Early Christmas Treat

I teamed up with Trish Perry to write the generational anthology Love Finds You on Christmas Morning. My novella, “Deck the Halls,” is set in 1925, and Trish’s novella, “’Tis the Season,” is contemporary. I think you’ll find our connected stories enjoyable and uplifting.

Deck the Halls

In 1925, the wealthy William Tronnier becomes smitten with the lovely but penniless Lillian Pickard. Not one to give up easily, William pursues Lillian even though she does everything in her power to resist falling in love with a man from a completely different social class. As Christmas descends on the picturesque town of Cary, North Carolina, William plans to make Lillian a proposal she can’t refuse.

‘Tis the Season

When Nikki Tronnier moves back home to Cary, North Carolina, she plans to fulfill a lifelong dream and buy back the family home built by her great-grandfather for his bride. But before she is able to make an offer, someone else buys the house! Just as she’s preparing for a fight, Nikki meets the handsome new owner, Drew Cornell, who wants her help restoring the home to its historic beauty in time for Christmas.

Bonus Treat

Trish and I decided to include a recipe that has been passed down through the generations of our characters. We hope you enjoy baking, eating, and sharing the shortbread cookies and bars. Look for the recipe between the two stories.

Look for Love Finds You on Christmas Morning wherever books are sold including the following places:
Amazon.com
Barnes and Noble
Books a Million
ChristianBook.com
Cokesbury

My friend Trish Perry is an award-winning, multi-published author of novels, short stories, essays, devotionals, and poetry for both Christian and general markets. Trish has two grown children and one grandson. Visit her website at www.trishperry.com.


-

Great News - Love Finds You on Christmas Morning!

Trish Perry and I just signed a contract with Summerside Press for a 2-novella anthology! Love Finds You on Christmas Morning will be available this coming fall. My story, "Deck the Halls," is historical, and Trish's, "Tis the Season," is contemporary. Her heroine is the great-granddaughter of mine. How fun is that!

Our anthology is set in the beautiful town of Cary, North Carolina. We're incorporating as much of the real setting as we can, but of course, since this is fiction, we'll make up a few places for our stories.


-

Busy week!

So many wonderful things are happening, I’m about to bust! I stay super busy, but I love it all!

I had a great week with my Long Ridge Writers Group lessons! I have the best students who send me such fabulous stories and articles, I have to put down my blue pen and read them for myself before I go back and edit. Wow! That makes being an instructor so much fun!

On Friday, I finished the first draft of Special Mission, the second of my West Virginia Heartsong Presents books. It needs quite a bit of work, but it’s nice to have something to work with. I changed something midway through the book, and now I have to go back and pull out the entire thread without letting the whole story unravel. That’s always a challenge, but it’s part of the job.

All week I mailed influencer copies of my Summerside Press book Love Finds You in Treasure Island, Florida that should be available June 1. That was such a fun book to write, and I pray that other people enjoy it. It’s full of all kinds of relationships—hero-heroine, parents, siblings, friends, mature adult-small child, and every combination I could manage. And the setting gave me plenty to hang my story on! Who wouldn’t love such a beautiful place as Treasure Island, Florida? The beach is gorgeous! Check this out for a quick glimpse of the setting and story theme: Treasure Island book trailer.

Research, research, research!

After reading an editor's blog post about fiction writers needing to do enough research to make the settings and characters in their stories ring true, I went back and did a little more for my work in progress, Noah's Ark, that will go to Barbour's Heartsong Presents bookclub members in October 2009. Some of the information wasn't clear online, so I called Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia and spoke to Byron Clercx, the chairman of the Department of Art and Design, to get more specific answers. What a nice man! He not only answered my questions as they pertained to my story, he gave me more information about the area. Now I have the strongest urge to write more books set in Huntington! From what I've read and heard, not only is it a gorgeous place, the strong sense of community lends itself to what I write—Christian fiction.

Something I've learned is that most people love to help writers, as long as they have a passion for their subject. Over the past twenty years, I've interviewed hundreds of people, and with only a small handful of exceptions, they've told me way more than I requested, making the experience even richer than anything I could have hoped for.

My Summerside Press book, Love Finds You In Treasure Island, Florida, is another example. Jeff Jensen who works for the city in a community relations capacity gave me enough information to add scenes I'd never even thought of. Then I called Captain Kosmakos, a favorite restaurant in the area, to find out what was on their menu. By the time I got off the phone with Phyllis Kelly, I was dying for some of their fabulous, mouthwatering seafood.

If you're a writer, what experiences have you had with interviews? Have they been good, bad, or neutral? Have you been rewarded with more than you ever expected?