Here be Magic: I'll Be Home for Christmas

My critique partners and I publish two short story anthologies a year, one is a summer read and the other is a holiday story. Each anthology is bound together with a consistent theme. We’ve just published our fifth anthology, TIMELESS MOMENTS. In the quaint seaside town of Havenport, Rhode Island, five couples find their happily ever afters with a little help from the romance section of The Final Chapter bookstore. My story is I’ll Be Home for Christmas.

I decided to open the story with a review of my heroine’s recently published book. It wasn’t difficult to describe Beth’s pain when she read the scathing review. It didn’t take much to drum up the excitement of reading the reviews of my first book, KNIGHT OF RUNES, or the pain of one blistering review. That short paragraph prompted a call to my publicist, Binnie, and wound up with an email of encouragement from Mary Jo Putney. Four years later I found the right place for that review. It became the basis of the opening paragraph of my story.

Beth Alexander, best-selling romance writer, has lost her muse, her fan base, and maybe the loyalty of her beloved agent. Sales of her new release plummet on the best seller list, and her contract with her publisher is in jeopardy. A heat-of-the-moment social media comment about a rival author goes viral, and not in a good way. No one knows that the rival author is the stuff male cover models are made of, least of all Beth Alexander. She heads home to Havenport, Rhode Island for a Christmas book signing, and a chance to lay low and let the storm pass.

Beth’s chance encounter with a handsome, witty stranger has her heart racing and her muse seemingly back. But, will the new story line she’s created save her career? Or will her handsome savior betray her and turn out to be her worst nightmare?