Christmas has always been a special time of year for me. The day after Thanksgiving we decorated our Christmas tree, but I had to think of Christmas long before then. For years I wrote Christmas romance novellas for Barbour Books with an early summer deadline so the book could be edited and printed and shipped before the beginning of the holiday season. Now that my annual Christmas novella is an e-book, the deadline is later, and sometimes the glimmer of a plot comes from a personal experience.
This year’s novella is based on an epiphany that was a long time coming. Since my husband’s passing, I have worn the gold wedding band he gave me and taken comfort in touching it, twisting it on my marriage finger. That first year was lived in a blur, making decisions I didn’t want to make alone, and quite frankly not even remembering some days, just trying to get through them. I wore that ring for over four years after I ceased being a wife. With that role taken from me, I struggled to redefine myself.
That spark of an idea, a widow taking off her wedding ring, gave me Molly Turner’s dilemma for this year’s novella, On One Condition. Of course, it’s romantic fiction. I set the story in Missouri because it’s home. I made up the Christmas tree farm. I made up Molly Turner and Russell Rhoades. I made up the houses where they live and the cars they drive, their backstories and their jobs. But in this novella, you will find a bit of me.
The book launched today on Amazon. Let me know what you think of it!
On One Condition is now available.
When his office staff ding-dongs him about replacing their aging artificial tree with a real one, former Marine Russell Rhoades reluctantly agrees. At the Christmas tree farm, he meets widow Molly Turner, who is helping at her dad’s seasonal business. Russell is smitten by the tall vivacious woman, but is she still in mourning? He returns day after day to the farm. But how many trees does a guy need?
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