Red Hawk Christmas

Next week, some people in the US will be celebrating and others bemoaning. Choices regarding taxes, social policies, wars, environment, and maybe some possible legal complications will await the new President-elect. However, it goes, I won't be commenting on it. I am already bemoaning who it will be-- whoever it is. lol

Here, in my part of the Pacific Northwest, we've had an unusual fall. First of November, and we still have flowers blooming and gardens producing because we have yet to have a hard freeze. It's gotten close a few times, but nothing to put the plants into hibernation or end their growth.

For me, October was about writing a book that, at least for me, is a little different. Red Hawk Christmas began through an assortment of ideas that came together. It grew into a novella that begins with a woman deciding to make a major life change and ends with Christmas Eve.  

My Christmas books tend to do that a lot-- maybe Christmas Eve was the big deal in my life although Christmas Day was to go to a big family dinner, which was fun with the cousins. But Christmas Eve was when Santa came and that was a bigger deal.  I have many good memories of Christmas, which is good as now Christmas is quieter and often just Ranch Boss and me. Life changes, and that's sort of what this new novella is about.

When I got into writing the book, I became interested in more stories about women who are facing a mid-life change that they had not expected. I know quite a few women who have had that happen, which encouraged me. The new series will mostly come out in 2017. Other things have to come first.

The next book will be a woman of a certain age, facing a major life change, but over a hundred years before Red Hawk Christmas. It will also be a Christmas book and, of course, a romance. It will be more typical of my writing, than I consider my new novella, which although it is a romance, is a story of a woman's journey first and foremost. 

One of the tougher aspects of putting out a new book is finding the words for its blurb. If you have written them, you know how hard it is to find a few words to describe a book of many words.

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Still recovering from an unwanted divorce, with a family who no longer needs her, retired history and political science teacher, Diana Ashburn sells all she owns, buys a Class C motorhome, and leaves Chicago for an adventure-- with no plans for what she hopes to find.

As Diana and her two Chihuahuas settle into life in her RV, which she calls Redhawk, she begins an exploration of places depicting the history of the West from the Native American cultures to those who came later.

As winter approaches, Diana decides to settle into an RV park for a few months. The little community of Bluff, in a remote corner of Utah, seems most unlikely for Christmas. Even more unlikely, Diana has a retired banker, an artist, and a cowboy seemingly interested in her. After many years of marriage, Diana is unsure how to handle that or even more the fact that she finds one of them fascinating—except, what does he want?

Will she find a new purpose for her life in this strange land of red rock, deep canyons, red hawks, prehistoric ruins, and few people; or when Christmas is over, will it be time for her to move on? 

A contemporary, starting over novella at 22,900 words. G rated.

You can find it-- for now at Amazon for Kindle and on sale until after Christmas.

Red Hawk Christmas