Mending Christmas: Blending Fact into Fiction by Shanna Hatfield

 

Every time I see this saying, it makes me smile.

Mostly because it’s true. I’m always on the lookout for funny tidbits or crazy happenings to include in my stories.

In my newest release, Mending Christmas, I incorporated several details I gleaned from conversations with friends.

In the story, Beth, the heroine, has a best friend with three little ones. She and Billy (the hero) end up babysitting them a few times.

I love writing about kids. There is just something so sweet and special and innocent about them that comes out in the things they do and say.

One day, a friend told me about a little girl she knew offering “bless yous” to someone who sneezed. It’s what she calls facial tissue. How sweet is that? I just loved it and had to include it in this story.

Another time, I was visiting with friends who have a baby. Apparently while the mama was gone for a much-needed day out with her sister, the daddy was doing his best to keep their nine-month-old entertained. He said in the time it took him to turn around, the baby disappeared and he found him sitting on the bathroom floor, happily gnawing on the toilet brush. So funny – and gross! And now part of this story!

For a while, my nephew decided to refer to his baby brother as Tiny Little baby Olaf. If you called the baby by name, he would correct you and tell you the name was Tiny Little Baby Olaf. When he is all grown up, I fully intend to whip that memory out and share with him. For now, it’s what the toddler in this story calls his baby sister.

Even my own Captain Cavedweller unwittingly got in on the story sharing. When he was in elementary school, the students were supposed to perform the square dance they’d been practicing for weeks at the Parent Teacher Association meeting. The night of the performance, he was in his room, playing, and all of a sudden remembered he was supposed to be at the school. At the time, his family only lived a few blocks from the school, so without telling his parents where he was going or what he was doing, he dashed outside, ran to the school, did the performance in the T-shirt and sneakers he had on, and ran back home before anyone even knew he was gone. So I had Billy share that memory with Beth.

It’s so fun to take real life “facts” and work them into fiction.

I hope you’ll check out Mending Christmas. It’s a sweet, funny, feel-good, warm-your-heart romance.

He’s reckless.

She’s cautious.

When life throws them together, will love mend the broken pieces of their hearts?

Injuries are an inevitable part of the job for rodeo bullfighter Billy Clark. But when a feisty bull tosses him over the fence, Billy lands at the feet of a captivating woman. In that moment, he concludes the pain might be a small price to pay just to experience her gentle touch again. Having grown up as an orphan, Billy has struggled with loneliness his whole life. Yet, the way this woman gazes at him ignites a flicker of hope that he might one day find love.

After years of working in a bustling big city emergency room, Dr. Beth Moore desperately needs a break. She retreats to Twin Falls, Idaho, and settles into the house she recently inherited from her grandfather. When her best friend, Sierra, talks her into attending a local rodeo, Beth never expected to have an injured cowboy land at her feet much less to be so attracted to the charming man.

Concerned about Billy’s recovery, Beth travels with the rodeo stock company to keep an eye on him, while he unwittingly teaches her about the importance of embracing happiness. Will their budding friendship begin to mend the broken pieces of their hearts?

Mending Christmas is a wholesome holiday western filled with heartfelt moments, humor, and a tender romance.

What’s something silly, funny, or crazy you’ve experienced or heard about in real life?

Post your answer for a chance to win a $5 Amazon Gift Card and a digital copy of Mending Christmas!

Lucky Shot & 1972

If you are keeping up with the releases of the Pink Pistol Sisterhood series, book 9 is now ready for your reading pleasure.

I hope you’ll check out Lucky Shot! I shared last month about what a joy and blessing it was for me to write this book, but I thought it might be fun to share a little about the research I did for the story, since I was a toddler when it takes place, in 1972. I also had some excellent brainstorming help from the fillies here on Petticoats and Pistols. Thank you, my Pink Pistol Sisters for all the great ideas!

My grandma’s old 1960s era cookbook provided great ideas for recipes my characters might be eating.

I remember my mom having the butcher block top portable dishwasher before we moved into a new house in 1975. You can see more of the visual inspiration that helped when I was writing the story in my Lucky Shot Pinterest board.

Our very own Cheryl Pierson sent me an amazing list of songs from the summer of 1972. I think you’ll see some tunes on the list you probably recognize!

