Last time I posted, I talked about “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” and how, for me, the week I attend ACFW’s annual conference is that. But now it’s time to focus on the OTHER most wonderful time of the year ;). Christmas is coming in just over two months. For authors, we often try to release Christmas stories in September or October so people have time to read them before Christmas. Last month, we released a Christmas set called It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas. My offering is Premieres & Paparazzi. Clair Cruz Cartwright from Glimpsing Hope gets her chance at Happily Ever After. Here’s an excerpt from Premieres & Paparazzi:
Kevin Rogers grabbed his bag out of the backseat of his 4Runner. He had two minutes before he was officially late. Good thing there wasn’t an actual time clock.
He hustled toward the building. The cold drove him as much as the time did.
“Hey, Mr. Rogers.” A student waved as she walked by.
“Hey, Cassie.” Kevin didn’t know the girl’s father well, but he was the drama teacher. Seemed like a nice enough guy.
His phone buzzed. With a sigh, Kevin pulled it out of his pocket. Not what he wanted to deal with first thing in the morning.
Before he could even read the text, his phone went flying from his hand when he ran into someone.
Please not a student. Or Dr. Underhill.
He looked up to see the most gorgeous blue eyes in creation.
A closer look told him she was most definitely not a student.
“I’m so sorry.” He bent down to pick up his phone. “I wasn’t looking where I was going.”
“I’m fine.” Her eyes darted around the building. “I’m looking for Mr. Harders’ room next to the auditorium. Can you tell me where that is?”
Kevin glanced around. No administrators or other teachers were in sight. “Sure.” He turned back the way he’d come. “I’ll show you. It’s a bit of a maze.” They took a few steps. “I’m Kevin Rogers by the way.”
“Claire.” No last name.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Claire.” Kevin took her through the narrow corridor and two turns to get to the drama classroom. “There’s other ways to get here,” he explained, “but this is the shortest if you’re coming from the front of the building.”
He rapped on the open door and walked in. “Mr. Harders, Claire is here to see you.”
Mr. Harders’ eyes lit up. “Thanks, Kevin.” He walked toward them. “Thank you for coming, Ms. Cartwright.”
Kevin snuck back out the door before she could say anything. Claire Cartwright. He felt like the name should mean something to him.
He went up the back stairs to his classroom and spent the day teaching kids who might, or might not, want to learn about the Protestant Reformation.
After packing his things and making a few notes for the next day, he spent almost an hour on lesson plans for the next unit. When it was nearly finished, he went out to his car. Too bad the day hadn’t warmed up.
He’d much rather head straight home, but he had a date. Kind of. He’d signed up for one of the dating apps on a whim and was meeting a girl for coffee.
Chick-fil-A was just around the corner from the school and may not have been the best place to meet. Almost all the teen employees were students at Serenity Landing and half of the older ones had been a few years earlier. It was also a popular hangout after school.
If this didn’t go well, his humiliation would be on public display.
Once inside, Kevin looked around to see the woman he’d been chatting with on the app. He breathed a sigh of relief. At least she looked like her picture.
“Kevin?”
He smiled. “Yes. Heather?” They shook hands and made small talk about the weather.
“Are you guys in line?”
Kevin turned to see the blonde lady from the hallway that morning. “Sorry.” He motioned for Heather to go in front of him. She entered the queue and waited for an employee to call them to the counter.
“I can help the next guest over here.”
Kevin let Heather go first. She turned to him. “I had an early lunch. Could we split some nuggets?”
“Sure.”
Heather turned back to the employee, a girl Kevin recognized from the hallways, and scanned the rewards app on her phone. “I’ll take a large lemonade and a thirty-piece nugget.”
He wouldn’t have ordered quite that many, but whatever. “And a large sweet tea.” After swiping his card, he took the table marker thing and followed Heather toward a table in the back, setting the marker and his drink down.
She reached the table and turned, grabbing the marker. “Shoot. I forgot to ask for ranch dressing. Save the table?”
“Sure.” He sat in the booth and waited two minutes. Then three.
Then the blonde woman from earlier sat at the table next to him. “I hope you don’t mind. There’s a lot of kids in the other side.”
“Of course not.”
“And I hate to tell you this, but…” She pointed her straw toward the other door. “Pretty sure your date took your nuggets and left out the far entrance.”
