Christmas 2012 Series: Snowflake Sweethearts by Carrie Turansky

Good morning, everyone! We hope you had a great Thanksgiving. We have a lot to be thankful for, don't we? Today, we continue our Christmas 2012 release interviews with special guest, Carrie Turansky. Read on as she discusses her latest release, Snowflake Sweethearts! ~ Annette

What makes your Christmas novel different than others you've seen or read?

Snowflake Sweethearts is set in an actual town, Fairhaven, which is the lovely historical section of Bellingham, Washington. It is the third in a series of Love Inspired books set there and includes a fun group of senior-age matchmakers who appear in each book. The story takes place September through the Christmas Season. I suppose I'd say the unique characters make the story different than others I've read. The Northwest is also a less common setting. 

What genre is your story?

Snowflake Sweethearts is a contemporary inspirational romance. 

How did the story come about?

The ideas for the characters and story came to mind as I researched Fairhaven and brainstormed with my author friends, Terri Gillespie and Cathy Gohlke. They helped me refine my ideas and come up with my plot. 

What time of year did you write it, and how did you motivate yourself to write a Christmas novel at that of year?

I wrote it between August and and March 1, so it helped that the holiday season fell in the middle of writing the book. I played a lot of instrumental Christmas music to help me stay in the Christmas mood for writing. 

What's next in your writing? 

I am writing a three-book historical romance series set in England beginning in 1910 through World War 1. The working title for the first book is The Governess of Highland Hall. I've loved researching the Edwardian time period, and I even took a trip to England last summer to see the homes and countryside firsthand. When people ask me to describe the first book, I say it's like Downton Abbey meets Jane Eyre with a little Sound of Music thrown in. I have had interest from several publishers and hope to have a contract soon.  

Thanks for visiting Seriously Write today, Carrie! 

Thanks, Annette!  I appreciate this opportunity to connect with readers who enjoy holiday stories. Merry Christmas and Happy Reading to all!

In Snowflake Sweethearts - Travel back to Fairhaven, Washington, with single mom and personal chef Annie Romano. Annie has never forgotten the man she secretly loved as a teenager, and when he asks her to be the live-in caretaker for his ailing grandmother, she changes her plans and agrees. As the holiday season approaches Alex's grandmother, her matchmaking friends and one fatherless little girl are soon pulling at Annie's and Alex's heartstrings...just in time for a very special Christmas. I hope readers will enjoy this third and final book in the Bayside Treasure Series.

To learn more about Carrie, you can connect with her here:

http://www.carrieturansky.com

https://www.facebook.com/carrie.turansky?ref=tn_tnmn

https://twitter.com/carrieturansky

http://pinterest.com/carrieturansky

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Christmas 2012 Series: Christmas Roses by Amanda Cabot

Happy Monday, writers! Today we've got another author interview for you. Amanda Cabot's latest Christmas title, Christmas Roses is a delightful read! You can read my review for her book at Net's Book Notes today as part of her blog tour/promotional. (I didn't plant that, but it's perfect timing!) Let's learn some interesting behind-the-scenes facts, shall we? Read on! ~ Annette

What makes your Christmas story different than others you’ve seen or read? 

I’d like to say that my book is different from every other book that’s ever been written, but we know that’s not true.  After all, there are only so many basic stories. What differentiates Christmas Roses from other holiday stories is the setting—a fictional mining town in eastern Wyoming—and the characters. Celia is a widowed Swedish immigrant who wants nothing more than to keep her daughter safe, while Mark is an itinerant carpenter searching for his long-lost father. Neither one is looking for love or marriage, but ...  

What genre is your story?

Historical romance.

How did the story come about? 

I’m a fan of Christmas novellas. I love everything about them—the shorter format, the special theme, the fact that many of them are published in hard cover—and so after I read Kathleen Morgan’s series of Culdee Creek Christmas stories, I knew I wanted to write one of my own. Christmas Roses is the result.

The biggest challenge was choosing the setting. Although I toyed with the idea of making this another Ladreville story, featuring secondary characters from my Texas Dreams trilogy, for marketing reasons, my editor suggested I create a story with no ties to my other books.

Where would it take place? The same night that I received my editor’s suggestion, I attended a lecture about a copper mining town called Sunrise, Wyoming, and I knew I’d found my setting. My town is fictional, but it is a copper mining town, and it’s located in the same part of the state as Sunrise. As for the characters, they’re purely fictional, although don’t tell Celia and Mark that. While I was writing, they became real to me, as I hope they will for you.

What time of year did you write it, and how did you motivate yourself to write a Christmas novel at that time of year?

As it turned out, I was writing Christmas Roses in the fall, so it wasn’t a huge stretch to imagine myself in a snow-covered landscape. One of the things I’ve discovered, though, is that when I’m immersed in my writing, I’m oblivious to the outside world. At one point, I was writing a book with a blizzard scene in the middle of a particularly hot July. When the doorbell interrupted me and I realized it was hot outside, I was shocked.

I love getting lost in the writing zone too. Just happened recently. What’s next for you in writing? (Will you do more Christmas stories?)

My next release (January 2013) is the second of the Westward Winds trilogy.  Like its predecessor Summer of Promise and Christmas Roses, Waiting for Spring is set in Wyoming. This time, though, I’ve used a real location, namely Cheyenne, rather than a fictional town. And, yes, I’d love to do another Christmas story. I have, in fact, proposed one to my editor. Will she buy it? I certainly hope so!

Thanks for visiting today! What a pleasure to see this behind-the-scenes peek. 

To learn more about Amanda Cabot, visit her website. 

Christmas Roses released September 1, 2012 from Revell. 

Celia Anderson doesn’t need anything for Christmas except a few more boarders, which are hard to come by in this small mining town. She certainly doesn’t have a husband on her Christmas wish list. But when a wandering carpenter finds lodging at her boarding house, she admits that she might remarry if she found the right man—the kind of man who would bring her roses for Christmas. It would take a miracle to get roses during a harsh Wyoming winter. But Christmas, after all, is the time for miracles . . .

Amanda Cabot invites readers to cozy up with a romantic, heartwarming tale of the greatest gift of all—love.

 

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