I love Halloween. And not just
because it celebrates my favorite food group: chocolate. In Phoenix, Arizona,
it symbolizes the end of the 100+ F heat. Even the air smells different. So
when I start out writing my World War 1 era romances, I couldn't wait to write
on Halloween. But then, my mother said something that nearly caused my heart to
stop.
She didn't celebrate her first
Halloween until she was in her teens, in the 1950s. Ack! That was 36 years too
late.
But then I remembered my favorite
Halloween story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,
and I felt for sure somewhere, someone in America was celebrating this
important holiday.
I lucked out while reading a
schoolteacher's diary during World War 1. Not too far in the narrative, she
mentioned celebrating the holiday with presentations of poems, dialogues and
readings by her students
Halloween was saved! Yay!
To celebrate the release of my new
Halloween historical, I'm giving away these earrings to someone who leaves a
comment and tells me their favorite Halloween memory.
Now, a word from our sponsor, er,
here's an excerpt:
Phoebe ducked inside. A shriek quickly followed.
Gabe's heart stopped. She was in trouble. The lantern
handle bit into his palm. He burst through the door, fist raised.
A stooped figure stirred the ashes to life in the
fireplace at the end of the room. Phoebe's leaf collection carpeted the floor.
Flames licked the neat stack of wood in the hearth. The light blazed enough so
he could see Phoebe in the arms of a copper-skin Indian. Then she rose on
tiptoe and kissed the stranger's cheek.
No wonder she hadn't wanted to hear his stupid
stories. Setting his branches and pins on the counter, he rushed out of the
house and back into the woods.
Phoebe Monpetit had already given away her heart.
Blurb:
Her heart can't give him up. Her
head can't trust him.
Everyone Phoebe Monpetit has ever
loved eventually abandoned her. Even Gabriel Stephens, the man she thought
she'd marry. For the last twelve years, she's muddled through alone, cobbling a
life together.
Gabriel took the first opportunity
to escape his family's constant fighting and rarely looked back. When war
explodes across Europe, he learns what his cowardice has really cost him.
This Halloween, he'll use every
trick he can to win back Phoebe's heart.
Will she keep her true feelings
covered, or will she let Gabe unmask her heart?
Only on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Unmask-Heart-Halloween-Historical-Romance-ebook/dp/B00ODALVOC/
Thanks for dropping by, Linda :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for having me, Suz.
ReplyDeleteOkay, that snippet has piqued my interest in your story.
ReplyDeleteI do know that my parents who would have still been kids at the time of your story celebrated Halloween. Not the way it was done when I was growing up, and they both did different things. My mom was a city girl, but my dad who grew up on a farm, actually did more that resembles today's Halloween (except for the trick or treating).
How weird. I had thought that the difference was because my mother lived on farms all her life way out in the boonies, but they didn't even celebrate it in schools:D She later embraced the holiday quite thoroughly to make up for lost time
ReplyDelete