Please join me in welcoming author LoRee Peery to the blog today to chat about her novella, Hiding From Christmas!
Nebraska country girl LoRee Peery writes fiction that hopefully appeals to adult readers who enjoy stories written from a Christian perspective, focusing on the romance. These include novels and novellas for women and men in the Contemporary, Romance, Historical, Time Travel, and Mystery/Suspense categories. She writes of redeeming grace with a sense of place. She is who she is by the grace of God: Christian, country girl, wife, mother, grandmother and great-, sister, friend, and author.
You can connect with LoRee on her website, Facebook, Pelican, Amazon and Twitter.
HIDING FROM CHRISTMAS by LoRee Perry
GENRE: Inspirational Time-Travel Romance / Novella
PUBLISHER: White Rose / Pelican
RELEASE DATE: November 20, 2019
PAGES: 60
After her grandparents are forced to live apart through assisted living, and then die within nine days of each other, intrepid entrepreneur Calissa Ladd is devastated. She’s always wanted to experience the same lifelong love modeled by her grandparents, but her heart isn’t where it needs to be as she clings to the past for answers and then starts having vivid dreams of a long-ago time period.
Deferential banker Monte McQueen has loved Calissa since they were children, but he procrastinates making a commitment to her. He stands by as Calissa gets stuck in the past.
Calissa clings to the decrepit homestead that belonged to her family, searching and seeing visions into the past. Will she overcome her skewed beliefs and reclaim her relationship with the Lord as Monte pushes his love of Christmas on her? Or will she forfeit her happily-ever-after?
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Hi LoRee! Welcome to the blog!
LoRee: I can sing along with music. Audiobooks is a passive activity, where reading a book is active.
Carrie: so true! I think that’s why I don’t care for audiobooks – I don’t like being passive.
LoRee: Over, and I have no idea why, maybe the roll comes loose easier if it’s under?
Carrie: I prefer under and have no idea why either lol
LoRee: Soup because I’m gluten free.
Carrie: that’s a good reason 🙂
LoRee: Can I say both? As a child I learned the card games first, crazy 8, slap Jack, go Fish. And Casino, which I tried to teach all of my grandchildren around kindergarten. Right now, Kings in the Corner is the only game my husband plays with me. But Scrabble, oh I could play Scrabble all day long. I taught my grandchildren the junior version at 7 or 8 and the adult version around age 10.
Carrie: “Both” is a very acceptable answer when it comes to cards & board games!
Q: Around here I like to say that reading is my superpower. If YOU had a superpower, what would it be?
LoRee: Time travel
Carrie: Time travel would be great – as long as you can easily get back to present day 😀
Q: Which books are currently ‘on your nightstand’?
LoRee: The Bible and my Kindle (that’s about 500 books 🙂 )
Carrie: aren’t Kindles wonderful? Multiply that by at least 10 (probably more) and you’ve got mine lol.
Q: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever Googled while researching a book?
LoRee: I don’t know if it’s the weirdest, but pot-bellied pigs came to mind first. Queenie is a character in Meet in the Middle. The last thing I’ve looked up is pictures of telephone booths.
Carrie: That combination of google searches would be intriguing should someone come along behind you to snoop 😛
Q: Which character in Hiding From Christmas was the most difficult to write?
LoRee: I’m going to say Calissa because I love everything that has to do with Christmas (except the earlier push by retailers each year), so I couldn’t relate to her avoidance of the holy holiday.
Carrie: I love everything about Christmas too!
Q: Did you have the whole plot outlined before you started writing, or did you let the characters dictate what came next?
LoRee: With romance we all know there’s a happily-ever-after. I knew what I wanted to accomplish in each chapter, but the scenes and dialogue were often surprises. I never knew when Calissa would visit the old house, or what she would see.
Carrie: that always keeps the story fresh, i think!
Q: What is one of your favorite quotes from Hiding From Christmas & why do you love it?
LoRee:
The moment he saw that old-fashioned card, Monte had imagined Calissa opening the door for him. His smile faded. She stared at the card. “You know I don’t do Christmas.”
I love it because it shows Monte’s expectation (I’ve learned it’s best not to have expectations when it comes to our loved ones), and Calissa’s response sets up her attitude in few words.
Thank you so much for taking time to talk with me! 🙂 Before we say goodbye for today, tell us what‘s coming up next for you.
LoRee: I have three books contracted with White Rose Publishing, the romance genre of Pelican Book Publishing. Courting Country features older protagonists, Cowboy Just in Time is a time travel, and its sequel Future of My Heart entails traveling forward in time.
Carrie: They all sound great!
LoRee Peery is offering one of my readers a print or pdf copy of Hiding From Christmas! (US only for print, void where prohibited by law or logistics) This giveaway is subject to Reading Is My SuperPower’s giveaway policies which can be found here. Enter via the Rafflecopter form below.
What about you? What interests you most about Hiding From Christmas?
Monte and Calissa’s relationship. Thanks for the chance to win!
Thanks, Amelia. It’s different than any I’ve written before.
I love this title. There have been many days when I wanted to hide from Christmas, but it always draws me back into the happy hubbub. Sounds like a wonderful story!
Thanks, Laura. I believe the line came from a movie. I feel like that in stores that still have Halloween decorations mixed in with Christmas.
new author for me.
I’m excited to hear that, Kim.
I always enjoy time travel books.
I have a couple coming out soon from Pelican Book Group. They’re different. Thanks for your comment.
This sounds like a good story! I’m interested to see what happens.
Thanks, Melissa. I never knew what would happen each time Calissa visited the old farmhouse.
Sounds interesting! Thanks for the opportunity to enter a giveaway! Would love to win a print copy!
I thank you for your interest, Lual. It’s a “small” print copy.
I enjoy time travel reads!
Teresa, thanks for your comment. I like them also and believe my next will have something about a dream (which I rarely remember, but I wrote this one down).
That God would force her to face to present and bless her.
Vivian, thanks for seeing this.
I love Christmas stories
Yes! I even like to read them in the summertime during the heat.
This sounds like an amazing story. I love the cover. Thanks for the chance.
Tighefan42atgmaildotcom
Tammy, the cover is amazing. Pelican’s editor-in -chief Nicola Martinez designs the covers.
Sometimes have strange dreams, but have never had one where I was in a different period.
I’ve heard of writers who dream their stories. God made us unique from one another.
It sounds interesting and I like time-travel stories. Best wishes to the the author on the new release. Thanks for sharing.
Debra, thanks for your comment and I wish you best wishes as well.
Vivian, thanks for seeing this.
Thank you all for the opportunity to share my story. We had a death in the family and lots of family activity the past week, so I hope I didn’t miss anyone’s comment (it appears I made a duplicate). I wish you all a blessed year of reading good books in 2020.