Kevin’s shoulders slumped. “Great,” he muttered. “So much for a dating app.” He pulled his phone out to delete it.
She left her chair and slid into the bench across from him. “You seem like a nice guy, even if you did run into me this morning.” Her smile put him a bit more at ease.
“Sorry about that.”
“Making arrangements for your date?”
“No. Something else.” He didn’t even want to think about that. “So, what were you doing at Serenity Landing High today?”
“You don’t know who I am?” She sounded like she didn’t believe him.
Kevin just shrugged. “I thought you looked familiar, but couldn’t place you or your name.”
“Ah. Well, I was visiting Mr. Harders’ drama classes because I’m an actress and just moved to the area.”
Hadn’t he heard something about that one show his cousin used to watch? “Are you here for pleasure or work? That show about the twins or something?”
“The 2 Cool 4 School sequel. We shot the first season this spring. It releases on MyBingeFlix in two weeks. Seating for Six starts shooting the second season right after Christmas. I decided it was time to move.”
Most of that meant nothing to Kevin. He didn’t watch much television. “Congratulations. I hope it goes well for you and your co-stars.”
“And you don’t know who I am?”
He gave her a sidelong glance. “The woman I want to marry?”
Check out It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas on Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited! For your chance to win a Kindle copy, let me know how you feel about decorating (homes? stores?) before American Thanksgiving (Canadian Thanksgiving was the other day ;))? What about stores selling Christmas decorations before then?
PREMIERES & PAPARAZZI
History teacher Kevin Rogers is juggling lesson plans, attempts at dating, and avoiding an ex-girlfriend. A chance encounter with an actress helps, until a tabloid article threatens to ruin everything.
Actress Claire Cruz Cartwright is making her move to Serenity Landing permanent. The co-star of the successful show, Seating for Six, is ready to settle down with a life outside of the Hollywood spotlights.
A night in the emergency room. The premiere of her new show. A conversation that bares her soul. The paparazzi who think everything is their business. Can their new relationship survive long enough to make it all the way to Christmas?
When she's not writing about her imaginary friends, Carol Moncado is hanging out with her husband and four kids in the big yard of their southwest Missouri home, teaching American Government at a community college, reading, or watching NCIS. She's a member of ACFW and RWA, President and founding member for the MozArks ACFW group, and a category coordinator for ACFW's First Impressions.
Hi Carol, love this story- I’m a History teacher, I teach the Protestant Reformation…what a great job (and topics) to give Kevin:) I enjoy reading stories with connections to characters from other stories, it always makes the story feel more ‘real’.
We don’t have Thanksgiving here in Australia, but by the end of November, definitely the first of December, shops have Christmas things up…December is early enough for me and we make the kids wait until school finishes to put up the Christmas tree (about 2 weeks before Christmas). We are usually away, visiting family, so decorating our house has never been a really big thing.
Blessings:)
I think it’s rediculous to put Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations up in the stores at the same time.
Hi Carol! Enjoy your romances set in Serenity Falls. No need to include me in the Giveaway. I already purchased the boxed set, just need more reading time. Even for this retiree, it has been a busy fall. While I enjoy seeing Christmas ideas at the craft stores, I feel that in America we have completely forgotten Thanksgiving. Best wishes and happy writing.
Hi Carol, thanks for the excerpt, I got intrigued by the story. As for decorating for Christmas, I think people are starting too early, specially stores. Where I live, they start decorating right after Halloween. It totally ruins the “magic” and it makes it even clearer that it’s sinplg for a comercial purpose. As for us in our family we usually start decorating in the first weekend of Advent (don’t know if you know this tradition..it’s a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Christmas and starts 4 Sundays before Christmas).
I don’t care if they sell decorations before then as crafters need time to craft, but I would prefer they wait to decorate until after Thanksgiving. It used to be such fun to shop after that time just to see what the stores did. Things have sure changed! I try to avoid the stores after Thanksgiving thru the end of the year.
Te excerpt makes me want to read it
I enjoyed the boxed set. I enjoy decorating after thanksgiving but I know there are Christmas stores who sell things all year long. So it doesn’t bother me to see the stores selling it early.
