Only one month to go...

... until Christmas Day!

Which means it won't be long before I dust off The Chrismologist's advent calendar, ready for another year.

So, come 1 December, make sure you check out TheChrismologist.com for a new fascinating festive fact every day...

Call the Chrismologist!

It's getting to be that time of year again. In only five weeks' time people all over the world will be making their final preparations for Christmas. For some, those preparations include producing items of media, whether they be radio shows, TV programmes, or newspaper articles.

So, if you're wondering what to include this year, why not Call the Chrismologist? I am very happy to appear on radio or TV and have been interviewed for numerous pieces for the press before. Ask me your Christmas questions or simply consult my Christmas book What is Myrrh Anyway? to gather some ideas.

Merry Christmas!

How to survive a Zombie Apocalpyse during the most wonderful time of the year

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Ebenezer Scrooge and Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol

Join the campaign to make Ebenezer's Carol No. 1 this Christmas here!

Let's make Ebenezer's Carol No.1 this Christmas!

The plan:

To get Ebenezer's Carol, by The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing, to No. 1 in time for Christmas. A proper steampunk Christmas song for Christmas No. 1!

What we need to do to achieve this:

1) For Ebenezer's Carol to chart it needs to sell roughly 8,000 copies. The single needs be downloaded as a single, and not as part of the A Very Steampunk Christmas EP. It's available now from iTunes, eMusic and Amazon.

2) So, forward this message to all your friends (be they steampunks or otherwise) but remind them that they must buy the song by itself for it to get into the singles chart.

3) Blog about this, post a link on your Facebook page, Tweet about it, but most importantly - buy the single Ebenezer's Carol!

4) Arrange events themed around this, call the local press, use your contacts - whatever you've got - and we could really make this happen!

This is a chance for steampunk fans to really make themselves heard and make a difference for the future of Christmas. The fate of Ebenezer's Carol and Christmas music itself is in your hands! Let's make Christmas 2010 a Very Merry Steampunk Christmas!

TheChrismologist.com

As long time followers of this blog (and my many others) will already know, I currently juggle about eight blogs, updating people on various aspects of my writing, and - to be honest - it was all getting a bit much, especially when there are effectively two blogs for the same book, only one of them for the American market and one for the UK.
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So, I've decided to merge the two blogs for Christmas Miscellany and What is Myrrh Anyway? in one, easy to manage, dot com, called...
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Click this link and check it out for yourself. In fact, why not bookmark the site and add it to your favourites today?

It's still a work in progress at the moment, but over the coming weeks I'll be adding more features and content all the time. And you can already email me all your Christmas questions direct at info@thechrismologist.com.

I look forward to seeing you there.

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Coming soon...

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me, three feastive tipples for a cold and frosty morning

Woke up this morning to a hard frost. It's nearly January and it's getting very cold. So, to warm you up on these chill midwinter nights, why not indulge in a glass of something hot and spicy - in others words mulled wine!

I recommend three recipes in particular, those for Clarrey, Bishop's Wine and Glogg - and you can find all of them in What is Mrryh Anyway? Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Christmas, which is still available!

And here's how I got on when I made some Bishop's Wine for friends and family last year...

What is Myrrh Anyway? The Ultimate Christmas Quiz

Christmas is over and it's time to find out how you got on...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Here's hoping that Father Christmas brought you everything you hoped for and that you and yours have a happy and memorable Christmas.

Wishing you a
MERRY CHRISTMAS
and a
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Best wishes

Jonathan Green

And, in case you missed the post earlier in the week, here's a present from me.

Season's Greetings from the Black Library

Received my annual Christmas card from the guys at the Black Library this week. Thought you might like to see it for yourselves this year, so here it is...

What is Myrrh Anyway? The Ultimate Christmas Quiz

With Christmas just over a week away and with the prospect of little more than repeats or seasonal versions of the same old shows on the TV, there couldn't be a better time to sit round with friends and family and take part in the Ultimate Christmas Quiz!

Doctor Who Christmas Ident on BBC 1

How cool is this?



I know, I'm easily impressed...

What is Myrrh Anyway? at Ealing's leading Art and Craft fair

I will be at St James' Art and Craft Fair on Saturday 7 November between 10.00am and 4.00pm, selling - and signing! - copies of What is Myrrh Anyway? Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Christmas.


Admission is free, so if you're in the area, why not pop along and say "Hello"?

I Am Scrooge: A Zombie Story for Christmas

Looking for something a little different to give your loved ones this Christmas? Perhaps one of your family is a closet Dickens/Zombie horror fan. Well, if so, then I Am Scrooge could be the answer to all your Christmas gift-buying problems.

Following the example set by such modern classics as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter and Mr Darcy, Vampyre, it re-imagines Dickens' A Christmas Carol as a modern zombie apocalypse blockbuster.





Marley was dead. Again.

The legendary Ebenezeer Scrooge sits in his house counting money. The boards that he has nailed up over the doors and the windows shudder and shake under the blows from the endless zombie hordes that crowd the streets hungering for his flesh and his miserly braaaaiiiiiinns!

Just how did the happiest day of the year slip into a welter of blood, innards and shambling, ravenous undead on the snowy streets of old London town?

Will the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future be able to stop the world from drowning under a top-hatted and crinolined zombie horde?

Was Tiny Tim's illness something infinitely more sinister than mere rickets and consumption?

Can Scrooge be persuaded to go back to his evil ways, travel back to Christmas past and destroy the brain stem of the tiny, irritatingly cheery Patient Zero?

It's the Dickensian Zombie Apocalypse - God Bless us, one and all!

To buy your copy of I Am Scrooge, click here.

And if that wasn't enough for you, Alan Goldsher's Paul is Undead: The British Zombie Invasion has been snapped by US publisher Pocket Books for publication in June next year, re-imagining Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison as zombies and Ringo Starr as a ninja in the latest addition to the publishing's hottest, and oddest, new craze: the monster mash-up.

An early Christmas present

A parcel arrived this morning from the good old U S of A, containing a couple of copies of Christmas Miscellany, the American hardback edition of What is Myrrh Anyway? published by Skyhorse Publishing.

Christmas Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Christmas will be available to buy from November 1 and you can pre-order your copy here.

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It's a very smart publication too, in full colour throughout and fully illustrated throughout.

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Even if you've already got What is Myrrh Anyway? yourself, Christmas Miscellany would make the perfect stocking filler or under-the-tree-present for a loved one, so pre-order a copy today!

Free mince pie!

Drop by my Christmas Miscellany blog now and receive a mince pie, absolutely free!


And keep an eye on the Christmas Miscellany blog over the coming weeks as people the world over start to prepare for the big day.

A quick update...

... on what's been happening on the Greeniverse blogs lately.

Click here to read about my upcoming talk at Ealing Library.

Click here to read about my return to the Black Library and the Black Templars.

Click here to read about my contribution to Demons: A Clash of Steel Anthology.

Click here to find out more about Pax Britannia e-books.

Click here to find out why you should be reading this blog next week if you're a Fighting Fantasy fan.

Click here to learn about my small contribution to the Star Wars Clone Wars universe.

Click here to find out what I had to do with the Official Doctor Who Annual 2010.

And click here to find out how Christmas has come early (four months early!) in Rochdale here in the UK.

Until next time...

What would you like to know?

Is there anything about Christmas or the festive season that you would like the answer to? Perhaps it's some tradition that you've always followed or some curious fact you've been told but were never sure about. Well here's your chance to have that question answered.

Simply reply to this post or email me at whatismyrrh@hotmail.co.uk and I'll do my best to answer it for you. I look forward to receiving your questions soon.