Monday, November 25, 2013

Mistletoe Magic!

Before I tell you about my new short story that's now available, I want to announce the winner of my There and Here contest. Kimberlyindy is the winner of the $5 Amazon gift card. Kimberly, please send me your email address via my contact button. Thanks!

And now for the big news...

Mistletoe Magic, a 9000 word short story I've working on to go with Home For Christmas and the two other A Copper Mountain Christmas novellas, is now available. Here's the blurb:
Spending a quiet Christmas housesitting and reading novels about hot cowboys sounds perfect to Caitlin Butler. Until a stray kitten brings her face-to-face with Noah, her crush from college. Watching the handsome vet in action melts Caitlin's heart and brings back long forgotten emotion. She would be safer back at the house lost in the pages of a book. But a toe-curling mistletoe kiss tempts her to stay. Maybe she won't be spending this Christmas... alone.

Veterinarian Noah Sullivan isn't a Scrooge, but the Christmas Eve tradition of hanging mistletoe in the clinic's waiting room annoys him. Kissing doesn't belong at the Copper Mountain Animal Hospital. Noah rethinks his position when Caitlin arrives with a stray kitten she found freezing in the snow. All he wants now is to maneuver the pretty preschool teacher under the mistletoe. If he's not careful, he'll wind up on Santa's naughty list.
The story is supposed to be a freebie, but is only currently free on one site. I'm hoping the others price match soon! Here are the three places you can find the story at the moment with their price:

Free at Smashwords                   $0.99 at Amazon            $0.99 at B&N

Over at Amazon, I used the From The Author section to tell a little about this story. I'm going to share that here, too, since I'm assuming most are going to download it from Smashwords where it's free! Here goes:

Mistletoe Magic is a 9000 word short story I wrote to go along with the three novellas that make up A Copper Mountain Christmas:

* A Cowboy for Christmas by Katherine Garbera (out now)
* Home for Christmas by me (out now)
* Christmas on Copper Mountain by Jane Porter (out in early December)

I love cats! The number of cats in our house changes because I foster for a local humane society, usually seniors and ones with health issues. My own kitties range in age from 2 to 16 1/2 years old.  I also have two dogs, who the cats tolerate. Well, sort of. The dogs know to keep their distance, especially from the older cats!

When I was asked to write a short Christmas romance story, I'd been dealing with a couple sick cats that not only meant visits to the vet, but a couple trips to an emergency animal hospital.  The setting seemed a natural fit for a short story. I also wanted to rewrite something that happened to me while I was writing Home For  Christmas.

I found a stray cat in my backyard. Guess my crazy cat lady reputation made the rounds with the local feline crew. Because I foster, I knew who to call and they got right to work. A couple hours later, I was with the cat, named Shasta by the humane society, at a vet office where he received much needed medical attention. I'd received a new foster cat the night before so he was taken in by the humane society and placed with a different foster. Unfortunately, Shasta didn't survive, but for the last weeks of his life he was comfortable, warm, had plenty to eat and was loved. For me, that's what animal rescue and fostering senior cats is all about.

But I'm a romance writer and prefer happy endings. Christmas is a time for magic and miracles so in Mistletoe Magic I wrote the ending I wanted for Shasta and every foster/stray cat out there.

Montana, especially the quaint town of Marietta, is a wonderful place to spend the holidays. I hope you enjoy this short story and the three A Copper Mountain Christmas novellas.


So there you have it! Hope you have a wonderful Monday!