Happy Christmas in July! Welcome to the 2022 Christmas in July Reader Blog Tour & Giveaway, which runs July 15-22, 2022 (contest closes at 8 p.m. Eastern on 7/22). At the bottom of each author’s blog post, you will find the name of a Christmas song. Write them all down and provide all song titles (26 in total) on this Google form. Click here for a list of all participating authors and their links!

Note: You must grab all the song titles from every author in the 2022 Christmas in July Reader Blog Tour & Giveaway to be eligible to win the grand prize of a $520 Amazon gift card, plus a copy of each participating author’s book OR first place prize of a copy of each participating author’s book. At the end of this blog post is a link to the next blog, and so on, to the final blog post (26 authors in all). 

Stranded During Christmas? Bah Humbug!

Sometimes the smallest tidbit of something takes us down a rabbit hole of “what ifs”.

This was the case when I read about a train being stranded in a snowstorm at Starvation Creek between The Dalles and Portland, OR in December of 1884. I’ll tell you, though, the idea of a bit of snow as hot as it is right now sounds pretty refreshing. And that’s part of what makes Christmas in July so much fun!

But being stuck in an avalanche maybe not so much. Various reports make the event one of a three week minor inconvenience to an almost chilling race against starvation and possible death for the 148 passengers on the train(s). Yes, some reports state that not one, but three, passenger trains converged in the high mountain pass and all became stranded, unable to go forward or backward due to massive avalanches across the tracks.

Of course, rumors abounded as they often do, putting friends and families waiting in The Dalles and Portland on edge as they were fed a daily diet of reports of starvation and bone-chilling freezing temperatures descending on the stranded travelers. One writer even went so far as to say that with food running low, the conductor ordered all able-bodied men to leave the train and walk to Portland, 50 miles away, in the blizzard. This same report says that no one died and no one starved to death. As a matter of fact, none of the reports I’ve read of that event 137 years ago mentions any deaths, so that’s a blessing right there.

In addition to all this drama, the train(s) were stranded over Christmas, adding to everyone’s worry. Who wants to be stranded away from friends and family at Christmas?

When the time came to write a Christmas novella, I pulled the idea of a stranded train out of my files. If someone was going to have to be stranded, I planned to make the best of it. So, I created a pretty rancher’s daughter, reluctantly being dragged to Portland to be introduced to high society. Add to the mix a take-charge kind of cowboy, and a bunch of cute, if slightly bored, kids, including one little romantic girl hanging mistletoe over every doorway of the passenger cars. Instead of the doom and gloom of “will-we-die-or-won’t-we” from the original event, I tried to make it a bit lighter since this story is a novella. And there may or may not be a babe in the manger … uh … in one of the passenger cars as well. Hmmm…

I would be honored if you hopped over to Amazon and read the excerpt for Destination Christmas. Seriously, Amazon shared the perfect amount of this story for you to sample. For free! I hope it whets your appetite to read the entire novella. It’s a feel-good sweet little romance that should get you in the mood for Christmas in July … or any time of the year. Also, all the novellas in my Calico Trails Romance Series (excepted newly released Love is a Puzzle) are currently on sale for .99cents.

Destination Christmas, A Calico Trails Romance, is available for 99cents for a limited time.

Now, it’s time to for my Christmas song title:

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Save the holiday song titles from each of the 26 blog stops, and when you reach the final blog, enter all the song titles on this form for a chance to win the grand prize of a $520 Amazon gift card and a copy of each participating author’s featured book OR first prize of a copy of each participating author’s featured book.

Thank you so much for visiting! The next author on the tour is Linda Wood Rondeau and her Christmas book It Really IS a Wonderful Life. You can find it at this link. Remember, the 2022 Christmas in July Reader Blog Tour & Giveaway ends July 22 at 8 PM EST!