I already have the boxed set, and enjoyed your novella! I don’t like having Christmas thrown at me from the beginning of October, and then the morning of Dec 26, it’s over. My birthday is Jan 12, and in the “old days” we wouldn’t put up our tree until around Dec 18 or so, and then would leave it up until my birthday! One year recently, life was crazy busy, so we didn’t get our tree until around the middle of Dec., and ended up getting a gorgeous 8 ft. noble fir for $10 because K-Mart was getting rid of them :-) I’d never make it in the Philippines where all the -ber months are Christmas – September, October, November and December!!
Hey all! I’ll be in and out all day! My oldest (the band kid) turns SIXTEEN on Sunday (how is it possible?!) and since there’s no school today, she’s having friends over for a birthday party – then a football game tonight and band trip the next two days. EEK!
Thanks so much for stopping by!
I was a history major once upon a moon. I taught 7th grade social studies for one semester then history and/or American government for 15 years at a local community college. Right now we don’t have room for anything but a small table top tree so I tend to avoid putting it up until fairly late :/.
I’m kind of torn. Because some people have to decorate early for whatever reason but it would be nice if they weren’t out in August :p.
Not sure what kind of decorations I’ve ever seen for Labor Day though…
Hi Renate! I saw a store that made me think of you on my drive home last month. Renate’s Antiques or something like that.. I forget where it was but on 69 in Oklahoma somewhere ;).
I like seeing it too, but yeah. Thanksgiving tends to get overlooked a bit.
I said something to our mall manager about it once when they started on November 1. And she pointed out it would take them almost 3 weeks to finish decorating so they’d be done just in time for Thanksgiving that year. So I get that.
I’m a little bit familiar with Advent, though we’ve never participated. I think that’s a great idea!
Have times changed? Or have you? Or a combination? I know I’m far less likely to go shopping when it’s busy but I’m also far more introverted than I used to be most of the time.
As I mentioned above, some stores etc need more time because they can’t do it all in a day or two, but I do think some of them still jump the gun…
I hope you enjoy it!
Sometimes people need more time – and like Kimberly mentioned, crafters need time. I know craft sellers (like my yarn friends) who start selling crafting supplies in late summer (if not earlier) so crafters have time.
We uh might have left our tree up until um February once… but things were crazy that year ;). I got our big tree on clearance for like $15 one year, but we don’t have room for it at the moment :/. So we have a little 4′ table top tree that we use instead… It’s not the same… :(
Carol,
This sounds so fun to read! Can’t wait to read it!
As for decorations, my husband is the one who says we need to decorate right away. We’ve always started the day after Thanksgivings, but this year he wants to put up a few things the first of Nov. He’s really into lights. Not on the outside, but IN our house. As a child he remembers the bubble lights, and when those came out again a few years ago, he bought up a bunch. He also LOVES lots of lights on the tree, they have to be multi-colored and some blinking. Last year his newest purchases were these pictures (like Thomas Kinkade) that have lights in them which you turn on. I’m afraid what this year will bring. Oh well, if it puts him in a sweet mood and he sets it up and takes it down then I’m good with it.
We usually decorate for Christmas on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It doesn’t bother me if other people decorate before then, but I really dislike how early stores decorate for each holiday. It’s not even Halloween and most stores in my area have Christmas decorations out already.
I think both. I know needing time to get decorations up is a legit issue. I even wrote that reason into a few of my Christmas books.:)
Sounds like an intriguing book! I don’t like to rush Christmas but we crafters need time to plan. Our Church is having a Bazaar on the 28 th. And I’m making fabric pumpkins now! I need more Christmas potholders, I think and maybe a few pincushions.
Looks like a great book to read. Always looking forward to new authors and giveaways.
I don’t like to see Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving, unless it’s a store that has it all year. I don’t even look at them until after Thanksgiving. BUT I do read Christmas books any time. I love the Christmas message and celebrate it any time. The collection looks like a fun read and I love the name and cover!
Thank you! I can’t wait for you to read it! I JUST turned it in for formatting!
Someday I want to have all the lights… and all the Christmas… but that day is not this day (or this year).
I get that. I wish it was later, but I understand the idea that stores have to have it out earlier so people can decorate Nov 1 or whatever, but I wouldn’t mind them waiting either…
I hope you enjoy it! The bazaar sounds great!
New authors and giveaways are always fun!!! Hope you enjoy it!
It’s a fun collection! I will occasionally wander through but not usually unless I’m looking for something specific. Or bored and killing time waiting for a prescription or something.
But Christmas books (and movies)? Anytime of year ;).