Sonoran Christmas

This week-end was time to write the blurb for Sonoran Christmas. Blurb writing is its own special challenge. The wrong words will cause readers to not bother reading the sample. The right words tell the reader what they can expect and include warnings on any difficult issues. There are subjects that some will always avoid, and a good blurb alerts the reader if such things are in the book.

The cover is often another challenge with a new book. The wrong cover will have the reader never looking further-- and that includes me. In this one, because the hero and heroine are older (he's 65 and she's 60) finding models was out of the question. Sometimes I come across those in their late 30s or early 40s but even that's not the norm-- and especially not in period costuming.

Then, there is the fact is I know how virile and handsome men can be at 65 (think Sam Elliot and frankly, Ranch Boss still at 73), and I'd rather my readers use their own experiences than trying to find one face to nail down him or how lovely a 60 year-old woman can be. 

While I considered ways around people on the cover, I came across the perfect image to give a touch of the magical to the desert in winter.

Here's the blurb for Sonoran Christmas:

><><><><

1905-- Frederica Windsor steps off the train in Tucson, Arizona and into a world, unlike any she’d known—where the Old West has yet to be tamed. She has come to find why her daughter mysteriously left Boston. She does not expect she is about to launch herself into an adventure with a man who seems to have come from the pages of one of the dime novels she’s been reading.

Jeremiah Taggert finds this Bostonian lady temptingly beautiful but has no intention of taking it further. He had lived a reckless, outlaw life before recognizing that world was gone forever, and those who denied it were going to be strung up, shot or in a prison cell. With his three sons settled in Tucson, he wants to be close enough to help in their lives, as a way to make up for the years he’d not been much of a father.

Together Jeremiah and Frederica are about to find something they felt had passed them by. The problem will be surviving an enemy with a long reach. Leaving Tucson and heading south toward the border and the Circle O ranch, the flavor and beauty of the desert become part of their story as it takes them to a family Christmas, with danger on its way.

At 29,000 words, Sonoran Christmas brings back some characters from-- Arizona Sunset; Tucson Moon; Arizona Dawn; Rose’s Gift; Echoes from the Past; Lands of Fire; and Bound for the Hills. The novella has no sex, but there is gun violence.

><><><><

As with my other novellas, it is 99¢ until 2017, when it will change. I don't see much difference in sales for offering my books cheaper. And Amazon makes it unappealing as they take 70% of prices under $2.99. If a cheaper price led to more sales, I might see it differently, but it doesn't, at least for my books. Red Hawk Christmas was out at that price and got its only sales from the newsletter response-- since then, even with good reviews, it has had few. 

Marketing is a mysterious part of publishing and often leaves me scratching my head. I want to though share what I experience as a way to help writers who may just be starting out. Of course, their experience might be totally different. So much is subjective-- without the firm rules many of us might like. Art just ain't that way ;)

Check it out:

Sonoran Christmas. 

I don't know if we'll put it at other sell sites but maybe in January as having a sale can get complicated for making them all match up.