It’s the MOST wonderful time of the year – for reading Christmas novels, that is! With that in mind, I’m devoting this month’s column to two authors who have recently released absolutely delightful Christmas books that straddle the line between romance and women’s fiction, Susan Wiggs and Sheila Roberts. In a nod to the titles of their books, I’ve posed twelve questions that will help you know more about Susan and Sheila’s Christmas likes, traditions, disasters, and special memories. (There might even be a recipe in there!) But before we get to the Q&A, let me give you a little peek into these two charming, heartwarming holiday novels! THE TWELVE MONTHS OF CHRISTMAS by Sheila Roberts When three friends have horrible holiday fails, they decide to try again. And again. And again. And again, all through the year, trying to keep the holiday spirit alive. Through laughter and tears, they’re bound to find hope, love, and a happy ending after 12 months of Christmas. THE TWELVE DOGS OF CHRISTMAS by Susan Wiggs Hoping to escape Christmas–which has never gone well for her–newly-single Brenda volunteers to transport a vanload of rescued dogs of all shapes and sizes from Texas to a wintry town…

I’m Sheila Roberts, and this spring I am going back to the beach (Moonlight Harbor to be exact), for my seventh novel in my Moonlight Harbor series. I love this beach town and I love the people who live there. I especially love The Mermaids – the band made up of Bonnie Brinks, her mother Loretta, and Bonnie’s daughter Avril, three generations of women who know how to sell a song. Now, if they can just sort out their love lives and make their dreams come true, they’ll really be rockin’!   M is for Mermaids, and I hope you’ll love these three! E reminds us that everyone swims into dangerous waters once in a while. But our heroines are proof that you can find your way to a safe harbor eventually. R stands for romance … times three. M is for the men who are giving our poor Mermaids grief and the good ones who are there for them, no matter what. A is for Avril, young and ambitious – too young to go face the dangers lurking in Nashville. At least that’s how her mom sees it. I … Hmmm. How about I hope you’ll enjoy spending time…

1–What is the title of your latest release? THE ROAD TO CHRISTMAS 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Three different adventures will make for one memorable family Christmas. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? Since I wanted to write about a road trip, I had to come up with a destination. I picked Idaho because it’s a beautiful state and it’s not that far from Washington State, where I live, so I figured I could manage to plan a road trip there. Picking the starting locations for my various characters was a challenge. I wanted them coming from places I’m familiar with and I was working within a tight time frame, so they couldn’t live too far away from their destination. Soooo, my poor characters had no choice over where they would live. I am geographically challenged. Thank heaven for my husband, who helped make sure my timeline and holiday routes matched up. 4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life? Oh, yes. What’s the point of writing about people I wouldn’t want to be with, right? I must say my heroine Michelle had some important lessons to learn though….

The not-so-tough go to the beach, which is exactly where my main character Celeste Jones in The Summer Retreat goes after her latest true love turns out not to be so true. This is another story set in my new fictional town of Moonlight Harbor, which I based loosely on the charming beach town of Ocean Shores, Washington. Ocean Shores offers visitors an impressive system of canals for kayaking and a funky downtown that is a mix of both new and vintage buildings, many leftover from the sixties when the town first came into being. You’ll find any number of shops, including one with a storefront shaped like a giant shark. Shoppers enter through the shark’s mouth. You can enjoy an ice cream cone at the ice cream parlor, then ride bumper cars or go-carts, play miniature golf or enjoy a full-sized golf course. Tennis and pickleball courts abound as well, and locals who join the community club (almost anyone who buys property there can join the club) can choose between two outdoor pools or one indoor pool for swimming. Then, of course, you have the beach and those gorgeous sunrises and sunsets. Beach fires, surfing, storm watching, beach combing,…

  The beach is my happy place. What’s not to like about the beauty and peace of a lovely beach? For me, visiting the beach is a real memory fest. I grew up playing on one, have always lived around water. Before I was even born (and let me tell you, that was a loooong time ago), my parents invested in land on a small island across from Seattle. Before I came along, the gang would pile into an old whaling boat my dad had found somewhere, take it through the Seattle locks (terrifying the people with pretty boats, who didn’t want their babies scratched) and head across Puget Sound to the island. Back then it was all trees, strawberry farms and a few summer cabins. We added to the cabin population by one and became summer folk. We owned high bank property, which meant we eventually needed to quit borrowing my uncle’s stairs and build our own to get to the beach. My dad hired a man to bulldoze a path partway. By that time I was around, a scrawny little girl fascinated by the whole process. The final product looked like a canyon to me and I dubbed…

