Jennifer Vido: What inspired your new release, MEET ME AT CHRISTMAS?
Jenny Hale: Oh goodness, after 23 novels, there’s no telling where the idea came from! Ha! I don’t even know. Sometimes I wonder if I store subconscious little messages throughout my life that reveal themselves when I start writing. I literally turn in a novel to my editor and then open a clean Word document and start writing the next book on that same day. Some books come to me well before writing them and some come when I start typing them. This one slowly emerged once my fingers hit the keys.
Jen: What brings Stella Fisher back home to Leiper’s Fork, Tennessee, and how does she feel about it?
Jenny: Her mother is spending her first Christmas without Stella’s father (after his death), and she’s faced with decorating alone and planning the Leiper’s Fork Christmas parade, which Stella’s father used to do. Stella feels the need to return to her mom, but she’s taken aback when her sister Lily elopes in Costa Rica instead of coming home to be with their mom.
Jen: What goes through Stella’s mind when she unexpectedly bumps into Henry Sutton?
Jenny: She shattered his heart when she left, so she assumes that he’s still upset with her for how things went, but she soon realizes that there’s another reason entirely that he’s so grumpy.
Jen: How does Stella’s budding career impact her new relationship with Henry?
Jenny: She’s a jet-setting scientific researcher and he loves his small town, so she isn’t sure how long she can stay, yet he believes she might be the only person who can help him through his trauma and get him back to his old self.
Jen: What do you hope readers take away from your story?
Jenny: With all my stories, I try to make the fairy tale happy ending feel as if it could actually happen. No one’s life is perfect. We’re all busy and dealing with stressors. But if we pay attention, we can find our own fairy tale moments. I hope readers can see, through my stories, how to do that.
Jen: What’s your favorite Christmas tradition?
Jenny: I have two: I love decorating gingerbread houses with my two boys. We’ve done it every single year since they were babies and even now, at the ages of 17 and 14, they still decorate them with me. The second is our tacky light tour. Every year, my husband maps out the biggest and brightest Christmas lights on homes across neighboring towns. We all pile into the car as a family, turn on Christmas music, and drive around to see every single house on the map. Then, we usually go get a treat after.
Jen: Sneak peek! What’s your current work in progress?
Jenny: Ooo, I don’t give out a lot of info about my upcoming books, but I will say it has something to do with a family compass and a beach!
Jen: What’s on your TBR stack?
Jenny: Right now, I’m reading 7 books, one chapter in each book every day. Monday through Friday are Nonfiction (marketing, business, publishing, etc.); Saturday is Fiction and I’m reading The Year of Jubilee by Cindy Morgan; Sunday is spiritual. I’m reading The Book of Signs by Dr. David Jeremiah.
Jen: How can readers stay connected with you?
Jenny: I’m nearly everywhere these days! I’m @jhaleauthor on Twitter/X, Instagram, TikTok, and Threads and @jennyhaleauthor on Facebook. My website is www.itsjennyhale.com
Jen: Thank you for sharing Meet Me at Christmas with our readers. Best of luck with your festive new release!
Jenny: Thank you so much, Jen! I can’t wait to share the holiday season with more readers!
MEET ME AT CHRISTMAS by Jenny Hale
From the USA Today bestselling author of the book-to-TV stories Coming Home for Christmas and Christmas Wishes and Mistletoe Kisses, with over one million copies of her books sold, comes a heartwarming holiday read that’s perfect for fans of Sheila Roberts, Debbie Macomber, and Jill Shalvis.
Traveling writer and researcher Stella Fisher is working in London when she’s called home to her family’s farmhouse in Leiper’s Fork, Tennessee to help her mother through the first Christmas without her father. Compounding the situation, her younger sister Lily has run off to get married without telling anyone.
When Stella arrives home, she doesn’t expect to find Henry Dutton, the man she’d left behind. As she could guess, after her heartbreaking exit so many years ago, he isn’t speaking to her. What she doesn’t realize, however, is there’s a much bigger reason to blame for his unfriendly reception. She quickly becomes the one person he believes can fix everything, but she isn’t sure about that. She thought she’d buried her past, yet the look in his alluring blue eyes brings it all right back to the surface.
Under the glitter of the holiday trees at the local lot called Christmas, Stella uncovers more than she’d ever imagined. Will she be able to return to her old life? Or will the unexpected be the biggest Christmas gift of all?
A heartwarming holiday escape that will have you rushing to your loved ones this Christmas. If you enjoyed the Christmas movies based on Jenny’s books and are looking for more feel-good, small-town romance, look no further!
Romance Holiday [Harpeth Road Press, On Sale: October 17, 2023, e-Book, / ]
About Jenny Hale
When I graduated college, one of my friends said, “Look out for this one; she’s going to be an author one day.” Despite being an avid reader and a natural storyteller, it wasn’t until that very moment that the idea of writing novels occurred to me. Sometimes our friends can see the things that we can’t. While I didn’t start straight away, that comment sowed a seed and several years, two children, and hundreds of thousands of words later, I completed a novel that I felt was worthy of publication. The result is Coming Home for Christmas, a heart-warming story about friends, family, and the magic of love at Christmas. The rest is history. When I’m not writing, I’m a mother of two boys and a wife to a very supportive husband.
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About Jennifer Vido
Jennifer Vido writes sweet romances set in the Lowcountry filled with southern charm and hospitality. In between chapters, she interviews authors for her bi-weekly Jen’s Jewels column on FreshFiction.com. Most mornings, she teaches an arthritis-friendly water exercise class for seniors before heading to the office to serve as the executive director of a legal non-profit. A New Jersey native, she currently lives in Maryland with her husband and two rescue dogs and is the proud parent of two sons who miss her home-cooked meals. To learn more, please visit her website.
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