Romantic Reads: Snowbound in Winterberry Falls by Ann Brodeur

The Story Behind the story “Snowbound in Winterberry Falls” 

by Ann Brodeur

Christmas in New England

It was like any other day when the inspiration struck. My morning coffee had been re-heated (for the third or fourth time) and the three oldest kiddos had boarded the school bus hours ago. My littlest one was happy playing on the floor.

Finally, a moment for me.

I flipped on my computer, opened up Facebook and lost myself on an endless rabbit trail. A friend posted an interesting article on a resort in New England. Nothing strange about that, except the resort celebrated Christmas all year round.

Christmas is one of my favourite holidays (behind Thanksgiving and Easter) so of course the idea of a Christmas-themed resort was definitely appealing. I kept following the trail around Christmas events in New England, dreaming of my own New England holiday.

My trail took me to a place called Middlebury, VT, nestled in the Green Mountains. From November 30 to the end of December, Very Merry Middlebury is an annual Christmas celebration that transforms the downtown center into a winter wonderland.

I loved the idea of a Christmas festival – an ideal backdrop for a holiday story. 

Story Questions

I started asking questions. For a place that loves Christmas so much, what would happen if things started disappearing – essential items to help the celebration? Who would do such a thing? Why?

Who would find out what was going on? Who had the skills required to solve the mystery? A police officer was too obvious, as was a P.I. or a detective for my main character.

As I started to hash out these details, another side story started forming – one that involved a bit of romance. My two main characters had known each other in the past, but had lost contact for some reason or another. A secret so huge between them had sent one of them running. For good.

I’m not into secret babies. So it couldn’t be that. I’m not about secret marriages or life-threatening diseases that would inevitably separate them forever. It had to be big enough to have the capability of blowing up in one or both of their faces. But it couldn’t be dark since this was supposed to be a Christmas story. And there had to be some funny moments too.

What could it possibly be?

Research, Research and Research Again

I had created three backstories to whatever it was that would ultimately be responsible for separating my couple in the past, but I needed to know if my scenario was even possible.

I started digging into newspaper articles covering a myriad of topics, which eventually led me to the big secret that pulled Stephanie and Jason apart in the first place (and no, I’m not going to spoil it for you). I pulled up university newspapers, local papers, and even some national articles to find that one missing piece.

I found a thread that would work. But was it enough?

More newspaper articles, various professional websites and publications led to what felt like a believable backstory that would deliver what I was aiming at. A compelling enough reason to keep my hero away for twelve years.

A Holiday Story with a Bit of Intrigue and a Whole Lot of Redemption

What started out as a simple ‘share’ on Facebook, turned into Snowbound in Winterberry Falls.

Redemption and forgiveness is a huge theme as my characters struggle along in their faith journey. It hasn’t been easy for Jason Miller to live with the decision he was forced to make. And instead of trusting God with the outcome, he walked away from the only One who could help him. As for Stephanie, now more than ever she’ll have to cling to her faith and trust God with the outcome – no matter what.

A buried story. A powerful senator. A Christmas they won’t forget.

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Book blurb for Snowbound in Winterberry Falls by Ann Brodeur:

Unwrapping their past – one secret at a time. 

Owning her own PR firm is all reporter Stephanie Clark wants for Christmas, but the idea of running a prestigious election campaign in the country’s capital throws her stomach into knots. A last-minute vacation road trip to focus and seek God’s direction for her life ends up in disaster when she gets caught in the worst snowstorm to hit Vermont in over a decade, crashing her into a small town and the one person she’d rather forget.

Former photojournalist Jason Miller hadn’t planned on being solely responsible for saving his family business from financial ruin. He’s barely keeping the newspaper in print, his News Editor has gone AWOL during the town’s most celebrated holiday festival, and reports of missing Christmas decorations have everyone on edge.

When a desperate knock at the newsroom door brings a ghost from Christmas past back into his life, can Jason make up for his prior behavior without breaking his promise to Stephanie’s father? 

