A few years ago if someone had told me that my first published work would be a contemporary Christmas romance I would have fallen off the chair laughing. I love my sci-fi and futuristic romance, and while I am still writing spec fiction, I'm now exploring the contemporary side of things as well. I always have a few Christmas romances in my Christmas stocking but I was surprised to find myself writing one. I think the success of Home for Christmas stems from my love of the festive season.
I thought I would share ten reasons why Christmas is an inspiration to my writing.
- Getting together with family and friends, especially the ones I may not catch up with during the year.
- Giving to family and friends, but more importantly to strangers. Knowing you made a difference in the life of a stranger doing it tough at Christmas is so worthwhile.
- Family traditions. My family always starts Christmas day with bacon and eggs, while my husband's family celebrates Christmas on Christmas Eve. My family does pudding and custard, my husband's family likes chocolate and ice-cream. All great traditions that I look forward to. Of course, there are the extended family "sucking the joy out of life" traditions and I've sprinkled a mix of the good, the bad and the ugly into Home for Christmas.
- Christmas carols and lights. We've just moved this year to a new neighbourhood and I can't wait to explore the Christmas light displays and the local carols.
- Going for a run really early Christmas morning and listening to the silence, punctuated by the excited yells of children discovering a new bike or trampoline.
- For the month of December, doing the bulk of my shopping at the IGA and strip shops rather than the local Westfield shopping centre and giving back to the community of retailers who were open at 5.30am when I needed bread and milk. Parking is also so much easier.
- Hells Belles Christmas Party, where we celebrate our writing successes and set goals for the year ahead.
- The annual city council bus decorating competition, the fiercest competition in all of Queensland, where rival bus depots vie for the honour of best decorated bus. Our local depot ensures whoever drives the decorated bus wears a Santa suit. The passengers can't help but smile when St Nick is driving!
- The annual "firefighters rescuing Santa from the roof of our local children's hospital", while the kids in isolation "help" with the rescue by pointing, holding up signs, clapping and cheering. It’s a heap of fun and I try to time our run between families to arrive at the same time as the firefighters. If you thought firefighters were generally hot, imagine how much hotter they are when they are saving Santa from certain death after he became stuck on the roof.
- Resetting for the year ahead. We have one day over the Christmas season where we do nothing at all. That's when the Christmas romances and the chocolates come out.
So, those are my Christmas inspirations. What about the holidays inspires you?
I wish you and your family all the best for the festive season and hope you are blessed with everything your heart desires.
-Fiona
Fiona Greene's debut romance novella, Home for Christmas (published by Escape) is
available through all major etailers.
What began as an impersonal-but-cheerful holiday gift for a soldier far from home becomes so much more...
Sergeant Tate McAuliffe, stationed in Afghanistan, opens his Christmas care package from Australia and is stunned by both its contents and the sender.Fun-loving Christmas tree designer Layla Preston is a breath of fresh air for loner Tate. Although they’ve never met, their email friendship quickly develops and their feelings for each other deepen.
But Layla knows the heartache that loving a soldier can bring and when Tate is injured, her deep-seated fear drives them apart. With their relationship in tatters, can Layla and Tate work through their differences, so Layla can welcome Tate home for Christmas?
Gooood Monday morning to you all and welcome Fiona Greene, author of Home for Christmas.
ReplyDeleteI'm inspired by small unplanned acts of kindness...not just at Christmas but all year round. Most often these things go unseen or even unmentioned but if you're lucky every once in a great while you'll see one happening. My heart swells and I feel more positive about the world we live in.
Just wondering Fiona...did you find writing a novella a difficult challenge, given that you usually write single title lengths? What about the length of Home for Christmas worked for you/didn't work for you?
ReplyDeleteHi Dee, Home for Christmas started life as a 3000 word short story, and it was underdeveloped. I started working on it and kept going until I thought it was done. I'm happy with the novella length because a lot of women don't have a lot of time to read in the lead up to Christmas, so it's a great quick read. And you're right about random acts of kindness. Back when our toll bridge took cash we used to pay for the car behind us every Christmas morning. Such a small thing, but it embodies the essence of Christmas.
ReplyDeleteI'm one of those women! No time for a full length single title but a novella is do-able.
