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Hi guys!

It’s December again . . . which means eggnogs, reindeer antlers, and The Burning Diamond Awards! (TVD - Twilight Crossover Awards)

And Christmas, of course; can’t forget that. ;)

We know you all dream about December…

All year long, authors slave away their free time to write for us—they make us laugh, cry, and feel so much that sometimes we are at the edge of our seats begging for them to ease our pain by updating. And sometimes they even listen, which makes us want to give them a flying glomp.

Other times, they crackle behind their screens at our obvious misery.

This month is our chance once again to show them our appreciation. We can make them smile by nominating them for the fine work they do.

Is there a story you love? One that you check every five minutes to see if your favorite author has uploaded a new chapter, even if it's been months and months since they last updated
 

(*cough* definitely not me *cough* ).
 

Is there an author who just comes up with the best story-lines and plot twists. One that knows exactly how the characters talk, walk, and think? One of those authors that pops out stories like a maniac and they're always so soo soooo good?

Is there?

Of course there is.

Show them your love! Nominate them here.

Read the guidelines for nominations.

Safe to say, this year I'm not participating since I'm doing a little behind the scenes work with Mandy, so I'm taking my name out of the race. I'm on the sidelines now. I'm dying to know what you guys have been reading! There are some pretty awesome stories out there that deserve the recognition!

So, get your pretty little butts to the Nomination section and type up some names!

Nominations will be open starting today, December 15th, and will close on December 30th.

For all the details visit our website and facebook page!

I am considering taking Amazon up on their "You've been a member for so long but have no Kindle yet" offer that hit my inbox earlier today.

Come inside and tell me your stories

I need your advice.

This week we're looking for ethnic foods! Personally, I consider ethnic food to be food centered around a certain culture or region outside of America. That's just me. According to this foodie blog, 

The term “ethnic food” is ambiguous. We tend to have a good idea of the foods on either polar extremes of the line. Despite the cultural origins on many of our favorite foods, some of them are unabashedly American now—French fries, steak, and apple pie come to mind. On the other side, foods associated with exotic locales like Thai or Ethiopian are pretty clearly ethnic. Problems occur on the line as America assimilates more and more into its mainstream cuisine. Do people consider Italian food ethnic? Maybe if you were eating sweet corn agnolotti, but spaghetti with meat sauce is about as American as it gets.

.......

Of course there are also those who describe ethnic when they really mean authentic. And by authentic, they mean non-Americanized. I could take a friend out for Chinese food and depending on what we ordered, you could say it was both ethnic and not. Sweet and sour pork, eggrolls, and chow mein just don’t seem that foreign for most of America these days. Tacos might bring to mind images of haciendas and senoritas, but burritos resonate with gas station microwaves and Taco Bells. 

Well, basically just come post any non-Americanized recipes in here. We can argue semantics later.

Starz has started posting new cast pictures for it's upcoming Outlander show and I'm getting so excited, I can hardly stand it!  I'm finally fully on board with Sam Heughan as Jamie Fraser.  I can see it, hallelujah!  Claire is exactly as I've always pictured her.  Tobias Menzies as BJR looks like someone we'll all love to hate.  

GAH!  I can hardly wait!! 

They are holding a fan event in California in the very near future.  Alas, I will not be able to attend.  I'm sure they'll have the marketing machine working overtime in the months to come though, and I'm ready!

To make this interactive, have you ever attended a fan event?  Have you ever had the opportunity to meet one of your favorite actors or actresses?  Did you maintain your cool or embarrass yourelf?  ;-) 

Welcome to the Feed Your E-Reader

weekly campfire!

Please post all the fabulous deals you've found this week. And if you pick up a book from a comment inside, please let your fellow campers know you did.

And don't forget to feed the trees, yeah? 

[bragging] So I was in London [/bragging] for five days two weeks ago (and I am sooo behind in my Holiday Season chocolate dispatches - but I guess nobody who knows me is surprised) and the best thing among a lot of nice things was an advent carol concert in St.Martin-in-the-Fields church. In candlelight, mind you. [Well, that was a bit of braggish, sorry.]

