{"id":3746,"date":"2014-12-22T19:04:52","date_gmt":"2014-12-22T19:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dianeduane.com\/outofambit\/?p=3746"},"modified":"2020-07-26T14:10:00","modified_gmt":"2020-07-26T14:10:00","slug":"lovely-thy-branches-young-wizards-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dianeduane.com\/outofambit\/2014\/12\/22\/lovely-thy-branches-young-wizards-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"How Lovely Are Thy Branches: A Young Wizards Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"<section id=\"product-info\">\n<div class=\"wysiwyg no-tabs\">\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/ebooksdirect.dianeduane.com\/collections\/frontpage\/products\/how-lovely-are-thy-branches-a-young-wizards-christmas-generic-epub\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-large wp-image-3747\" src=\"http:\/\/www.dianeduane.com\/outofambit\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/branches_1280-766x1024.jpg\" alt=\"branches_1280\" width=\"640\" height=\"855\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>JD 2455550.52 \/ December 20th, 2010:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s five days till Christmas, and the day before the Winter Solstice. The biggest pre-Christmas blizzard seen for decades is heading straight for the New York metropolitan area. But in one small corner of the Town of Hempstead, everyone\u2019s attention is on other business. That\u2019s because there\u2019s a party tonight at Juan and Marina Rodriguez\u2019s house\u2026 and the guest of honor is a being from four hundred lightyears away who looks a whole lot like a Christmas tree.<\/p>\n<p>As so often happens, the motive force behind the festivities is the redoubtable Carmela Rodriguez, intent on fulfilling her longtime intention to fulfill one of the great wishes of the wizard known as Filif \u2014 specifically, to finally get him into a full set of Christmas decorations. The two-day party that ensues (with an epic sleepover in the middle) brings together a cast of old and new friends to eat, drink, exchange presents, and see a few things the likes of which this world has never seen before\u2026<\/p>\n<p><em>This 30,000+ word novelette is a canonical work in the Young Wizards universe<\/em> and takes place between the events of <a href=\"http:\/\/youngwizards.com\/A-Wizard-Of-Mars\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>A Wizard of Mars<\/em><\/a> and the forthcoming <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gameswizardsplay.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Games Wizards Play.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Purchase it for USD $4.99 here in all the major ebook formats:<\/p>\n<p><em><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/ebooksdirect.dianeduane.com\/collections\/frontpage\/products\/how-lovely-are-thy-branches-a-young-wizards-christmas-generic-epub\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">How Lovely Are Thy Branches <\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>(*Battle fleet not included)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; JD 2455550.52 \/ December 20th, 2010: It\u2019s five days till Christmas, and the day before the Winter Solstice. The biggest pre-Christmas blizzard seen for decades is heading straight for&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[652,23,24,38,70,71],"tags":[191,668,708],"class_list":["post-3746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-sales","category-ebooks","category-ebooks-direct","category-humor","category-writing","category-young-wizards","tag-diane-duane","tag-how-lovely-are-thy-branches","tag-young-wizards"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How Lovely Are Thy Branches: A Young Wizards Christmas - Out of Ambit<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Young Wizards Christmas story for 2014\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dianeduane.com\/outofambit\/2014\/12\/22\/lovely-thy-branches-young-wizards-christmas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Lovely Are Thy Branches: A Young Wizards Christmas - Out of Ambit\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Young Wizards Christmas story for 2014\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dianeduane.com\/outofambit\/2014\/12\/22\/lovely-thy-branches-young-wizards-christmas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Out of Ambit\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-12-22T19:04:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-07-26T14:10:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dianeduane.com\/outofambit\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/branches_1280.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1198\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Diane Duane\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@dduane\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@dduane\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":[\"Article\",\"BlogPosting\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dianeduane.com\/outofambit\/2014\/12\/22\/lovely-thy-branches-young-wizards-christmas\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dianeduane.com\/outofambit\/2014\/12\/22\/lovely-thy-branches-young-wizards-christmas\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Diane Duane\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dianeduane.com\/outofambit\/#\/schema\/person\/c95a368813271f614d9104b74dfd83d8\"},\"headline\":\"How Lovely Are Thy Branches: A Young Wizards Christmas\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-12-22T19:04:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-07-26T14:10:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dianeduane.com\/outofambit\/2014\/12\/22\/lovely-thy-branches-young-wizards-christmas\/\"},\"wordCount\":232,\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dianeduane.com\/outofambit\/#\/schema\/person\/c95a368813271f614d9104b74dfd83d8\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dianeduane.com\/outofambit\/2014\/12\/22\/lovely-thy-branches-young-wizards-christmas\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.dianeduane.com\/outofambit\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/branches_1280.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Diane Duane\",\"how lovely are thy branches\",\"Young Wizards\"],\"articleSection\":[\"book sales\",\"ebooks\",\"Ebooks Direct\",\"Humor\",\"Writing\",\"Young Wizards\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.dianeduane.com\/outofambit\/2014\/12\/22\/lovely-thy-branches-young-wizards-christmas\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dianeduane.com\/outofambit\/2014\/12\/22\/lovely-thy-branches-young-wizards-christmas\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.dianeduane.com\/outofambit\/2014\/12\/22\/lovely-thy-branches-young-wizards-christmas\/\",\"name\":\"How Lovely Are Thy Branches: A Young Wizards Christmas - 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