Happy Holidays from Joan!

Dec 12, 2020

I decorated this table knowing I won’t be inviting anyone to join me for dinner this Christmas. 

Like so many of you, I’m staying at home. Despite the isolation from family, I’ve decorated a tree and hung stockings by the chimney. But it will be a very different holiday this year.

As I did at Thanksgiving, I’ll be zooming from my home in North Carolina to my daughter, son-in-law, and grandkids in Florida on Christmas Day. My son lives nearby, and we’ll likely spend time together and open presents from under the tree, but both of us are careful not to socialize with others.
I’ve been making the best of the unexpected life we’ve all been leading this year. This was the year I planned to spend more time traveling. When COVID-19 arrived, I already had my reservation for a six-week stay in Florence, Italy, and expected to follow that with two weeks in London to attend the tennis tournament at Wimbledon. Suddenly, no more travel, no more movies (one of my favorite pastimes), no more browsing the bookstore shelves for my favorite authors’ books.

Worst of all, no more inviting old and new friends to my home for dinner! No more shopping (or searching the cupboards) to find just the right tablecloth or centerpiece or candles or napkin rings for the dinner table. No more planning the perfect mix of people to sit at the table, no more planning the perfect activity before dinner, no more planning the perfect menu or preparing it or serving it to friends in my home.
Like so many others, I moved across the country to be closer to family, in my case, from Denver, Colorado, to Durham, North Carolina. Of course, that took me away from my critique group, hiking friends, football family, book group, masseur (necessary after all those hours spent slumping in a chair in front of my computer) and the support I could always find with the Boulder Media Women.

Thank goodness for tennis. It’s a sport I can safely play outdoors, and it’s led to my making new friends here in North Carolina. In addition, everyone in my neighborhood walks—old folks, families with kids, folks with a dog, young couples—and they all pass by my front door. They’ll often stop to chat if I’m out mowing the lawn or watering my flowers. I have hope that, with the advent of vaccines, we’ll all be getting our lives back a little closer to normal in the New Year. So my Christmas wish to you is: Hang in there. Help is on the way. We can all get through this together. Just keep reading!
Irresistible

IRRESISTIBLE

Excuses, excuses. I’m finally back to work writing after packing, moving, unpacking, and repairing and renovating my new home. I literally have not had an office in which to work. That never stopped me thirty-five years ago (I used to write in a walk-through closet), but I’m spoiled and a lot older and have a need for a few creature comforts while I work. Please bear with me. I’m getting there. Very slowly . . . but very surely. I’ll let you know when IRRESISTIBLE is—at long last—available.

WINTER MAGIC

Want a feel-good Christmas story? Try WINTER MAGIC, now available on iTunes, in addition to Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Winter Magic, the fifth book in my King’s Brats series after Sinful, Shameless, Surrender, and Sullivan’s Promise, tells the story of Mike Sullivan, whose face was horribly mutilated by a grizzly bear. Mike lives like a lone wolf in a cabin in the woods until he rescues a stranded woman and her child during a Montana blizzard. Click here to go to my website for more about Winter Magic or any of my novels, novellas, and audiobooks.

A BITTER CREEK CHRISTMAS

It’s Christmas Eve, and five Blackthorne, Creed, and Grayhawk couples have gathered at the Bitter Creek ranch to celebrate the holiday, sharing stories of their most memorable Christmas gifts, while they anxiously await the arrival of a long-lost brother, who left twenty years ago under mysterious circumstances— and is finally coming home. Click here to order your print or ebook copy through my website.

Hawk’s Way Audiobooks Now Available!

All four of these Hawk’s Way books are now available. Enjoy! I’ll be recording more new books in the New Year and will let you know when they’re available. Click here to order these and other audiobooks through my website.

December Contest

Enter to win a $25 gift card (Amazon or Barnes & Noble, your choice) plus an autographed copy of A Bitter Creek Christmas. Click here to enter to win, and good luck!

Take care and happy reading,