Sunday, November 6, 2011

Christmas Magic on Mount Hood

My newest release Harlequin Romance Firefighter Under the Mistletoe is part of my Hood Hamlet series featuring mountain rescuers on Mount Hood. Each book is stand-alone, but share the same setting and cast of characters.

I live in the Pacific Northwest. Not quite in the shadow of Mount Hood, but close enough. Wherever I'm driving around town (and the weather's decent), I can see the mountain in the distance. It's a lovely view and very inspiring, especially whenever I'm writing one of these stories.  I love to go to Mount Hood, especially Timberline Lodge where some of my scenes take place. The town of Hood Hamlet, where the characters live, is fictional, but there are times it feels very real to me!

The picture on the left is of my dog, Chaos, a Norwegian Elkhound, hiking on the mountain with my husband in the springtime. When my stories take place, there's a lot more snow!

My family enjoys going to Mount Hood, whether it's for skiing, hiking, climbing or a meal at Timberline's Cascade Dining Room. What we do depends on the time of the year.

If you'd like a brief rundown on my Hood Hamlet series and how my Firefighter Under the Mistletoe characters fit in, here goes:

My heroine paramedic and volunteer mountain rescuer, Leanne Thomas, was first introduced in my November 2008 release Rescued by the Magic of Christmas.

This story came out after I read about three climbers lost on Mount Hood in December 2006. I wanted to know more about what was going on with the rescue mission and followed a link in a news article to a Northwest climbing forum. On a thread about the missing climbers, I read a post by one of the mountain rescuers, a member of Portland Mountain Rescue. The next thing I knew, I had a hero brewing in my head! A plot quickly followed. I never intended my fictional mountain town to become the setting of a series, but the ideas keep coming!

Leanne also appeared in my eHarlequin on-line read Snow-kissed Reunion. She is the roommate of that heroine. If you'd like to get a taste of my Hood Hamlet stories and briefly meet Leanne, this eight chapter short is great way. Especially since you can read it for free here!

Both Leanne and my hero firefighter Christian Welton appear in my 2011 RITA® finalist book Christmas Magic on the Mountain.

Christian's appearance is more like a cameo, but when it came time to pick a hero for Leanne, I remembered him and thought he'd be perfect for her!

Do you have any favorite series that you read?  Are any set during the holidays?

4 comments:

Debby said...

I can't think of any favorite series right now, except for the In Death series. They do sometimes have Christmas scenes in it.
debby236 at gmail dot com

Dru said...

I love the "In Death" series and I also read the "Stephanie Plum" series as well as others.

I think a couple have been set during the holidays.

Maria D. said...

I do have several series that I love like the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs, The Psy-Changeling series by Nalini Singh and the In Death series by JD Robb but none are specifically set in the holidays though sometimes the holidays do take place during the book and are mentioned.

junegirl63(at)gmail(dot)com

June M. said...

I have a lot of favorite series to read. From paranormals, historicals, contemps, cowboys, suspense, etc. Some have some stories set around various holidays but I can't think of any that center on one specific holiday.
manning_j2004 at yahoo dot com