I know, I know. I'm one of those people. *gasp* And yes, before you ask, I have already bought some of my Christmas presents (I shop all year long). But you know what else I love about the holidays and this holiday season in particular? I'm headed back to Christmas Town, Maine only now I'm bringing a bunch of new Harlequin Heartwarming authors with me!
This time last year (was it only a year ago?) I was gearing up for my first ever release: CHRISTMAS, ACTUALLY, a Harlequin Heartwarming (sweet) anthology focusing on the Banning siblings who each find love during the holiday season. It was a project that sort of just happened, after Melinda Curtis (all hail, Melinda) bounced the idea of doing a linked anthology for the line. Seriously, it was a conversation over Skype with the two of us and Anna Adams. A few hours later, we'd worked out the details, but the most important one was the all important setting which, given we all agreed that this town meant snow, Maine was the logical choice. Thankfully Anna A has actually lived in that part of the country so she could straighten us California girls out <G>.
Christmas Town is one of those "celebrate the holidays all year round" kind of places. It sounded new, it sounded different, and it sounded, at least for this aspiring author, promising! I'd been chomping at the traditional sale bit for quite a while. So we got to work and...it sold! My first sale. So exciting to have my foot in the door with Harlequin, which, happily for me, ended with another 2 book deal. I really thought the magic of Christmas Town would end there.
How wrong I was.
Cut to earlier this year and...Melinda once again has an idea. What if we expand the "universe" and bring in more authors from the line to write their own Christmas Town stories? Even better? What if we did four pods of three interconnected stories, just like the original CHRISTMAS, ACTUALLY. Could this work? Would people jump on board? The answer was a resounding yes! The roster filled up quicker than expected. We had our 12, they formed pods and now, a few months later, we have A HEARTWARMING CHRISTMAS (on sale Tuesday, October 13, 2015 for $.99 cents!), a collection of brand new sweet holiday novellas.
In my particular pod, COMING HOME TO CHRISTMAS TOWN, Anna Adams, Melinda Curtis and I joined forces again, this time with the Wright sisters, three adopted daughters coming together to celebrate their first Christmas without their father. We fell right back into pattern and right back into the town as if we'd never left. It felt like coming home, to where everything started for me; that magical place that will always hold a special place in my heart. How about a little more magic? The awesome Kristan Higgins agreed to write the foreword.
Additional authors include: Liz Flaherty, Tara Randel, Carol Ross, Amy Vastine, Leigh Riker, Rula Sinara, Cheryl Harper, Patricia Bradley, and debut Heartwarming author Cari Lynn Webb.
Here's to A Heartwarming Christmas for all!
USA Today and national bestselling author Anna
J. Stewart can't remember a time she didn't have a book in her hands or a story
in her head. Early obsessions with Star Wars, Star Trek and Wonder
Woman set her on the path to creating fun, funny, and family centric
romances with happily ever afters for the independent heroines she writes for
both Harlequin and Berkley. Anna lives in Northern California where she deals
with a serious Supernatural & Sherlock addiction, surrounds
herself with friends and family and tolerates an overly affectionate cat named
Snickers (or perhaps it's Snickers who tolerates her). Visit her online at
www.authorannastewart.com.
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That's so wonderful how you came to be published. Good luck with the Christmas stories!
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