Don’t you love snow globes? I do. They’re so darned pretty. And fun. And fascinating. And even fun to make. Well, as long as you have a daughter who has the craft gene helping you. (I think that gene skipped a generation in my family. My mom had it. My daughter had it. Me. Not so much. Oh, heck, let’s be honest. Not at all.) My daughter Rose and my friend Theresia and I experimented with the art of making hand-crafted snow globes last month and had a great time. And, like all those great times, it went so fast! Have you noticed how hard times like illness, unemployment, and family troubles just seem to drag while the most wonderful, memorable times in our lives rocket past? What’s with that? Have you ever had a moment you wished you could freeze and stay in for a really long time? I guess that’s why we all love to take pictures. We want to capture those special moments so we can look back and enjoy them over and over again. I think that’s why snow globes appeal to us so much. The fun, sweet, idyllic scenes inside them are captured forever. Shake…

Most of us have money challenges: credit card debt, too much month at the end of the money, problems with guilt spending and retail therapy. Sometimes those money problems can feel overwhelming. That’s where girlfriends come in. They save us from having to face those problems alone. Our good friends sympathize and support us. They comfort us with chocolate. They help us stay motivated. I’m a firm believer in girl power and the value of bringing in the girlfriend squad to help us conquer our challenges. Which is just what my three friends do in my novel Small Change! When faced with money, life, and love problems these women band together, determined to start making changes. The ones they make eventually add up to a big difference in their attitudes and how their lives play out. The book is fiction, but the concept is real life. Pulling together with your friends is the best way to conquer those financial challenges. So, how exactly can your girlfriend squad help you? First, they can help you evaluate your strengths and weaknesses when it comes to money. Most of us have a hard time finding our money management flaws. If you tend to…

Do you know what the three sexiest words on the planet are? Fifty Percent Off. No, wait, I take that back. I thought of something even sexier: Seventy-five percent off. Well, if that’s sexy, what about eighty-percent off? Baby, I’m yours. Don’t we love sales! Well, I do. (I bet you never guessed that.) But I have learned the hard way that something isn’t necessarily a bargain just because it’s on sale. In fact, when we’re out there snagging things on sale we can sometimes find we’ve got a tiger by the tail. So, to help all of us bargain hunters learn to know when to shoot and when to run back to shelter, I’ve come up with a simple three-question checklist. By the way, I recently neglected to use my checklist and got snared when my greedy eyes fell on an amazing pair of shoes on sale at Penney’s for eighty percent off. Eighty percent! They were absolutely gorgeous so of course I had to buy them. What a steal! What an amazing bargain! What a . . . disaster. It’s been a while since I’ve worn heels that high. (Like the eighties!) Trust me, walking in fashion stilts…

Every year it’s the same old, same old. I resolve to eat less and exercise more, manage my time better, get organized, be a better wife, mother, friend, and person. Be noble, and never get grumpy or lose my temper. In short, be perfect. This year I got in touch with my inner Doctor Phil and asked myself, “How’s that workin’ for ya?” Well, in spite of my resolutions, my caboose has gotten big enough that every kid in the neighborhood could ride on it – at the same time. I’ve lost many an hour of productivity to Facebook and Twitter. (So why I still can’t figure out how to post pictures on my Facebook fan page or decipher half of the shorthand I read on Twitter is a mystery to me.) My daughter complains that she has to check my FB page to see what I’m doing and as for the better wife goal, let’s just say that it’s a good thing my poor husband Gerhardt is longsuffering. So, in light of all that, what are my resolutions for the New Year? 1. Buy bigger clothes. That way I can eat and not feel guilty. And I’ll remind my…

Good deeds, good lovin’ and good recipes–I thought these sounded like a winning combination for a book, so I incorporated them all into my latest novel, Angel Lane. In the book three girlfriends decide they need to do something to keep the heart in Heart Lake, the small, lakeside town where they live. So they come up with their “Have a Heart” campaign–asking neighbors to commit one random act of kindness every day . . . and then learn that no good deed goes unpunished. Sarah Goodwin, suffering from granddaughter withdrawals after her daughter moves, delivers a coffee cake to the new neighbor only to realize she’s just fed a hungry lounge lizard. (Something her husband does not appreciate!) As if she doesn’t have enough troubles with lover boy, she is also finding the cooking classes she started for some of the town’s little girls to be, well, challenging. Emma Swanson is becoming the town soft touch and slowly running her quilt shop into the ground. And Jamie Moore, who owns the town’s new chocolateria, is fighting feelings for a certain cop who’s developed a sweet tooth. (A fight she’s determined to win now that she’s sworn off men.) What…