by Anne Gracie
Anne here, interviewing Mary Jo Putney about her delicious new Christmas story, which came out last week. A Yuletide Kiss, an anthology written with Madeline Hunter and Sabrina Jeffries, brings together three couples caught out by a snowstorm and stuck at the White Rose Inn in the days leading up to Christmas.
Anne: Mary Jo, you've written linked stories before with other authors — The Last Chance Christmas Ball comes to mind — but this was only with two other authors, instead of eight. How did you work to make the stories intersect? Were there any difficulties?
Mary Jo: Anne, we were both part of the Word Wench linked story anthology, so you know that it's real work! In LCCB, we had eight authors contributing, but they varied greatly in how much the stories connected. (Susan King's Scots got snowed in and never made it to the ball at all. <G>)
For A Yuletide Kiss, there were only three of us, so fewer people, but our characters were all snowed into the same inn, so there had to be interactions. We worked out the physical layout of the inn with floor plans, room assignments, and even what was in the pantries. We also chose a location north of London that suited all our stranded characters. We talked about shared events like meals so our characters could participate without stepping on each other's toes. We exchanged a LOT of emails!
After we sent our stories to our intrepid editor, Alicia Condon, she went through them very carefully and noted all the inconsistencies so we could fix them. She did a great job, too, as she also did on LCCB.
Anne: In your story, When Strangers Meet, your couple aren't quite strangers, are they? It's a fun premise. So, how did they really meet?
Mary Jo: Here's an excerpt that explains the premise. This bit starts just after Daniel and his sidekick, Rob Matthews, have made it safely into the White Rose.
Once they stepped inside, they took off coats, hats, and scarves, shaking off the snow before hanging their garments on pegs. "Time to find the mistress of the house." Daniel stepped into the narrow passage that ran through the house, and was immediately drawn into the kitchen on the left. It was warm and well lit and there was a pleasant scent of soup in the air.
A petite, dark haired young woman glanced up from the pot she was stirring. "I'm Alice, sir. Are you looking for lodging?"
"That we are. I'm Faringdon and this is Matthews. Do you have space for two more guests?"
"Aye, though we're close to full up, but we have a good sized room with two beds." Alice added a handful of dried herbs to the soup. "I'll check you in and take you to your rooms in a few minutes, when I've finished seasoning this soup. There's tea if you want it while you wait."
She nodded toward the table on the left. A large teapot was warmed by a knit blue cozy and several mugs, sugar, and a cream pot sat beside it.
A young lady sat at the end of the table clasping a mug of tea in both hands for warmth. She was well dressed, if somewhat bedraggled, and Daniel guessed that she was the passenger from the carriage. She was a striking young woman, though. Somewhere in her early to mid-twenties, with rich auburn hair, and a face that was rather more than pretty.
She glanced up with a friendly smile, one refugee from the storm greeting two more. Then she stared at him, her face shocked.
After a long moment, she clattered her mug onto the table and leaped to her feet. "YOUUU!!!!" she spat out, her hazel eyes golden with rage. "Daniel Faringdon, yes?"
He blinked, equally distracted by her rage and her very fine figure. "I am. Do I know you?"
If she'd been a cat, her tail would have been lashing. "Have you forgotten that you married me seven years ago in Bombay?"
Daniel felt the blood drain from his face as he stared at the furious Kate Macleod and splintered fragments of that chaotic night blazed to life. A slim young girl with red hair and an Indian shawl wrapped tightly around her, terrified and desperately trying not to show it. A passionate need on his part to save her from a horrible fate.
Now the past had come to stunning life. He drew a deep breath. "We need to talk."
Anne: I do enjoy it when stories set in the UK also have roots in other parts of the world. I particularly liked Daniel, your hero. He's come a long way, in more ways than one. Tell us about Daniel.
Mary Jo: Daniel was a rather unruly younger son of an aristocratic family, so he was sent out to India where he became an officer in the Indian Army. He was a good officer, but he got into trouble there as well and was cashiered. He was at a low point in his life and trying to escape into a bottle when he met Kate, a young and terrified girl in need of rescuing.
Unable to turn away, he spends all his money to buy her freedom. After taking her to a respected local merchant who will see that she is safely returned to England, Daniel realizes that it's time to sober up and fix his life. And he does.
Anne: Your heroine, Kate, is unusual in that she's involved in business (rather than being a lady of leisure) and this plays a real part in her story. Tell us about Kate.
Mary Jo: Kate's mother came from a prosperous Scottish merchant family. Her maternal grandparents welcomed her into their home when she arrived back in London. Since Scots believe in independent women and Kate was interested in the business, she was taken into the firm and became a valued member of the London branch of the company. At the time of the story, she's being courted by a nice young man from a similar merchant family.
Anne: I liked that with a sudden unplanned influx of guests into a small country inn that was actually closed, the guests had to muck in and help with cooking and supplies— even hunting for food. What did you enjoy most about writing this story?
Mary Jo: It was fun seeing the characters make the best of their circumstances. They were a mixed bag of commoners and aristocrats, but because they all wanted to eat, they "showed willing" as the English like to say. Some were more useful than others. <G>
Anne: I was delighted to meet the literary Princess Flufferbella, a half grown cat buried in snow that our hero and heroine rescued. She's based on your own dear Flufferbella, I know. So tell us about how you met the real Flufferbella.
Mary Jo: There is a similarity between the fictional Flufferbella and my own sweet cat. Both were young orphans found in winter weather, their origins never to be known. One cold January night, my hungry and bedraggled Flufferbella made her way into the backyard of a woman who runs a cat rescue group, which shows just what a smart girl she is! She had no collar, no microchip, and wasn’t spayed. The cat rescue group took care of all that and put her in the adoption cage in the cat hospital I take my guys to. I took one look into Flufferbella's hypnotic green eyes and I was doomed! She's a great cat, very friendly and charming.
There's another cat in the story, a fine tabby named Ivan who belongs to Jenna, the proprietor. He's a doppelganger for the real Ivan, who lives with Madeline Hunter. If one cat is good, aren't two better?
Anne: Will you be giving away a copy of A Yuletide Kiss to a blog reader who comments before midnight Friday?
Mary Jo: Yes, I'll send a print copy anywhere in the world, or a Kindle version to a reader in the US. Here's a question to reply to:
We Word Wenches love writing Christmas stories! Do you enjoy Christmas stories? What do you like most about them?