The Wranglers are happy to welcome guest author Alison Henderson to the round corral today. I've
By Alison Henderson
We’re more than half-way through October, so are we all
ready to start thinking about Christmas? I want to thank Liz and the other
WordWranglers for inviting me to join you today to introduce my new short story
collection Small Town Christmas Tales:
Ten Short Holiday Romances.
I’m a city girl, born and bred, but like so many readers,
I love small town romances. I love the idea of a community where neighbors help
neighbors, where, for better or worse, everybody knows your name. Many authors
of small town romance set a whole series of books in the same town their
readers have grown to love, but just for fun, in Small Town Christmas Tales, I did the opposite. I wrote ten short
Christmas romances, each set in a different town in a different state across
the country, from coast to coast.
Setting is always one of the most important aspects of my
full-length books, so choosing the settings for these stories was critical. I
enjoy research, but for authenticity I like to use places I’m familiar with,
places I’ve either lived or visited. Fortunately, I’ve traveled quite a bit and
soaked up visual details along the way. For example, the setting of Christmas 2.0 is based on the small,
upstate New York town where I went to college. I lived in Minnesota for
twenty-five years, so Let it Snow and
Penguins, Pucks, and Pumpkin Pies
take place in the upper Midwest. And Second
Hand Hearts is set on the central coast of California, where I live now.
Each town is fictional but has enough realistic detail to make the reader feel
at home
Then there was the challenge of finding just the right
names for my small towns. I began
each search with a map of the appropriate state.
I wanted a name that evoked the area but was not an existing town. In Penguins, Pucks, and Pumpkin Pies, I
settled on Pumpkinseed Lake, because western Wisconsin is dotted with small
lakes, and believe it or not, the pumpkinseed is a fish native to the area.
Hawthorne Springs, Missouri—the town in Mistletoe
and Misdemeanors—was named after the state flower. Oldebroek, New York, the
setting for Christmas 2.0, is named
after a town in the Netherlands and is intended to speak to the area’s Dutch
roots. I based the town of Hard Luck, Wyoming in A Hard Luck Christmas on the real-life town of Lusk after an Easter
Sunday stop when my husband and I were driving from Minnesota to California for
our big cross-country move a few years ago.
I had tremendous fun creating the towns in these stories,
and I invite you to check out Small Town
Christmas Tales to read more about them. Sometimes humorous and sometimes
poignant, these stories are sure to put you in a holiday mood.
Here’s the opening of Mistletoe and Misdemeanors to give
you a taste:
This was the last place she expected
to spend Christmas. Callie Rayburn glanced around the puke-green cinder block
cell in the basement of the Hawthorne Springs, Missouri police station. In jail
for Christmas. It figured, given the downward spiral her life had taken during
the past twenty-four hours.
A tear slid down the side of her nose.
She dashed it away with the back of her hand and snuffled. She didn’t even have
a tissue because that jerk Billy Freeman had taken her purse. What kind of town
let a pubescent little snot like Billy Freeman wear a badge and carry a gun? It
seemed like just last week she’d babysat him and his obnoxious younger brother
to earn enough money to buy her dream dress for the senior prom.
Another tear followed the track of the
first. If Billy Freeman was old enough to be a police officer, what did that
make her? Ancient. Over the hill. Thirty years old with nothing to show for it.
Two days ago she’d been living the high life in St. Louis with a job, a cute
apartment she couldn’t afford, and a future. Today—zip, nada, bupkis. And now,
to tie the whole thing up with a big fluffy bow, she’d been arrested by Billy
Freeman for breaking and entering. Un-freaking-believable.
Disgusted, she pulled out of her slouch
and straightened her spine. If Officer Billy thought she was going to take this
lying down, he had a lot to learn. She might have temporarily sunk to the level
of pathetic loser, but heaven help her, she would sleep in her car before she
spent Christmas Eve in a jail cell.
Callie shot another glance around her
barren surroundings. Where was a tin cup when you needed one? Wasn’t that what
prisoners used in the old movies? She’d have to settle for her shoe. She was
lucky this pair didn’t have laces—Billy probably would have taken them to keep
her from hanging herself.
She slipped off one sleek black ankle
boot and thumped it against the metal bars, wincing at the resulting scuff that
marred the smooth surface. Damn. She
loved those boots. She hadn’t even paid the credit card charge for them yet.
In
this story, Callie sports a favorite pair of loud Christmas socks on Christmas
morning. I’ll be giving this pair of fun holiday socks to one lucky commenter,
so please tell me, what is your most unusual Christmas memory?
Alison
www.alisonhenderson.com
Welcome to the round corral, Alison, and good luck with the book. I LOVED it!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Liz. It's a pleasure to be here!
Deletethanks for visiting us today, Alison! Wishing you manymanymanymany sales!
ReplyDeleteGood morning, Kristina. Thank you very much!
DeleteYou did a great job of naming your towns. I loved these "feel good" stories!
ReplyDeleteI had a lot of fun with these towns. And I think we all need to feel good as often as possible!
DeleteNaming towns is a hard thing--you did a wonderful Job, Alison! Thanks for stopping by the Word Wranglers. Loved having you!! And I'm looking forward to reading your stories. Christmas stories are fast becoming favorites of mine!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Nan. 'Tis the season!
DeleteWhat a great post, Alison. I always enjoy the "behind the scenes" look at movies, TV shows, and especially books. I love this collection of stories. So heartwarming.
ReplyDeleteBehind-the-scenes looks are always fun. Thanks, Diane.
DeleteI love the behind the scenes stuff, too. And, like you, I'm a city girl but love setting stories in small towns. Fun stuff...and your stories look awesome. On my TBR list for sure!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if genuine small town residents love them as much as we do. LOL
DeleteYes, we do! 😊
Delete