Welcome Cindy Flores Martinez to the blog!
She's here today to share this story behind the story of her Christmas book, Mia's Gift.
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The Story Behind Mia’s Gift by Cindy Flores Martinez
My book, Mia’s Gift, is part of the Small-Town Christmas Wishes Series, which is a multi-author Christian/Inspirational Romance series about a group of secret angels.
They became secret angels after their fellow friend, Charity Hart, left them a letter before she passed away with a check for $1,500 and a request to spend the money on something special for someone else in time for Christmas. I created the series after a lot of prayer and invited five other authors from Sweet Romance Reads to join me in writing a story.
In Mia’s Gift, my heroine Mia decides to become a secret angel for the handsome Jesse Quinn and his fifteen-year-old niece Kristi who need a miracle. Kristi’s mother has passed away, and the group home where Kristi lives is shutting down. She’ll be sent to a foster facility far away. Mia rushes to try and find a foster home for Kristi in the town she calls home.
All six stories take place in Snowflake, Colorado, a fictional small town that I made up. It’s an idyllic place with a picturesque Main Street that’s about an hour away from Denver. I’ve never visited Colorado, so I needed to research the area online, but my visits to the snowy mountain towns of Southern California where I live made me feel as if I knew what it was like to be there. We have the lovely towns of Big Bear, Wrightwood and Julian to name a few. We also have old Main Streets in the suburbs which have been preserved from the 1800s. My many visits to all these places and my fascination with them helped me bring Snowflake to life.
As in any romance, there’s someone in the story who captures Mia’s heart. Jesse Quinn is a wonderful uncle to his niece, Kristi. His sister named him as Kristi’s legal guardian in her will, and Jesse wants to provide a home for her, but he can’t because his job involves constant traveling. There’s so much Mia admires about Jesse, especially how caring he is, but although she’s attracted to him, they’re only friends. Their feelings for each other eventually turn into love.
I named Jesse after my real-life uncle who I never met. For many years, I didn’t know his name, but I found records through a genealogy website, and an ancestry DNA test connected me with his daughter. Unfortunately, my Uncle Jesse had passed away by then. Not only was I heartbroken because he was gone, but I was also devastated to learn that he had lived only ten miles away from me. I wrote about the fictional Jesse in memory of him.
Now that Christmas is almost here, it’s the perfect time to visit the town of Snowflake and get to know all the people who live there. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing about it.
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Author Bio:
Cindy Flores Martinez is a USA Today bestselling author who writes Christian Romance.
She has an MFA in Creative Writing with an emphasis in Screenwriting.
Her debut novel, Mail-Order Groom, started as a screenplay and movie project, which she shopped around Hollywood, New York, and other parts of the world.
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Book Blurb for Mia's Gift (Small-Town Christmas Wishes Series Book 1):
Mia Rosa is thinking of leaving Snowflake, Colorado for good.
Her cupcake shop on Main Street isn’t doing well, and seeing her ex-fiancé around town is awkward. When she receives a letter from her old high school friend, Charity Hart, asking her to be a secret angel, she’s convinced that she can’t go through with it.
But Mia soon learns that handsome Jesse Quinn and his fifteen-year-old niece, Kristi, are in desperate need of a miracle. The group home where Kristi lives is shutting down, and no other foster homes are available in Snowflake.
Will Mia be able to secretly grant Jesse and Kristi’s wish for Kristi to stay in the town she calls home?
