Mother Christmas in The Slings & Arrows Graphic Novel Guide

Thanks to The Slings & Arrows Graphic Novel guide for publishing a review of Mother Christmas. Here’s a snippet from the review:

The secret origin of Santa Claus is a big topic to be taking on, but that’s what Mother Christmas provides, blending the legend of Saint Nicholas with infinite possibilities.

You can read the rest of on The Slings & Arrows site:

https://theslingsandarrows.com/mother-christmas-vol-1-the-muse/

Reviews help other readers to discover the book! 

If you can, please write a review on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Goodreads.

Thank you. ❤️

Mother Christmas Book Release Is Today!

Today is my graphic novel, Mother Christmas‘s Book Birthday!

That means if you have already pre-ordered it, you should have it in your mailbox!

Thank you so much to my brilliant artist, Vic Terra, who brought all these characters and words to life! And thank you to Bill Campbell of Rosarium Publishing for bringing the dream that is Mother Christmas into the world.

I’m going to have more information about signings and fun events over the next few weeks, but today I wanted to share some of the advance praise we received for Mother Christmas. These four women are such an inspiration, and their words honor us.

‘The new mythos Valya Lupescu and Vic Terra have created in Mother Christmas is as rich as it is colorful! I was lost in the gorgeous art and story and I was sorely disappointed when I found out I only had the first arc to read! I can’t wait to find out what happens next!’  —Jill Thompson, Eisner award winning artist and creator of The Scary Godmother

“Colorful and attractive design and drawing, good character work, interesting take on myths and legends. Very entertaining!” —Colleen Doran, New York Times bestselling cartoonist of  Sandman, Wonder Woman, Neil Gaiman’s Chivalry, Snow Glass Apples

“A wondrous story about friendship and the magic we all hold deep inside.”  —Cynthia von Buhler, author/illustrator of The Illuminati Ball

“A colourful, imaginative, and heartfelt beginning, empathetically wordspun by Lupescu and vividly illustrated by Terra.”  —Brooke Bolander, Nebula & Locus Award-winning author

You can order Mother Christmas from your local independent bookstore or comic shop, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, Walmart, or wherever you buy your books.

(You can also also request that your library order Mother Christmas for its collection as well! Yay, librarians!)

Stay tuned for more this week, and please review the book on Amazon or Goodreads, and share on social media! #motherchristmas

Thank you & may you be blessed by the Muses!

Why Mother Christmas?

In September/October of 2022, my new graphic novel, Mother Christmas, Volume 1: The Muse, will be released by Rosarium Publishing. It is a love letter to the winter holidays and the hope that they celebrate and inspire. Light in the darkness. Hope in times of uncertainty.

Now, more than ever, I wanted to write a story that celebrates hope. We live in difficult times, and fear is ever-present in many people’s lives all around the world: fear of the pandemic, violence, war, loss of basic rights and freedoms, fear of global warning and a collapse of so many things we have grown accustomed to. Fear of change, fear of difference, fear of being passed by, fear of being misunderstood, fear of being judged, fear of being forgotten. There’s a lot of fear.

The story of Mother Christmas is largely a story about fear and hope. In Volume 1, you meet the Kobaloi who literally feed off fear. You also meet the Muses, whose job it is to inspire.

How does this all come together for Christmas? Set around the Winter Solstice, so many of the holidays of this season recognize the primal fear of darkness and the unknown. Our ancestors worried that as days got shorter, the sun may never come back. Now, we have so much science and technology on our side, and yet we still do not know what the future holds or if we can survive what is happening all around us.

So we look around for the hope. We listen to stories that comfort and inspire us, that challenge us to do better and show us ways to try. What better way to look at hope than by looking at some of the archetypes that we hold dear, like Santa Claus?

Mother Christmas attempts to answer a question that first occurred to me back in 2003: “What is Mrs. Claus’s story?”

Most of my story ideas begin with a question. This question led to more: Where did she come from? When and why did she come on the scene? What exactly is their relationship?

Which led to still more questions: Why are they living such a long life? What’s the deal with the presents? Where does the magic come from?

I began digging into the biography and lore of St. Nicholas. We were living in Frankfurt, Germany at the time, so we were able to plan a trip to Turkey. With my baby strapped to me, we explored the cities of what had been Lycia the land where the historical Nicholas lived: Patara, Myra, and the surrounding areas.

That trip is a story all on its own (for another blog post). It allowed me to visit for myself the wonderful places that have come to feature prominently in the story of Mother Christmas.

When Nicholas was alive, the Roman Empire was populated by people practicing many different faiths. It’s at the intersection of those spiritual practices where our story begins.

I started writing that story 17 years ago but didn’t finish it until last year, when I began to work on it as a graphic novel, illustrated by Victória Terra, for Rosarium Publishing.

This month I wrapped up the script for our first volume, and Victória is finishing up the art. We are so excited to share this world with you, and what a world it is! All the images in this blog post are from the first of the three volumes story.

Volume 1: The Muse introduces us to Amara, and she’s probably not what you expect Santa’s eventual partner to be.

Amara is one of the Muses, from the House of Polyhymnia. She is assigned to Nicholas’s sister, Flavia, to inspire her in her life’s purpose.

In Volume 1, you get to meet some of the other Muses.

You also get introduced to the Kobaloi, creatures that feed on fear.

A glimpse from a children’s book for Muses:

This is just Volume 1. In the remaining two volumes will follow Nicholas and Amara all over this world and through other realms, from Turkey to Iceland to Germany to the UK to America and more. Eventually you’ll learn more about some of those longstanding questions about St. Nick: Elves? Flying Reindeer? Presents? Krampus? You’ll also meet some of the other historical and mythic figures who have played a part in shaping up the winter holidays we have today.

In Volume 1, we watch the relationship develop between Amara and Flavia and Nicholas, as well as Amara’s struggles as she tried to figure out what being a Muse means to her and how she can best use her abilities to help humanity.

By her side (most of the time) is the Guardian assigned to watch over and help protect Flavia from birth until death.

Then there are the others who seem to be helping the Kobaloi to cultivate fear and sabotage the work that Muses and Guardians and other are doing to help humanity.

I’m excited to share these glimpses of what’s to come. Mother Christmas is already available for pre-order online, and I’ll post more information as it becomes available.

There will be a launch party or two, and signings around the country (hopefully just in time for the Winter Holidays).

We’re going to try and do some fun promotions around this, so stay tuned, and please get in touch if you have ideas or questions about bringing Mother Christmas to your town.