Cozy Christmas Reads: June's story

The Real Christmas at Raccoon Creek
A guest post by June Foster

A couple of years back, I got a contract to join with some other authors in writing a Christmas novella. The editor chose a theme—each story would center around a Christmas snow globe. Since I write contemporary romance, I fully expected my story to be in that genre. It is. With a twist.

I asked myself what if a young nurse, Emily Eason, who lives in her grandmother's fifties-style home buys a snow globe at the drug store in her tiny town of Raccoon Creek? What if she brings it home and falls asleep while gazing at the little village, the snowmen, and falling snowflakes then wakes up. Nothing looks different at first, but then she discovers her computer is missing and in its place is an old free-standing TV like from years ago. Her phone rings with the old timey ring tone, but when she looks for her cell phone, she discovers a black dial phone making the noise. Could that really happen? Well, yes, in my imagination.

Since we lived in Locust Fork, Alabama, population 750, I envisioned the story taking place in our town. Emily's 50's house I based on memories of my childhood home. Yes, I grew up in the fifties. I patterned the layout of Raccoon Creek after Locust Fork's time honored streets.

The 1950's drug store where the hero, Lance Hardwicke, is a pharmacist, is like the one in the middle of our little Alabama town. Only the present day store is updated for modern times but sells a few items one might find in shops five or six decades ago: old fashioned greeting cards, colorful plastic bracelets, fun sunglasses, jewelry items, and painted coffee mugs among others.

Though the imaginary Raccoon Creek is a bit larger than Locust Fork, the terrain around the town is the same. Well, I did add a little river near Emily's house. The real one, the Locust Fork River, is farther in the forest. The same evergreens grow in and around town. Emily and Lance experience a snow storm just like the one we had the first winter in our house.

This magical Christmas story was one of my favorites to write. It sent me on a sentimental trip to my childhood. How fun it was when some of my friends from Locust Fork and our church who read the story said they could actually picture present day Locust Fork as they read.

Merry Christmas, everyone. Hope you enjoy all the Christmas stories featured on Alexis's blog.

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Author Bio: An award-winning author, June Foster is a retired teacher with a BA in education and MA in counseling. June's book Give Us This Day was a finalist in EPIC's eBook awards and a finalist in the National Readers Choice Awards for best first book. Ryan's Father was one of three finalists in the published contemporary fiction category of the Oregon Christian Writers Cascade Writing Contest and Awards. Deliver Us was a finalist in COTT's Laurel Awards. 

June has written four novels for Desert Breeze Publishing. The Bellewood Series, Give Us This Day, As We Forgive, and Deliver Us, and Hometown Fourth of July. Ryan's Father is published by WhiteFire Publishing. Red and the Wolf, a modern day retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, is available from Amazon.com. The Almond Tree series, For All Eternity, Echoes From the Past, What God Knew, and Almond Street Mission are available at Amazon.com.

June enjoys writing stories about characters who overcome the circumstances in their lives by the power of God and His Word. Recently June has seen publication of Christmas at Raccoon Creek, Lavender Fields Inn, Misty Hollow, Restoration of the Heart, Letting Go, and Prescription for Romance. Visit June at junefoster.com.

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Blurb for June's book:  

Emily Eason wants to distance herself from her parents' opulent lifestyle in Birmingham, Alabama, and enjoy life in the rural village of Raccoon Creek and her fifties-style home. But after gazing into the little snow globe she purchased from Hardwicke's Drugs and Gifts, she finds herself transported to another time—her grandmother's era. 

Lance Hardwicke is the pharmacist and owner of Hardwicke's Drugs. Four years of pharmacy school didn't allow for much of a social life. Gorgeous Emily Eason, nurse and resident of Raccoon Creek, has captured his attention. The next time she comes in the store, he's determined to ask her out. Maybe take her to Birmingham to see the Christmas lights in his brand new orange and white '53 Pontiac Pathfinder.

Can love span the fifty-year gap standing between them?

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Buy June's book on Amazon 

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Connect with June:
Website - http://www.junefoster.com
Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/author/junefoster
Twitter -  https://twitter.com/vjifoster
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/authorjunefoster

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