Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Take Five and Meet Jill Haymaker And Her New Christmas Novella


Today I'm excited to bring you Jill Haymaker, who is a repeat guest, 
and has a brand new Christmas novella to tell us about. 
I love Christmas stories. Love them!!

Welcome to An Indie Adventure, Jill Haymaker. Tell us, what inspired you to write your book, Colorado Cowboy Christmas?


Hi, L.A., thanks for hosting me again, it's always wonderful to be here. I’ve always loved Christmas. It’s my favorite time of year and the best time for romance. I love my small fictional town of Peakview, Colorado so what better place to have a holiday romance? This is my first novella. I know how busy everyone is this time of year so I wanted to write a shorter story that people would have time to read.
 If you were not a writer, what vocation would you pursue?
Well, my “real” job is an attorney. I started writing to escape the nastiness and conflict that I have to deal with. Currently, I spend about 50% of my time writing and 50% practicing law. I hope for it to be 100% writing someday.

Do you prefer to read in the same genre you write in, or do you avoid reading that genre?  Why?

I write romance and that is what I read the majority of the time. I just love happily ever after. I see so much unhappiness in my day job, that I love to start a book knowing that everything is going to work out in the end whether I’m writing the story or reading it. We can’t have too much love in this world.

How do you create internal and external conflict in your characters?  I find conflict often the hardest to create when I start planning a book.

Conflict is always hard for me. I just want everyone to get along and be happy, but that doesn’t make for a very interesting story. I’m a pantser, so I try to find conflict as I go along. Being an introvert, and shying away from confrontation, I find it easier to create internal rather than external conflict.

If you could live during any era of history, which one would you choose?

If I had to choose an era other than today, I think I would choose the 1950’s. Life seemed simpler when I was a small child. Families had more time to spend just being together without the distractions of the digital age. We all knew our neighbors. Everyone took weekends off from work.


Give us a brief summary of Colorado Cowboy Christmas.
Cynthia Welch has made a name for herself as one of Chicago’s top divorce attorneys at the expense of her personal life. Burnt out, she heads to Peaktop Guest Ranch for a couple of months of solitude over the holidays.

AJ Coulter, a cowboy from Wyoming, has been a loner and a drifter ever since his divorce and his teenage daughters leaving for college. He finds a temporary job at Peaktop Ranch as the head wrangler.

When their paths cross, Cynthia begins to question her life in Chicago, and AJ struggles to find a way to keep her in Colorado. Can the spirit of Christmas bring these two people from very different worlds together and help them find their way to true love?



Buy Links: 
  
Bio: 
Jill Haymaker was born and raised in Indiana and Ohio. After high school, she attended Bowling Green State University before moving to Fort Collins, Colorado in 1975. Jill has made her home in Fort Collins ever since except for three years in the 1990’s when she left to attend law school at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Nebraska. She has practiced family law in Fort Collins for the past 20 years. She has three grown children, a son and two daughters. She also has three granddaughters.

Jill has always had a passion for writing. Colorado Sunset was her first full length romance novel her Peakview, Colorado series. The second through fourth books in the series, Breakfast for Two, Colorado Cabin in the Pines and Colorado Wrangler are also available at Amazon.com. Colorado Cowboy Christmas is her first Christmas Novella. She also has had several short stories published by Chicken Soup for the Soul, the most recent in the book The Joy of Less, on sale April 19, 2016.

When not practicing law or writing, Jill enjoys The Colorado mountains, horseback riding, gardening, long walks with her Shetland Sheepdog, Laddie, and spending time with her children and grandchildren. She enjoys their numerous sporting events. She is also an avid football fan and can be found on autumn weekends cheering on the Broncos, the CSU Rams, and the Huskers. She has a passion for working with high school youth- she is a youth group leader at her church, coaches a high school mock trial team and is a volunteer at cross country and track meets.


Find Jill:








9 comments:

  1. Thanks for having me, Leslie. I love Christmas stories and loved writing my first one :)?

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  2. Hi, Jill. I love writing Christmas stories as well, and unfortunately this will the first year in the past four years that I won't have a new one one out😩

    I'm glad you're here and sharing your new book.

    Hugs, L.A.

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  3. Hey Jill,

    Book sounds great! Christmas and love go together for sure. Does any of your conflict ever come from your real life legal cases? Or those parties in dispute? Sometimes you can't beat real life. Just wondering.

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  4. Brad, In this book I start with a courtroom scene that actually happened to me in real life :) Falls under the truth is stranger than fiction category. this book is the first time I've written about a lawyer, so I think it brings more real life experiences than my other books.

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  5. In Dare To Believe, I took the essence of a case my husband was working on and of course changed it to fit my needs, but had to work with him to make sure it was still "real" and not Perry Masonesque (whom I loved to watch). Then he helped with the abbreviated courtroom scene to make sure it was correct. So yes, life experiences definitely make it more real.

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  6. Hi Jill, I'm looking forward to reading the novella. Sounds like a fun story!

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  7. JIll, I don't know if I'll read the novella I appreciated reading your bio. I can identify with quite a bit of it except for the Huskers.

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  8. Jill, sounds like the kind of story that pulls at the heart. A perfect set up for Christmas. Hope it draws your readers into a joy-filled place as they read. Cheers

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