Thanks to the wonders of eBay and fast delivery, I also had this June 1972 copy of Woman’s Day magazine. I grew up with a mother and grandmother who loved magazines. It was a much-anticipated event when a new one would arrive in the mailbox (which is probably why I still love magazines). Anyway, this one took me right back to the days of my youth with all the articles, colorful and clever advertisements, and articles.

Look at the summer fashions of the day!

One of my mom’s favorite parts of the magazine was The Collector’s Cook Book. She always pulled them out and saved them. I wonder what ever happened to all of them.

Just for fun, here is a recipe from this South Pacific themed collection of recipes.

Tropical Pear Bars

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar

1/4 cup butter

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 can pear halves, drained and diced

1/2 cup chopped macadamia nuts

1 cup flaked coconut

2 teaspoons grated lemon rind

Combine 1 cup flour and 1/4 cup brown sugar and cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal.

Pat firmly into buttered 9″ square pan. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, beat eggs until light. Gradually add remaining brown sugar. Mix together remaining flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir into egg mixture. Fold in remaining ingredients and spread over warm baked mixture. Put back in oven and bake 20 minutes, or until lightly browned. Cool and cut into bars.

If you want to take a stroll down memory lane, or dive into some “retro” fun, check out Lucky Shot, available now on Amazon. You can get it in eBook, through Kindle Unlimited, in paperback, or hardback!

What’s a girl to do when her aim is true?

As a registered nurse at the Boise VA Hospital, Grace Marshall is devoted to her patients, but some wounds require more than medical care. A patient too stubborn and angry to accept the help he needs storms out of her exam room, ruffling her feathers. Yet, when the man returns to apologize, something about him tugs at her heart.

Levi Gibson left for war young and idealistic but returned from Vietnam with physical scars and a haunted soul. He tries to banish the darkness brewing inside him with hard work on his family’s potato farm, but it’s a young nurse’s kindness that brings unexpected light and joy into his life. If Levi can open up to Grace and let her see his pain, could she be the key that unlocks a future full of hope instead of mere survival?

After her father sends Grace a legendary pistol, target practice provides an excuse to spend time with Levi during the summer of 1972. As his shadows overwhelm him, it will take far more than a lucky shot for Grace to hit love’s mark.

If you could travel back in time,

what year would you visit and

what one food would you look forward to enjoying?

Post your answer then pop over to this link for a chance to win a big

Lucky Shot prize pack that includes an autographed hardback!

 

A Merry Cowboy Christmas!

Yes, I know we just had Halloween…

I know it’s only November first, but I am in that Christmas spirit because that’s kind of how publishing rolls, my friends and as the publishers roll… Well, so do the authors! And this author has some fun stuff to celebrate this fall…

First, my just released (non-cowboy!) book “At Home in Wishing Bridge“, the second book of my “Wishing Bridge” series, has been on the Amazon bestseller list for weeks and spent a lot of time at #1 so there is a reason to celebrate right there… and readers are loving it. And that makes authors the happiest of all.

And Love Inspired has re-issued this beautiful story from my “Kirkwood Lake” series. “The Lawman’s Holiday Wish is a story of old wrongs, quick judgments and slow healing… but when God gives us a whole new beginning… a beginning with three precocious five-year-olds… well, that’s the kind of Christmas dream we all love to see! Love Inspired doubled the fun by pairing me with Gail Martin and her book “The Christmas Kite”. You can find this on AMAZON, and in Walmart now!

But being a Western blog, let’s see if I can pull something out of my Christmas Stetson!

Yes!

