Gentle readers, I am delighted to present to you the cover of my novel, designed by the talented John Herreid!
Jill O’Leary’s December has all the hallmarks of a feel-good holiday special. She’s a successful Los Angeles career woman summoned home to small town Ohio to save the family business. There, she’ll have to navigate a White Elephant gift exchange, decorate the tree, and meet not one but two tall dark handsome strangers.
But it will take a miracle to make this Christmas merry and bright. Jill’s baggage is waiting for her at home: Regina, the demanding mother she hasn’t talked to since her father’s funeral four months ago; Reagan and Del, her sisters with their own agendas; Garrett French, a local real-estate mogul trying to snap up her family’s inn; and Heath Albany, the married ex-boyfriend who’s suspiciously eager to reconcile with her.
Jill is determined to get in, fix the family finances by herself, and get back to the big city as soon as possible. But keeping her mother from turning Christmas into a tragedy proves more drama than she can handle on her own. It’s going to take her conniving sisters, the division of an empire, sudden blindness, a journey through a pitiless storm, and an unlikely hero to give this tragicomic tale a happy ending.
When you cross a conventional Christmas plot with Shakespeare’s King Lear, you get Unstable Felicity.
Hodge's lively novel tightly intertwines tragedy and comedy, leaving her protagonist and her readers grateful. --Leah Libresco Sargeant, Author, Building the Benedict Option
Who would think of combining Shakespeare's King Lear with a heartwarming Christmas tale? Add in a salute to Bollywood, and you have this vivid, insightful story that asks if you can ever go home again. --Sherwood Smith, Author, Crown Duel
Glowing with humor, insight, and the spirit of the season. --Rosamund Hodge, New York Times Best-Selling Author, Cruel Beauty
Many of you followed along with this story when I was posting it as a NaNo titled Christmas in Luxembourg. I've cleaned it up, fleshed it out, and made it into a compact volume suitable for tucking into a stocking, and you may purchase it as a paperback, ebook, or audiobook on November 1.
Or, for our friendly readers: sometime in the next week we'll be offering the ebook for $0.99 for a 24-hour period, to those who (on the honor system) would be willing to write an Amazon review. One thing we've learned about self-publishing: a book needs to have at least ten reviews to be at all viable on Amazon. Fortunately, we have more than ten friendly and eloquent readers, so I know this is a hurdle we'll jump quickly.
We here at chez Darwin have had immense, if exhausting, fun with this whole process so far. If we have even a modicum of success, we'll try it again next year with Strange Plots, and next time we'll give ourselves more than a five-month production window. Until then, enjoy a little Unstable Felicity!
2 comments:
I loved this one! I'd definitely buy a copy and write a review for it. :) Also, is there any chance of seeing the plantation story (name escapes me at midnight) in print? It might be my favorite!
Thanks, Sarah! The plantation/Mansfield Park book is Stillwater, and I love it too. Alas, agents haven't been as interested (though I've tried!), so one day we may end up publishing that one ourselves as well.
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