My Just-Published Christmas Romance

Crafting just the right look and story

Happily announcing the publication of my latest novel, a Christmas romance novel, The Greeting Card Girl’s Christmas.

Buy ebook or paperback on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Goodreads

and ebook on Kobo, Thalia (German), Smashwords, or Palace Marketplace

The Story

This is what many publishers classify as a light-hearted, “sweet” (i.e., nothing more than hand-holding and light kisses) romance. Stacy Frost designs greeting cards, meaning she works about six months ahead, for example, designing Father’s Day cards at Christmas. And that means shutting out all things Christmas. Jack Anjill drives for Uber and has his car decked out inside with tinsel garland, a dancing Santa, and outside with a plastic reindeer head and rear.

The stage is set, as on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving here in the U.S.) Stacy calls for an Uber ride and Jack shows up. From there it’s a matter of these two people finding their paths crossing and dealing with conflicting needs as well as family, friends, and bosses.

What’s interesting to me as a writer is that I have soaked up so much romance stuff (mostly from “sweet” romance movies like those shown on The Hallmark Channel) that incorporating the elements needed in such a novel came fairly easily. And I hadn’t even realized I had done it until hubby brought home the November/December 2024 issue of Writer’s Digest magazine. The article starts on page 36, if you care to look it up, but here are the elements that I met (more are in the article):

• Crafted the proper setting – a mid-sized town (fictional) in eastern Colorado – detailing sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches.

• Created a pair of characters with interesting personalities and back stories – both are absorbed in their work; Stacy is a small town girl while Jack is from a big city (Denver).

• Developed the love-themed plot – the accidental meeting of Stacy and Jack, their paths continuing to cross, and all the factors in their lives finally intertwining.

And, of course, the holiday cheer is everywhere and, no matter how hard Stacy tries to shut it out while she works on those card designs, that cheer… well, read it and see!

The Cover Design

Writing is a great activity (it keeps my brain from overloading with all those ideas). But designing the book covers is just as satisfying (and rather challenging). This was especially true for this novel. It had to look seasonal but also give readers the right impression of the book.

The Main Design Elements:

Doing a cover design means sitting down and thinking about the book. It’s one reason I do my own designs. That is, I know the book inside and out. For this book, these were the key elements that I wanted in the design somehow:

• Eastern Colorado with a view of the Rocky Mountains

• Wintry weather, including a hint of snow

• Greeting cards (well, actually, just one)

• And a Santa Hat! (read the book to see why)

Mostly, I avoid putting in people since I would have to use photos found online and might get into a copyright tangle or I would have to be in the photo, which I am for the cover of a yet-to-be-published book. Everything I use is publicly available or my own photos and often greatly altered from the original. (I’ve been using Photoshop for around 27 or 28 years.) You’d never guess where the image of the chimney on the cover of Wind Down the Chimney and Other Eerie Tales came from. And if you saw the original versus what it ended up looking like after my tinkering…

Design Formats:

Books are available in three main formats these days: ebook, paperback, and audio. Each needs its own cover design. I tend to do variations of the same design. Others sometimes do different designs for each. Which you choose is your option.

I did 3 or 4 designs for the cover, showed them to hubby, got his impressions, and then started over. Sigh. At the end of the day, I had this one, and hubby gave it a big thumbs up. Hope you like it, too.

Ebook, paperback, and audio book covers

So much for the front. Time to address the back of the paperback version. What to do? I wanted it to be eye-catching. Yeah, it’s the back, so who’s gonna see it on a bookshelf? Doesn’t matter to me. I still want it to be appealing. A dozen designs later, I came up with the white tree-shape with the text in it. Again, I showed it to hubby and got a big thumbs up.

Off to the publisher the designs went. And I waited. A few minutes later I got her feedback: “Great!”

Phew!

Now, I hope you’ll enjoy the inside of the book as much as you (hopefully) enjoy the covers. See one of the links below to buy a copy in ebook or paperback (audio is in process).

Thanks for reading.

My three other books (so far) from Wordwooze Publishing:

• Wind Down the Chimney and Other Eerie Tales – my first book of eerie short stories (ebook, paperback, audio).

• The Stardust Alliance and More – my second book of eerie stories with a touch of Sci-Fi (ebook, paperback, audio).

• The Wiccan Tales – a novel and a real Halloween treat.

(All human written. I even designed the covers.)

See them all here:

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | Kobo | Thalia (German) ebook & print | Smashwords | Angus & Robertson | Mondadori (Italian) | Vivlio (French/English) | Fable