DeleteI love that you would pay the toll of the car behind you! What a fantastic present!
Hey Dee, Novellas really have a place in today's society. Especially with e-readers.
DeleteWe have also encountered a toll collector who gave a dog biscuit to every car with a dog. Our dogs loved him!
Hi Fiona, I LOVE Christmas! I love to love choosing presents for the giving tree and imagining the little kids' faces on Christmas morning. I love to laugh with all our neighbours at our annual 'drinks in the gutter' (we live in a dead-end street on the edge of the bush) with all the kids playing together around us. I love to learn where the best Christmas lights displays are, then going for a night-drive to ooh and aah over them. It's a wonderful time of year! (I just wish I had more time for writing right now. :) )
ReplyDeleteWhat fun! 'Drinks in the gutter!'
DeleteIt is! Thankfully we don't end up there (in the actual gutter) by the end of the night (well, most of us - lol).
DeleteHa! Love it!
DeleteHi Marilyn - we've moved to a real "neighborhood" this year and they have Chrostmas drinks and most houses have lights. Our lights are still in the storage shed, so we look a little bit naked in comparison. Your Christmas drinks sound great.
DeleteI'm sure you'll love the sense of community in a real neighbourhood, Fiona. (I'm so grateful we don't go all-out with the Christmas lights where we are - ours are minimal, which is why we love to visit other neighbourhoods :) )
DeleteHi Fiona. I love the kindness toward fellow man, especially those less fortunate, as the Christmas season begins. I love to laugh at the requests children give to Santa when seated on his lap for the annual photo. Examples, 'Santa, I want every Barbie doll.' And, 'Santa, can you live in my house?' I love to learn about different Christmas traditions. We're a multicultural country and it's nice to be able to celebrate together with friends of different nationalities.
ReplyDeleteHi Enisa, Santa must hear lots of interesting requests. This year we're going to buy feed for farmers in drought and also some presents that can go on the feed truck. The farmers need spoiling too. I love hearing about different traditions - especially people's recipes and how those special foods have been incorporated in their celebration.
ReplyDeleteComing in late here. Hi Fiona. In light of events going on in Sydney today it is nice to be reminded that there are plenty of good people out there doing good things for others - and not just at Christmas. Our servicemen and police for instance. All those that organise charity events etc. In my area we have a thing called Convoy which is a truck and bike convoy in aid of Camp Quality which raises huge amounts of money every year. I feel very happy to live in this area where people are very generous to those in need. It sounds like you also spend a lot of your time helping and supporting others. Which of your charity work do you enjoy the most?
ReplyDeleteHi Cassandra - I'm upset about what is happening in Sydney today, and it's days like these I try to remember what Christmas is all about. Giving, sharing, celebrating, loving. Thinking of all the Sydneysiders today.
DeleteThanks Fiona. What a great collection of Christmas experiences and traditions you have. It is always nice to have that variety. And I do agree, Cassandra, the seige in Sydney is something that makes us want to gather our loved ones around us right now and never let go.
ReplyDeleteHi Georgia - Christmas is all about tradition - and coming from a blended family, we try and incorporate them all. I'm thinking of all the families with loved ones involved in Sydney today and praying their Christmas isn't marred by this ugly incident.
DeleteI love Christmas; a very special time. I love reading about the things others do to celebrate at this time. One thing I love to do is read Christmassy stories, and so yours is already read, Fiona. Perfect length for this time of year, when it's hard to find time to do anything. Thanks for such an enjoyable column.
ReplyDeleteHi Malvina, glad you enjoyed Home for Christmas. I'm glad you enjoyed hearing about our celebration on such an unsettling day.
ReplyDeleteI was so inspired by your 'random Christmas acts of kindness' that I drove around the five schools in my area yesterday (a very hot day here) and handed out ice cold bottles of water to the crossing guards along with a re-useable drink bottle for the days when I'm not around handing out cold bottles! Geez, that felt really good. I think I got a lot more out of it then the recipients. Thanks for the inspiration Fiona Greene!
ReplyDeleteYou are such a treasure, Dee!
DeleteDee - that's a lovely thing to do. I'm sure they must have appreciated it. And it would have made a horrid Sydney day more tolerable.
ReplyDelete