There was a choir, and every now and then the audience was invited to sing along. I was sitting just next to the choir and when the whole churchful of people were singing 'Adeste Fideles' and I could hear the sopranos and tenors doing their own thing just next to me I felt like there was no gravity. [Is this bragging? I'm not sure.]

So I like the human voice, I like singing, sue me.

Most of the Finnish Christmas Carols are very, very depressive. Well, melancholy, and solemn to say the least. And even if the actual carols are imported, the actual arrangement is Finnish, read: dark.

Please share some Christmas Cheer in the form of music, traditional or modern, or just something that is important to you.

If you didn¨t know, the number of heavy metal bands per 1000 inhabitants is the highest in Finland, Norway is very close, though. So I will share a contemporary and a traditional Christmas carol by a combo of Finnish heavy metal musicians.

Don't mind the videos, just listen to the heavyish sounds.

Did you see it? Will you see it? 
Thoughts? Questions? Comments? Concerns?
Let's discuss!

(Warning! There be spoilers ahead!")

FOX is developing a show called Gotham - Bruce Wayne will be a regular. .....10 year old.

Here be the news

Also, you may have heard that Indie was sold to Disney, and they wanna make 5 of them!

Yippee Ki Yay....can you hear the theme? I'm not sure how I feel about it...

DISCUSS

We here at ADF are a friendly, helpful bunch!

If you have a request for a type of story or a book,
this is your spot.

If you are unsure about something that has to do with ADF,
ask here.

If you have amnesia about a fic,
this is the place to ask about it!

If you are unsure about something that DOES NOT have to do with ADF,
ask here as well!

In the spirit of the holidays, if you'd like to thank someone from the Forest for something, you could do it here! You could also ask questions about dealing with your crazy family. No judgment.

This week, we are sharing

Winter Holiday Traditions!

Do you watch this show every year it's on?  Do you go Christmas caroling?  Do you light candles for Hanukkah?  Or do something special on January 6 (12 days after Christmas when the three kings/Magi appear, I think) 

Do you have some other winter tradition, revolving around New Year or Chinese New Year or another cultural event?

Come share these lovely traditions with us!

I myself remember growing up watching the Rudolph Christmas special and the one where the Martians kidnap Santa Claus. 

ETA: For next week:

Ugly Holiday Sweater Post-off

Get ready to post the tackiest sweaters you've ever seen. In the interests of being fair, maybe we can only post one or two pics taken off the internet so everyone can have time to post what they deem to be the ugliest/tackiest/silliest sweaters they've ever seen.  

After next week is Christmas and New Year's.  I'll skip Christmas and will be here on New Year's Day if anyone wants to hang out or nurse their hangovers by the campfire.  I thought I'd make it fun and kind of like a game: Travels with Campers.  Everyone can make a bucket list of five places they want to visit.  Then, another camper who has traveled to one of those places (or lives there) can post pics.  So, you have a few weeks to collect your travel pics (or find ones online for those of us who did a lot of traveling before digital pics).

Last week, the Kindle Daily Deals had

"Books for Him" one day and "Books for Her" the next.

The "Books for Him" included Kurt Vonnegut and a nonfiction science book while the "Books for Her" were, predictably, all about romance and personal relationships.

This made me sort of ticked off.

What makes a book a Girl Book or a Boy Book?

Is there such a thing?

Since then. Amazon has been promoting Kindle Daily Deals by age bracket.

How many of us who fell in love with the Twilight books are not members of the Young Adult demographic that the publisher was targeting? 

Why should girls be discouraged from reading Vonnegut, Tom Clancy, science and math books? Why shouldn't guys be urged to read about romance and personal relationships?  I personally think it's great when people step outside the box and little girls profess affection for Godzilla movies and grown men can profess that, yeah, they kind of dig My Little Pony. 

Why not?

If you read, do you read only or primarily "girlie" books? Do you read Westerns, techno-thrillers, science, and other "macho" subject matter?

If you write, how do you picture your audience? Do you write for a general audience? Do you write what you would want to read? (Is your audience ... you?) 

I am very curious.