🙂

First, we’ve got an amazingly fun duo with my good Western buddy Linda Goodnight. I was blessed to be part of a novella duo with her… Western-and-cowboy-themed…. and so I was able to add a “Shepherd’s Crossing” novella to my series set in Western Idaho. The “Shepherd’s Crossing” series brings three Southern beauties… real Steel Magnolias… to a sheep ranch left to them by a benevolent uncle. And there just may be some rugged cowboys who know a good thing when they see it and have the brains enough to keep these girls well above the Mason-Dixon line… despite the cold and wind and snow. Shepherd’s Crossing… where love conquers all. Eventually. 🙂

This beautiful story pairs a single mother with a cowboy who’s spent a bunch of years alone… but Christmas isn’t just a season of miracles. It’s a season of family… friends… and second chances. And Ty Carrington gets his second chance in “Falling for the Christmas Cowboy” my half “A Cowboy Christmas”! And today I’ve got two copies of “A Cowboy Christmas” to send out this week (it’s catch up week on the farm now that pumpkin season is over!)… so you can win it before you can buy it! This book hits stores in two weeks… and on sale for Kindle December 1st!!!  PREORDER HERE! (I can’t make it much plainer than that, can I, darlings???)

On sale nationwide in two weeks!

And then, for the historical lovers among us (of which I am one!) here is my historical novella Christmas collection “Christmas on the Frontier”.

This three-novella book takes you back to a simpler time… but faith, hope and love still ruled the day as we built this great nation.

Three great pioneer Christmas stories bring us back to a simpler time… maybe a holier time… a time before Christmas became synonymous with commercialism. A time when a baby in the manger was enough to make us bow our heads… take a knee… pray as one. A time to be grateful for the little things. A time when little was taken for granted because our very hold on life and liberty was tenuous back then and no one had the luxury to be jaded.

 

“Her Christmas Cowboy”, “A Town Called Christmas” and “His Beloved Bride” make up a wonderful collection from my heart… to yours.

I’m also giving away two Kindle copies of “Christmas on the Frontier” today…. to start your November off right.

Leave a comment about holidays below… what you love? What you don’t love! What makes you laugh or cry? Are you a Hallmark binge watcher? Or a binge reader? Are you Pinterest crazy? Or do you wing it with cookies from Wegmans or Harris Teeter and a Stouffer’s lasagna in the oven?

Because there’s value and joy in both ways!

Four winners today to kick off our Christmas season, then rejoin me in a month when we celebrate Christmas novellas here with the fillies… and I’ll be giving away copies again. Keepin’ it simple. Keepin’ it real. Keepin’ it prayerful in times of trouble…

“For unto you is born this day a Savior which is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign unto you. You will find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” Luke 2, 11-12

Oh, those shepherds! Those angels!

Can you even imagine what that must have been like?

And today I get to kick of this holy and happy season with you! Bring on the eggnog, my friends! And the cookies. (Who doesn’t love cookies?) And let us rejoice together!

 

 

 

When Steel Magnolias Go West!

Book 1 of “Shepherd’s Crossing” series available right now nationwide! Walmart, Kroger, Winn Dixie, anywhere mass market paperbacks are sold!

Three steel magnolias….

Lizzie, Melonie and Charlotte Fitzgerald were raised in the lap of luxury. Dysfunctional luxury! The girls wanted for nothing growing up on the Fitzgerald’s highly regarded Kentucky horse farm. The granddaughters of a crazy rich publishing magnate, the motherless girls were raised by their African American nanny Corrie Satterly… But when their father inherited the publishing empire as print publishing began falling into disfavor, self-absorbed Tim Fitzgerald bilked the company for every last penny he could…

And left the country. And his girls.

Corporate bankruptcy took everything from the sisters, leaving them nothing but college loans and a car. The girls’ uncle bequeaths them with a portion of his beautiful western Idaho ranch, with one condition: They have to stay on the ranch for a year to gain their share… and maybe — just maybe– a reason to stay?

LINK TO AMAZON FOR HER COWBOY REUNION!

Enter three smokin’ hot cowboys!

Heath Caufield, Tim Fitzgerald’s widowed ranch manager and a man who has a history with Lizzie Fitzgerald. A history he’s tried to put behind him, but when Lizzie shows up in western Idaho, Heath’s intentions are challenged not only by the past but by the present… and the hope of a future.

Jace Middleton, whose family helped settle the little town of Shepherd’s Crossing just north of Council, Idaho… but with the family land gone, and few jobs for this carpenter/cowboy, Jace has decided to move to Sun Valley. When an elderly woman reveals long-held secrets, Jace is stunned to realize he’s been living a lie. But there’s no time to languish because twin baby girls need him to be at the top of his game, and when the top of his game includes working side-by-side with interior designer Melonie Fitzgerald, Jace is pretty sure life couldn’t turn more upside down. And of course it does… but with God’s perfect timing, sometimes upside down is the only way to get things just right.