Will Stephanie’s quest to solve the town’s Christmas caper—and uncover the truth about Jason’s disappearance—cost her everything she’s ever wanted?

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Author Bio:

Ann Brodeur is an award-winning novelist who writes inspirational and contemporary romances offering sweet hope and happy endings.

When she’s not reading, writing, chasing after her kids or enjoying long chats with her husband, Ann can be found drinking coffee, that’s been reheated several times throughout the day.

She aspires to someday drink a hot beverage in one sitting.

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Buy Ann’s book:
Canada: https://amzn.to/3529fZe
USA: https://amzn.to/3p48B5y

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Connect with Ann:

Join other readers in finding out the latest news from Ann and for bookish fun, by signing up for my newsletter on my website: http://brodeurwrites.com/

Check out novel inspiration, book reviews and more on my Pinterest page: https://www.pinterest.ca/brodeurwrites

Follow and Like my author page: https://www.facebook.com/annbrodeurauthor

GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20786619.Ann_Brodeur

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/ann-brodeur

Amazon Author Page: https://amzn.to/3mHgV9T

Devotionals for the Heart: Our Hope

A Spring of Hope
A devotional by Christa MacDonald

“For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” 

–Romans 8:24-25 (NIV)

I garden in New England, so every season I have to start a goodly amount of my annuals indoors. I don’t have a potting shed or greenhouse, so the large front window becomes my staging area. I have trays of seedlings sitting in the sun, waiting for the warmer weather.

This weekend, I finally came to terms with my first failure of the year. I had to give up on my chilies. I had planted two varieties and patiently waited. And waited. Saturday made it one month since planting, and there was simply no way they were going to sprout. I think I know what I did wrong – not enough heat. I won’t make that mistake next year. For this year, I’ll just have to buy chilies from the nursery. Happily, my tomato seeds germinated just fine, and those seedlings are four-inches high and rising, something that delights me to no end.

There is nothing quite like gardening. Seeds go in the ground, or on the tray, or in the pot with great expectations or cautious hopes, and when the first shoots appear they bring joy with them. Spring is full of that particular kind of joy. Little green bits are popping up out of the ground everywhere. By the time May rolls around I’ll be setting out the veggies and the flowers, and a new phase of hope and expectation starts. I’ll be looking for flowers, and then fruit, with an eye to harvest-time.

Something about this particular kind of expectation reminds me of Christian hope. I think hope is one of the most difficult concepts in our faith. We often think of it like a wish or a desire we’re crossing our fingers that God will grant. Instead, hope is like that planted seed. We have an optimistic expectation because of Jesus. Hope in people and they will fail you. Hope in institutions and they will fail you. But hope in God and He will never fail you!

If you’re hoping that God gives you a million dollars, that’s not hope. Our hope rests in the truth that God is faithful. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6).

When we’re anxious, this is when we need to draw on this hope. We don’t know what will happen tomorrow but we know that God will provide. He may ask us to go through terrible trials, to struggle emotionally and financially, but He will be with us through it all. Nothing that we encounter in life can separate us from the love of God. Our hope is fixed and secure because Jesus Christ died (and rose again, completing the plan of salvation) so that we could live. We are able to have this security, this hope for eternity because Jesus paid the price for us. When we repent of our sins and place our faith in Him, we are redeemed.

When life is difficult, I try to remember how I feel when I see the first green shoots in spring. It’s the rainbow after the storm, a physical reminder of God’s promise to those who believe. I tuck that feeling in my heart, remembering my hope in God, the promise of salvation.

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Author Bio:

Christa MacDonald is a 2017 ACFW Carol Award finalist for contemporary Christian fiction.

A native New Englander, she was inspired by her travels through the north woods of Maine to write The Broken Trail, which would become the first in the Sweet River Redemption series published by Mountain Brook Ink.

Christa's writing focuses on the real-life challenges of the modern world; love’s sometimes crooked path, and the redemptive power of Grace.

When not working or writing Christa can be found ferrying her kids around, reading, or attempting something crafty.

