It's my pleasure to welcome Suzanne Ferrell back to The Romance Dish. I'm a fan of Ferrell's small town, contemporary Westen series, with its strong cast of characters and intriguing thread of suspense as well as her Edgars family romantic suspense stories with their determined fight for justice, even if they have to sidestep the rules to achieve it. Suzanne discovered romance novels in her aunt's hidden stash one summer as a teenager. From that moment on she knew two things: she loved romance stories and someday she'd be writing her own. Her love for romances has only grown over the years. It took her a number of years and a second career as a nurse to finally reach her dream but she now has a full-time career writing heartwarming - and heartstopping - romances I love to read.
Suzanne joins us today to blog about her three Christmas novellas, set within her fictional Westen, Ohio community, including her newest: Close to Santa's Heart.
The Sideways Christmas In Westen
One of my
favorite things about Christmas is all the Christmas romances that are
published in the late fall. I mean, seriously, is there anything more romantic
than finding love at Christmas? I’ve always loved reading Christmas romances
and wanted to write one of my own. And I love reading novellas this time of
year, because they’re quick and I can get my reading fix in and still have time
for shopping, baking, decorating…oh yeah, and writing.
Now, I had
two series to choose from to write my Christmas story. There was the Edgars
Family novels and the Westen Series. The Edgars Family novels are darker and
edgier. The Westen Series books, while
each has some element of suspense in them, are more laid back with the stories
about a small town and things that occur in it. (Can I help it if dead bodies turn
up and fires sometimes break out?) So, when looking at the two series, it made
more sense to me to set my first Christmas novella in Westen.
So I did.
It was titled Close To Christmas and centered around the wedding of the sheriff
and one of his deputies. Problem was, at the end of the book, I sort of
leave…okay, I really leave a budding
relationship between two secondary characters and a mystery hanging in the
wind. But that’s okay, because I planned to give those characters the next big
book in the series. First I had to jump back over and write the next Edgars
book to keep those readers happy.
Before I
could get to that big Westen book, I was asked to be part
And this
year I was again asked to be part of a Christmas book bundle, Under The Kissing
Bough. Once more I visited the folks in Westen and decided to place this third
novella, Close To Santa’s Heart, in the same timeline as the previous two. This
time I focused on the romance between another of the town’s deputies, Cleetus
Junkins and the little hair dresser, Sylvie Gillis.
Yes, I
know Cleetus isn’t a very heroic name. He popped up as a secondary character in
Close To Home, the first book in the series, rescuing twin boys and their
grandmother who suffers from Alzheimer’s when they were out wandering on a
highway near town. (Heroic, huh?) And then he got injured trying to help the
sheriff stop a dangerous criminal in Close To The Edge. (More quiet hero
stuff.) Then all of a sudden people were writing me emails and messaging me
asking when he was going to get a romance. Here’s the blurb for his and
Sylvie’s story:
As
Westen’s resident Santa, Deputy Cleetus Junkins brings the magic of
Christmas to his beloved home town each year. He oversees lighting the
tree in the square and raising the huge mistletoe kissing bough in the gazebo.
At the parties he visits with children and the elderly. Amid all this joy even
Santa can be lonely. Or he used to be. This year, Cleetus has a helper.
Sylvie Gillis came to
Westen for a fresh start only to have her heart immediately melted by a shy
gentle giant of a deputy. Her childhood was short on happiness but playing elf
to Cleetus’ Santa makes her want to believe in Christmas miracles.
As Cleetus and
Sylvie help bring Christmas joy to the citizens of Westen, the holiday magic
weaves its way into their hearts. Will the reason Sylvie left home come between
them or can she stay Close To Santa’s Heart?
Again, I
had to read through the other two novellas, pick out scenes Sylvie and Cleetus
were in for those books and find a way to weave them in among the romance,
Christmas celebration and little mystery in the book. Oh yeah…all on a limited
word count. Woohoo! Nothing like a challenge!
Then it
occurred to me. From a timeline perspective, I’d written the whole thing sideways.
I started with the final story on the timeline, wrote the first one second and
finished up with the middle story. Confused? Yeah, me too. How’d I do that?
So, if
you’ve never read any of the Christmas novellas, the reading order is this:
1.
Close To The Mistletoe
2.
Close To Santa’s Heart
3.
Close To Christmas
If
you have been reading them, I’m sorry I wrote them out of order, but hope
you’ll love Cleetus and Sylvie’s story in the Under The Kissing Bough book
bundle with 15 new Christmas novellas in it. (Oh, and by the way, I’m finally
getting to those two characters and their big story!)
Merry
Christmas and Happy reading everyone!
Suzanne
Find more information about Suzanne and her books at her website.
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