Monday, September 27, 2010

For a delightful Christmas, be sure to pick up A Prairie Christmas Collection. It has stories by some of our favorite authors. One of them is by Deb Raney. Circles of Blessings takes us to 1871 Dakota Territory and the campus of St. Bartholomew’s Academy. There, James Collingswood meets Stella Bradford who is in need of his services as an English tutor. Recently graduated and acting as an aid to Dr. Whitestone, Professor of English, James agrees to help Stella who sees not practicality in diagramming sentences and knowing the parts of speech. Instead of learning more about English, Stella falls in love. However, an indiscretion by James in the past threatens to undermine their relationship. Learning to forgive the past and looking to the future leads these two young people in the right direction. I thoroughly enjoyed this one and only foray into the past by Deborah Raney. She gives us characters we learn to love and a special Christmas blessing that comes full circle in her beautiful story.


Read more below about Deb’s one and only historical romance.

Deb,

M: Since you prefer not to write historical romances, what prompted you to write this one for the anthology, A Currier & Ives Christmas?

D: What prompted me was ignorance! I was invited to be part of a group proposal for A Currier & Ives Christmas, where "Circle of Blessings" originally appeared. Since I loved reading historical novels, I thought it would be a no-brainer to write one. WRONG! That's when I discovered how time-consuming the research was, and how difficult it was to get things right. I do love the way my story turned out, and it was fun writing a story based on our own family Christmas tradition. But I think I'll let this novella go down in history as my first, last and only historical!



Leave a comment to be in the drawing for a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble to purchase this delightful book for Christmas.

12 comments:

Ann Lee Miller said...

Please put my name into the hat. :)
Ann_Lee_Miller@msn.com

Wendy said...

I love Christmas stories.
Please put me in the drawing.
Thank you for the chance.
wdesirees[at]yahoo[dot]com

Sandee61 said...

Thank you for this entry in your giveaway. I'd enjoy reading this inspiring Holiday novel. I always gather a few Christmas reads during this time of year. Nothing better than a hot cup of cocoa, a lap quilt and my lap kitty while enjoying a good book.

Many Blessings,
Sandee61

Muzzley56[at]aol[dot]com

Jodie Wolfe said...

Love Christmas stories. This one sounds wonderful.

Blessings,
Jodie Wolfe
digging4pearls(at)comcast(dot)net

Vickie McDonough said...

I 'm excited to read Deb's one and only historical. I love Christmas stories.

fictionfan1[@]cox[dot]net

Martha A. said...

Christmas stories are fun!!! How funny that you did not enjoy writing any historical stuff! martha(at)lclink(dot)com

Pain SUX said...

Christmas stories get me every time. I can't believe the season is almost here again this year!!

~Steph
soklad@hotmail.com

Linda said...

Love the idea of Prairie Christmas's. Love the old West stories. Please enter me. Thank you.
desertrose5173 at gmail dot com

Anonymous said...

Who doesn't love Christmas stories. And who doesn't love Barnes & Noble?? I can't believe it is almost Christmas already!! I'm already buying gifts :)

Rachel
stars-hearts69@live.com

Jo said...

I love reading Christmas stories. Please be sure to enter me in the giveaway.

Blessings,
Jo
ladijo40(at)aol(dot)com

misskallie2000 said...

I love Christmas stories and read at least 1 or 2 new ones each yr and reread my favorites that I keep.

Thanks for this opportunity to enter the giveaway.

misskallie2000 at yahoo dot com

Martha W. Rogers said...

Hi, All. Thanks for stopping by. The lucky winner for this blog is Linda. I'll be contacting you soon.