I've returned!
How many of us disappear from our blog for months at a time? Even years? There is no excuse for this! Although I can think of plenty.
I've just released a novella for Christmas. It's titled The Far Side of Heaven and is about a young lady in a small town near the mountains in the Pacific Northwest. I named the town Meritville, but it's somewhere between Leavenworth and Winthrop...that sort of town.
A vicious fire plagued the residents that summer and Charlene's parent's ranch burnt to the ground. She was living on the property after her divorce while tending to a small gift shop in town. After the fire, her parents left for Europe, leaving Charlene a share of the insurance money which she's been living on, and the shop. Charlene is barely recovering financially and emotionally when winter hits.
On Christmas eve a blizzard blows into town and it seems Christmas is going to be meek.
Dallas and his friend Lew are marketing a new line of ski wear they've created and are out for a drive from the ski lodge to Meritville. An overly ambitious conversation with one of the locals in a gift shop finds them offending both the customer and the shop keeper. As an apology, Dallas buys some items and his heart melts when he sees the shop owner crying. He and Lew would go back to the lodge, but they have a flat tire. In the snow. In a blizzard.