The Gift that Keeps on Giving

I’m sure as a reader we’ve all read a story we can’t shake. That series we love, or those characters we can’t get enough of, no matter how much time has passed or how many other great books we have read since. I know I have. Stories we just want more of. That we can’t stop thinking about, long after we’ve read the last page.

As a writer I experience the same with the books I write. I have some characters that I just never want to say goodbye too. Characters and stories I loved so much I continued to think about them, and the twists their lives might take after the story was done. Owned Forever is a book I wrote for precisely that reason. I just loved these characters, and I love the conflict that started in Owned For Christmas so much, I had to see what happened next.

Frostbite Falls is the same.

The idea for Frostbite Falls came to me one random day in January. I’m sure I was still wanting to be in the Christmas spirit, even though the time for Santa and sleigh bells had long passed. A solitary vision of a woman adjusting a red ornament on a tree, quick morphed into an entire exciting world before me. A cast of characters I loved, places I wanted to go, parties I wanted to attend. I even developed recipes and cocktails that fit the Annual Christmas Ball’s theme. For a whole year, which is how long it took me to complete all four books, I lived in this small town. Writing and revising these stories. After that long, you would think I was sick of these stories, that I would grow tired of these same places, and people, and be desperate to write something else. But I never did. It’s the gift that keeps on giving. Giving inspiration, devotion, love.

Since I finished the original four Frostbite Falls stories, I have conjured up several more stories set in this small town. Some featuring the same characters, some with a whole new generation of stories to tell. I don’t know what it is about this town that I can’t quite shake. If it's just the fun of attending a Christmas Ball (I have to admit I would love to have one of those in my own town), if it’s the great characters that seem to beg for more stories, or if it’s the small town atmosphere where everyone is kind and takes care of each other, that I crave.

This last Nano, I was struggling to write. The words weren’t coming. The characters and their motivations felt too far away to grasp. And once again I found myself heading back to Frostbite Falls. To my old stomping grounds, my happy place, my escape. In only a week I managed to write a whole new story for Frostbite Falls (and winning Nano), the words escaping from my fingers so quickly it was hard to believe. While I haven’t gotten the time to finish that book just yet, being delayed by other projects, I am planning to get it done this year. And if all goes as planned, I hope to be spending another Christmas at the Frostbite Christmas Ball.

But I’d be foolish to believe this would be the end of this series. Or that there ever will be an end for me. Even when I think I’m through with them, when I think I will never be attending another ball, they sneak back up on me. They suck me back in, and right back to town.

And as crazy as it may sound, I hope that’s always true.

And for any that would like to join me in Frostbite Falls the Christmas season, all four of the original books will be discounted to only $0.99 on bookstrand.com, on their anniversary of their releases. Put on your ball gown, twist up your hair and throw on your jingle bell pumps to join us at the best Christmas party of the year. And if you’re very lucky, maybe you’ll be able to go home with a cowboy or two for Christmas.