I’m a sucker for holiday stories. Movies, books, music…if it tells a story set around the holidays, I want to know more! Being a romance writer who celebrates hope and love with every book she writes, the happier the story the better. So I was thrilled when I was asked to write my first holiday novella back…oh, let’s just say a few years (okay, okay, fifteen years) ago. What could be more fun than getting to tell my very own holiday story? Well, it turns out that while it was a blast getting to dream up a fun little holiday adventure, writing a satisfying story when you only have one hundred pages to tell that holiday tale is a wee bit of a challenge! I’m used to having four times that many pages, and even then, there are always parts that I have to trim down or leave out altogether. How in the world was I going to pull this off?  Suddenly this Christmas present was starting to feel a bit more like a trick from the Grinch. With the help of a few brainstorming author pals and possibly munching my way through far more Christmas cookies than was wise…

Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors as a reader you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Jenny Hale! About: Child-wrangling, photo-taking, travel-loving romantic women’s fiction author seeks readers for her Christmas novel about single-mother Abbey Fuller, who loves her family more than anything and doesn’t regret a moment of having to put her dreams of being a designer on hold to raise her son, Max, and a quiet, workaholic hero, Nick Sinclair, who thinks he’s hiring Abbey for a small design job, only to find himself learning salsa dancing and up to his neck in Christmas festivities. What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match: The perfect date includes a roaring fire, plates of Christmas cookies, hot cocoa, and a book in hand… Seeks long hours spent turning pages, the only sound in the room being the Christmas carols playing softly in the background Likes sweet, family-oriented, romantic stories that will make you laugh and cry Willing to nibble candy canes while reading about cookie baking and other delicious desserts Enjoys simmering romance that will leave…

Happy Holidays from Holiday, Texas! The little town of Holiday doesn’t need much of a reason to throw a party. With a name like Holiday, every day is a celebration! But when it comes to Christmas, like most of their fellow Texans, they tend to go all out. Folks living in the state of Texas definitely have their share of holiday traditions. From the lighted boat parade at the Harbor Lights Festival in Corpus Christi to the festive twenty-six-foot weihnachtspyramide in Fredericksburg, some towns go Christmas crazy! And we haven’t even talked about the food yet. If you celebrate Christmas in Texas you’ll be just as likely to eat tamales or brisket as you are to chow down on a deep-fried turkey. Small towns, in particular, are a special place to spend the holidays, especially in the Hill Country of Texas. There’s nothing like strolling down Main Street, cup of wassail in hand, peeking in all of the shop windows as you go. If you’d rather ride, you can head to Bandera and go Christmas caroling on horseback. In Lockhart, you can rub elbows with carolers in period costumes during their annual Dickens’ Christmas. And if you’re in Gruene, Texas,…