Isaiah Woods has enough on his plate. Breeder of prize Nez Perce Appaloosa horses, Isaiah is raising his niece and nephew as best he can after losing their parents to a tragic accident. But when old mistakes meet him head on, he must risk the love of his parents and members of his tribe to put things right… and he can only do that with Charlotte Fitzgerald’s help. And that just makes folks angrier.

Three Steel Magnolias…. three amazing cowboys…. and then BONUS! 🙂 “Falling for the Christmas Cowboy”!

 

Coming in November, a beautiful Shepherd’s Crossing Christmas novella!

A Christmas novella when Jessica Lambert takes over her aunt’s old house only to find out it was bought by Ty Carrington, part owner of Carrington Acres Ranch… but what kind of cowboy puts a single mother out on the streets during the holidays? And as Ty helps Jessica and “Dovie” Lambert get things straightened out, he realizes that there just might be a Merry Christmas after all.  Done as part of a two-story anthology with the amazing Linda Goodnight! Happy dancing because I love working with Linda!!!

I love starting a new series, but what I really love is when I get knee deep into it, where I can feel the characters and setting evolve into what I want it to be once complete.

Now, working on book 4, the momentum of the previous stories helps set the pace for the new ones…

And gives me a cast of characters for the readers to laugh with… and sometimes cry over. And isn’t that the very best thing of all? A story that runs the gamut of emotions, and still leaves you happy.

And now I want to get to Idaho and see this beautiful land! I want to feel what it’s like to have Hell’s Canyon on one side (The Snake River gorge) and the Payette National forest on the other. To be shrouded from sunrises… and claim the sunset.

It’s an amazingly beautiful and still rugged region, ripe with Native American traditions of the Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) and a mix of people. And as outsiders swoop in and buy up ranch land, the demographic might change, but the love of Idaho. The mountains, the creeks, the forests, the wolves and coyote and deer… that will never change.

 

 

A Slice of Idaho History

I just returned from my first trip to the West in four years – two weeks of mountains, lakes, seeing friends and family, and experiencing a bit of local history. Today I’d like to share with you a bit of that history.

On one of the days of my trip, my nieces and I visited the oldest building in Idaho, the Mission of the Sacred Heart, also known as the Cataldo Mission, located in Old Mission State Park located 28 miles east of the city of Couer d’Alene. The mission, located on a picturesque hill overlooking the Couer d’Alene River, was built between 1850 and 1853 by Catholic missionaries and members of the Couer d’Alene tribe. Next door to the mission is the restored parish house where the Jesuit missionaries lived. Also located on the park property are a cemetery and a visitor center where you can visit an exhibit titled Sacred Encounters: Father De Smet and the Indians of the Rocky Mountain West. The exhibit details the history of the Jesuits’ interactions with the Couer d’Alene and Salish tribes of the area. The site’s historical significance led to it being designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1961.

The establishment of the mission came about in a different way than many such structures. It was actually the Nez Perce and Flathead people, who had heard about the white man’s “Book of Heaven,” who sent representatives to St. Louis to find out more. Eleven years later, Father Pierre Jean De Smet responded by traveling to the area. Other brothers and friars picked an original location for the mission, but it was later moved due to the first’s tendency to flood. In 1850, the mission was taken over by Italian Jesuit missionary Antonio Ravalli, who oversaw the building of the current building. He had the local tribes build the structure so they would feel a part of the church. Not a single nail was used in the construction. Visitors today can see some of the exposed wattle and daub that was used instead.

Because of the mission’s remote location, decoration of the structure required some creativity. Newspapers were painted and put on the walls. Tin cans were fashioned into chandeliers. And local huckleberries were used to create the blue used to stain the interior wood.

It’s a lovely, peaceful place to just sit and admire the surrounding landscape as well. If you’re ever in Northern Idaho, it’s well worth a visit.

Star-crossed Cowboy Romance: #mustlovecowboys

I have a brand new series starting with Love Inspired on July 17th, 2018.

I LOVE THIS SERIES.

