Guest Author: Christina Lorenzen

This week we’re inviting fellow authors to tell us about their books. I invited fellow sweet romance author Christina Lorenzen to share her holiday short story Snow Globe Reunion. I read this book soon after it released and was charmed by the vintage small-town vibe of the story. I asked Christina to tell us about how she came up with the idea for the story, and she kindly agreed. Take it away, Christina!

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I have always wanted to write a Christmas story. My publisher, Lovely Christian Romance Press, had put out a call for writers interested in writing a story for her Snow Globe Christmas Collection. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was perfect for me. What better for a first Christmas book than a story that centers around one of the most sentimental, magical things associated with Christmas?

I have always loved snow globes and I have several that I put out each year at Christmas. There’s something about shaking a snow globe and just watching the glittery flakes scatter about the scenery. Carrie Sanders, my heroine, came to mind and somehow she was in O’Hare International airport in Chicago, trying to get home during a snowstorm. I wanted Carrie to find a snow globe that would affect her holiday trip home, but it couldn’t be just a regular snow globe. Mrs. Gibson, the mysterious woman Carrie chats with in the airport coffee shop, came out of thin air – both for me and Carrie. It’s the snow globe that she leaves behind in her tote bag that holds more answers for Carrie than she knew she needed.

I think the inspiration behind the story dates back to my childhood, when my parents would take me to visit my great aunt during the holidays. The two things I remember most about her are the upright piano in the living room and the snow globes scattered throughout her house. I think I shook every one of them, believing and hoping some kind of magic would happen. So, it’s no wonder that a story where one magical shake of a snow globe changes a woman’s life literally flowed from my fingers to my keyboard. Just like the snow globe in the story was inspired by snow globes from my past, several of the characters were inspired by people I know from my own town. Jimmy, the soldier Carrie encounters at the airport, is loosely based on a young son of a neighbor who recently left to serve our country. Mrs. Gibson, the eccentric mysterious woman Carrie meets in the airport coffee shop, is based on a rather eclectic woman from my church.

I find that many of my characters in my books are inspired by real life people with a little bit of nipping and tucking here and there. I’m not sure what’s more fun, creating characters from scratch or tweaking people from real life, when it comes to picking characters for a story. My daily travels inspire new story ideas and characters almost every day.

Blurb for Snow Globe Reunion:
Stranded by a snowstorm, Carrie Sanders is left holding a bag an old woman she’d been talking to left behind in the airport coffee shop. Mystified by the woman’s disappearance, she sits on the bench staring at the snow globe that was in the bag.

Inside the glittery snowy world it’s Christmas during the 1940s. Fighting sleep, the next thing she knows she’s in the arms of the soldier she last saw skating on the pond in the snow globe. He’s no stranger, but the boy next door who never forgot her.

Author bio:
Christina started writing as a young teen, jotting stories in wire ring composition notebooks. Her first typewriter made it faster to get all those stories out of her head and down on paper. Her love of writing has sustained her through a myriad of jobs that included hairdresser, legal secretary, waitress and door-­to‑door saleswoman.

Luckily for her, writing proved to be successful and a lot less walking than going door to door. Harvest Blessings, a sweet small town romance, is Christina’s fourth book. She is also the author of A Husband for Danna, its sequel, A Wife for Humphrey, Harvest Blessings, and her recent Christmas release, Snow Globe Reunion. She is busy working on a modern retelling of the classic tale, Rapunzel. When she isn’t writing or reading, she can be found walking her dog, talking to her herd of cats and spending time with her family.

To find out about Christina’s upcoming releases, visit her website at http://christinalorenzen.com/.

Snow Globe Reunion is available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Christina Lorenzen can be found at her website and on Facebook, Amazon, Instagram, and Pinterest.

My thoughts:
I enjoyed this short time-travel novella set at Christmas time. Carrie learns a lot about herself during a visit to her grandparents’ past. Though she hasn’t worshipped in a long time, the faith and teachings instilled in her long ago come back to her when she needs them.

 

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