She and her husband live with their three kids, two cats, and one dog along the coast of New England. Connect with Christa at www.christamacdonald.com.

Summer Stories: Shenandoah Road

Behind the Scenes: The Shenandoah Road
A guest post by Lynne Tagawa

Most authors start with theme or characters or plot—or all three—when writing a story. I confess that I did spend time on all of those things as well when I first gave thought to the idea of exploring the time period of the Great Awakening in the 1740s.

But as I did research on the time period, it seemed as though the setting itself steered the course of the project. I fingered through a huge book called Albion’s Seed, an encyclopedic description of the various types of people who had emigrated from the British Isles and settled North America. You might think that, hey, they all spoke English, weren’t they pretty much all alike?

Nope. They were almost all Protestant, spoke English, and had fair skin, but it is amazing how New Englanders differed from Quakers who differed from the planters down south. Not to mention the Scots from Ulster, Ireland, who flooded these shores in a wave lasting over fifty years before the Revolution slowed immigration.

Then revival breaks out in Connecticut under the preaching of Jonathan Edwards, and George Whitefield preaches in the fields from New England south to Georgia. Suddenly Benjamin Franklin can’t keep enough of Isaac Watts’s hymnbooks on his shelves. Everyone is singing. All that is in the story.

As I dug deeper, I discovered that everything was not as peachy-keen as it sounds. Good ministers disagreed with each other on the itinerant preachers rising up in Whitefield’s wake. They labeled these people “enthusiasts” who might harm the cause of Christ.

Between the cultural divides and the religious controversy, there was plenty of story material. I didn’t have to make up the tension and conflict—it was already there. Midway through the project, I discovered that a real-live minister in my story, a pastor in the Shenandoah Valley, disagreed with the revivalists. He’s kind of an important character, so my story took a little jag. Nothing I planned!

I’d tell you more tweaks I had to make to my story, but no spoilers! I will say this: it contains a romance, but it’s totally G-rated. I teach teenagers, and whenever I wrote a scene, in the back of my mind I’d think of my students. It is written for adults, but homeschoolers are sometimes given Herodotus to read. They’ll read whatever their parents let them. 

I hope you like it too.

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Author Bio:

Lynne Tagawa is married with four grown sons and three marvelous grandbabies. 

She’s written a Texas history curriculum in narrative form, Sam Houston’s Republic, and The Shenandoah Road, a story of the Great Awakening, is scheduled to be published in 2018. 

Lynne lives with her husband in South Texas.

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Book Blurb for The Shenandoah Road:

John Russell’s heart aches from the loss of his wife, but the Shenandoah Valley frontiersman needs to marry again for his daughter’s sake. At first, he believes he has found the right young woman, despite their differences in background, but his faith falters when time reveals she isn’t quite what she seemed. Can he truly love her? And what about his own failings?

Unlike her disgraced sister, Abigail Williams obeys the Commandments. At least, she thinks herself a Christian until a buckskin-clad newcomer courts her. He treats her kindly but also introduces her to a sermon by the controversial preacher, George Whitefield. Her self-righteousness is shattered, and she wonders about their relationship. If she confesses her lack of faith, will John continue to love her?

“Lynne Tagawa transports readers into the faith and hope, and sorrows and fears of 18th century colonial America. While other books feature the raw grit of frontier colonial life, this book goes deeper and reveals the heart.” —Douglas Bond, author of numerous books, including War in the Wasteland and Hostage Lands.

“The Shenandoah Road is an authentic and engaging journey back to the challenges of settling in the Shenandoah Valley” —Laura Hilton, author of Firestorm (Whitaker House, 2018)

“Raw, realistic, and historically packed, this story will make you think. If you enjoy stories with deep theological themes, you will enjoy this.” —Amber Schamel, author of Solve by Christmas, winner of the 2018 Christian Indie Award

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Buy Lynne's book on Amazon

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Connect with Lynne:

Amazon Author Page - https://amzn.to/2LZAh7R

Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14845205.Lynne_Tagawa

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