It’s sweet. It’s poignant. It’s fun. It’s diverse. But more than anything else, it’s based on great stories from a solid premise that’s got some wide-open doors for twists:

MAJOR PUBLISHER INDICTED, BILKS FORTUNE FROM COMPANY, BANKRUPTS FAMILY. PRESTIGIOUS KENTUCKY HORSE FARM LIQUIDATED!

Lizzie, Melonie and Charlotte Fitzgerald grew up with horses, but their illustrious Kentucky farm was geared for big stakes racing and gilded dressage. When their father sank the three generation publishing ship that made the Fitzgeralds crazy rich, the three women were left with nothing but one car each and college loans. Big college loans.  Their Uncle Sean realizes what his good-for-nothing brother has done about the same time his final cancer treatment fails. He wills a 25% share of his sprawling Idaho ranch to each of the girls… and the final 25% to Heath Caufield, a man who came on board when he was thrown off the Kentucky horse farm a dozen years before. Why? Because he had the audacity to fall in love with Lizzie Fitzgerald.

Lizzie and Heath share a past. There’s no way in this world they can share a future, but when those old feelings come to fore, can they look beyond their history to embrace the future God’s laid out for them?

The fun of this story is that it bridges the techno gap of a decade. Ten years ago, it was tough to get cell reception in a lot of out-of-the way places. Now we’re spoiled (or RUINED, but that’s another blog post, right???) because it’s rare that we can’t get coverage in most places.

But that’s a recent change and when big money wants someone G-O-N-E, they generally manage to get it done.

Lizzie comes to the ranch, unaware that Heath is the ranch manager following her uncle’s death… and a co-owner. Her uncle laid out a caveat: The women had to give it a year on the ranch.

For Lizzie this is a no-brainer. She’s got a head for business, a love and skill for horses, and heading up the equine breeding side of Pine Ridge Ranch is an amazing opportunity… right up until she sees Heath Caufield coming her way.

And so it begins….

A story filled with love, with ego, with anger, with emotion and attraction… and a motherless bi-racial little boy named Zeke who can’t help but win hearts wherever he goes.

Sheep ranching has a great history in the hills and mountains of Idaho, so setting this ranch… and others… here fit the storyline and the Western flair.

And bringing three Southern magnolias who are true Steel Magnolias to Idaho was just too much fun. Each girl has her own history, tainted by the loss of their mother as small children, the selfishness of a spoiled, rich father, and the love of a black surrogate mother, a woman who raised these delicate blossoms to be the strong women they are today, a woman who has stayed with them long after the money ran out because raising children isn’t about making money… sometimes it’s just absolutely about love. Corrie Satterly loves these girls like they were her own. And for nearly thirty years, they have been.

But money doesn’t buy happiness and each woman comes west as an individual with her own past, hopes and dreams and goals. All are determined that they’ll earn their inheritance, then sell it back to Heath Caufield, wish him well with his sheep and hay and straw and lambs and dogs and horses… and make their way in the world.

When the good Lord has other plans…. and offers other options…. are they gutsy enough to claim a future in the still somewhat wild West? Or will old-fashioned stubbornness trip them up?

Book one releases in six weeks… and then I was invited to do a novella combo with the amazing and wonderful Linda Goodnight… and so readers will get the second bonus story in December, a beautiful story of a widowed Native American woman with her endearing daughter and a rancher whose sad past colors his present and his future… “Falling for the Christmas Cowboy” in the duo called “A Cowboy Christmas”! (And I love, love, love Linda Goodnight!)

And then in February the third book releases

Today we’re celebrating this upcoming release with TWO COPIES to give away!

Leave a comment below and tell me what grabs you about reunion romance? Those star-crossed lovers that are pulled apart…. and what bridges the gap to bring them back together?

Not like Romeo and Juliet because they were kind of too dumb for words, weren’t they?

(Sorry, I should not give out negative personal opinions on a world-famous blog… except I did kind of wanna slap ’em both. And their families…)

Clearly this is why I love writing inspirational romance and women’s fiction.

I LOVE HAPPY ENDINGS!

Life comes with its own set of sad moments, and while I’m okay with sadness in a book… I long for the couple’s happy ending!

Looking forward to chatting with you all today!