presented a very different portrait. A picture that included American Indians and African slaves as very important parts of the Early-American tapestry. The Europeans never would have survived here on their own. If any of you read my last novel, Love in Three-Quarter Time, you got a glimpse at how these groups all worked together in 1817 Virginia.

But in my new novel, it is Layla Al-Rai, the Muslim-American character, who is still in many ways a stranger in a strange land. Although she was born in America and holds an American passport, she has spent most of her life in a little Muslim bubble in the area of Detroit. She is much more connected to her Lebanese roots and history than to her American roots. Yet she longs to discover the land of her birth and typical American culture.

Part of Layla's journey in the story is learning about the individuality and freedom that are as much a part of the American culture as diversity. Her love interest Mo, a recent convert to Christianity, whisks her away to visit Colonial Williamsburg. There she takes off her veil and lets the breeze flow free through her hair for the first time in many years. Walking its streets alongside horses, carriages, and workers in historical garb, she begins to truly contemplate her American roots. She recalls a novel she read as a child about a young girl, Constance Chambers (roughly inspired by the American Girl novel Felicity), who walked those same streets. She had admired Constance's spirit and her willingness to stand up for a mistreated slave. Suddenly Layla gets it. She wants that sort individuality in her own life. She wants her own relationship with God, not just the religion her parents have dictated. And she wants to stand up for women who are being oppressed by radical Islam.

She wants to experience freedom in the truest sense.

In that moment, a waving flag of red, white, and blue comes to represent everything she is searching for. And later in the story Layla gets to enjoy her first real Thanksgiving among a colorful cast of multi-ethnic characters. It really doesn't get any more American than that.

So if you'd like to explore your American roots through new eyes over this holiday season, check out Dance from Deep Within. And be sure to come back next week for the tea party when we will be celebrating this book at Williamsburg's Shield Tavern.

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Despite her conservative Muslim heritage, Layla Al-Rai longs for a chance to earn her degree in engineering and perhaps even...dare she dream...to choose her own husband. But young women from her background rarely enjoy such freedoms. When she finally talks her parents into letting her attend college, she is drawn to fellow twenty-something students, Allie and Rain, over a class project. Allie, the blonde ballerina, faces her own struggles as she deals with an ex-fiancé and a church she had hoped to leave behind. Rain, the bi-racial hippie chick, longs for something to believe in, but her questioning could cost her the love of her life. When Layla s childhood sweetheart reenters her world, it seems her dreams might become real. Until everything falls apart. When she meets truth face to face, will she find the courage to accept it even if it requires the ultimate sacrifice? Order here

Book Launch Tea Party - Kelly Long, Jennifer Hudson Taylor and Debut Author Carla Gade

Welcome to our Colonial Tea and Book Launch for Kelly Long's Amish Colonial Arms of Love!!!


We are discussing MULTI-Culturalism in Colonial America. Kelly has Dutch/German Amish and Carla's hero is Navajo-English while her heroine is half-Jewish from Germany. Jennifer's characters are Quakers.

This is Colonial American Christian Writers member and Colonial Quills' Webmaster, Carla Gade's debut.  She is contracted for two more colonials - one with Barbour in October 2012 and the other with Abingdon in 2013(see the link on CBD.)  Although this debut book is not colonial fiction, Carla does have one coming out soon.  CONGRATULATIONS, Carla!!!

Jennifer Hudson Taylor is giving away a copy of "The Quakers of New Garden" her new release April 2012, a collection of four novellas in one.

Join four Quaker women on a journey through the trials of faith and love. Ruth Payne’s bridegroom has cold feet. . .for the second time. Will their third try be the charm? Things get complicated for Underground Railroad worker Deborah Wall when she meets a bounty hunter head-on. Will love have them seeing eye-to-eye? Leah hopes to turn a marriage of convenience into a marriage of love. But will letters be a firm enough foundation? Christian Jaidon Taylor wants to win the heart of Quaker Catherine Wall. But will religion make them as incompatible as night and day?

Kelly Long is giving away some Amish treats!  CQ is also giving away a copy of her new release.


Carla Gade is giving away a paperback copy of her debut book "The Shadow Catcher's Daughter" which released through Heartsong Presents, though their book club in 2012.


We also have a colonial doll giveaway from Carrie Fancett Pagels.

We have Whoopie pie cookies and spiced hot tea, as well as coffee, hot chocolate, and other foods our visitors bring from different story world countries!


Please leave a comment and your email address for a chance to win.