Christmas Story Cover Reveal & Giveaway!

04/12/2015 /

HERE IT IS!!!!!!

I’ve kept this secret for so long, it’s almost killed me!  But it’s finally here. My 2015 Christmas story cover for the world to see!!  (I’m so excited it’s ridiculous)

ReddirtheartChristmas1500

That’s right, folks. We’re off to the Outback for Christmas this year!!  I can’t tell you how much I loved visiting these boys again.  I found the cover images and sent them to the fabulous Sara York and almost cried when I saw how gorgeous the cover turned out. It suits the series PERFECTLY.

Now you know why every part of the cover had to be a secret! If I showed just one corner, or gave any hints, ya’ll would have guessed it straight away!

Okay, so the story details are:

It’s 14,500 word story, told in Charlie’s pov.  It will be .99c and available at all retail sites from December 11th. (Please know that B&N and Apple take longer than others) but I will post the pre-order links ASAP.

GIVEAWAY:

Leave a comment here and tell me your best Christmas memory. Enter the draw for a copy of Red Dirt Christmas. The giveaway closes on 11th December at 9am EST.

BLURB:

Travis had been here at Sutton Station for just over a year. We were technically engaged, not that we’d told anyone. He was happy just knowin’  I’d said yes, and I had some head-clearin’ stuff to work through. Knowing I was good enough for Trav was one thing, but knowing if I was good enough to be a husband and father was somethin’ else entirely.

Life at Sutton Station had never been better. Business was strong, Trudy and Bacon’s little baby, Gracie, was a few weeks old now and as cute as a button, Ma’s health was good, and my relationship with Laura and Sam was in a pretty good place. And Travis? Well, life with him was still all kinds of perfect.

But, to Travis’s dismay, Christmas at the Station was just another day. Another day of getting up before the sun, feeding animals, fixin’ what needed fixin’, and checking water troughs all while tryin’ to keep out of the blistering heat.

And this year weren’t much different. Only that it was Travis’s first Sutton Station Christmas. The fact we didn’t go all out with decorations and celebrations baffled him, and if I was bein’ truthful, it disappointed him too.

Which was why I had to make it a special kind of Christmas…

<3

There are also some author notes at the beginning of the story, which I will post here for a heads up.

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:

This book uses Australian English spelling and grammar. There will be words like brumbies (wild horses) Macca’s (McDonald’s) and a serious lack of g’s on most ing words. There are also run-on hyphenated sentences. It’s just how Charlie speaks.

TIMELINE ACKNOWLEDGMENT:

Anyone familiar with the Red Dirt Heart series, will know it spans the seasons. In RDH1 when Travis arrives, it’s summer, RDH2 is autumn/winter, RDH3 is spring and RDH4, being Trav’s pov, is back to summer and spans another year. Christmas in Australia is in summer, so according to the actual timeline of the series, Travis’ first Christmas falls between RDH3 and RDH4, though it is not mentioned.

So, like a small snippet of something that didn’t technically happen, this Christmas story is of Travis’ first Christmas at Sutton Station, therefore falls between books 3 and 4. They’re not married, there’s no Milly.

A small reminder of where the storyline was up to… Travis has asked Charlie to marry him, but they’ve not told anyone yet. Trudy and Bacon have just had their first baby, Gracie, and Nugget still steals every scene he’s in.

Enjoy.

<3

Stay tuned for the pre-order links.

 

 

52 Comments

  • Dawn Gil

    04/12/2015 at 2:20 pm

    I’m about 8. Mom wrapped presents under the tree. One present just has the box lid wrapped so it’s easy to peek. I peeked. It was pajamas. I felt soooo guilty for peeking. I did end up surprised though because they were feet pajamas which I loved!

  • Amy Casey

    04/12/2015 at 2:24 pm

    My best is I was young we would go to my grandparents house. My Dad would sneak upstairs and dress up as Santa. He would stomp and Ho Ho Ho and ring jingle bells. Of course we were in shock and awe waiting. He would come down and we would sit on his lap telling our list. He would give us s small stocking with candy. He would leave (sneak down in the basement while we were occupied) when he came back we would excitedly tell him about Santa..Lol…never knowing it was him. It was one week before Christmas every year. I love those memories!!! My grandmother would sit on his lap, LOL, I miss her so much but the memories and pictures are great to have!!!

  • Jen CW

    04/12/2015 at 2:25 pm

    My best Christmas memories are of being a child at my grandmother’s house with all my cousins and extended family. There was a fire in the fireplace, Christmas cookies everywhere, and sledding down the huge hill by her house.

  • Amy Thorne

    04/12/2015 at 2:29 pm

    I love Christmas!! My best Christmas was when my mother in law gave me a family Christmas stocking. Until you marry into the family you have a generic one BUT once married you get a special knitted stocking made just for you !! 💖🎄

  • Emily Hansen

    04/12/2015 at 2:34 pm

    OMGosh, I am so beyond excited for this story!!! My favorite memories of Christmas have to be when I was little and we’d go to my Grandparents house. They lived on a lake and the frozen water and snow all around, it was perfect. As much as I love giving my children Christmas morning, those will always be my favorite memories.

  • gruvermom69

    04/12/2015 at 2:35 pm

    When I was young (grade school age), my mom, my brother, and I would occasionally go to Montana and visit my grandma and aunt. Grandma used to love to cook, she’d bake cookies, pies, and even made her own candy. I remember when Mom had taken us off sugar, Grandma made a whole table of sugar free treats just for us! I miss her!!!

  • Serena S.

    04/12/2015 at 2:38 pm

    My best Christmas memory was when I was 10 or so and we had dinner with the whole family (around 40 people, lol). After that lat year, my cousin got married and went to live to another city and he didn’t spend Christmas with us but with her wife’s family (we got New Year’s Eve). Time passed by and it happened with the rest of the younger ones, except for a few cousins and I, we are still young for marriage. 😉
    Love the cover <3 and thanks for the chance!

  • Morningstar Ashley

    04/12/2015 at 2:49 pm

    One of my favorite memories for Christmas was dinner at my
    Grandma’s! It was all of her 8 kids plus their kids. All of us kids, about 20+ alone in the dining room, playing an eating game. You had to eat the number of plates of food that equaled your age!!! It was so much fun even if most of the plates were made up of jello and deviled eggs lol.

  • Kp

    04/12/2015 at 2:50 pm

    My favorite Christmas memory was the year my brother surprised the family by coming home Chrisymas Eve. He was a marine and had been deployed for two years. Best present ever😄

  • Morningstar Ashley

    04/12/2015 at 2:54 pm

    My favorite Christmas memory was dinner at my grandma’s. It was her 8 kids plus all of their kids gathered together. There was about 20+ kids alone eating so we came up with a eating game. You had to eat the number of plates that equaled your age!!! I think I might’ve gotten to 13 plates lol even if they were mostly
    Deviled eggs and jello!

  • Silvia

    04/12/2015 at 3:00 pm

    My favorite Christmas memory was when I was 17 years old. It was the last Christmas I had my Dad all to myself. He was a single dad and each Chistmas he tried to compensate for my lack of a mother by spoiling me with his unique brand of fun! While the presents weren’t extravagant his attention was priceless! I knew this Christmas would be bittersweet because he started seeing a woman who he would later marry but he still kept this day for just us since I would be going to college the next year and who knows what the furure would bring! He was a wonderful cook and we would spend that Christmas Day in a gluttonous fog and ended up by dancing the polka late into the night, and no, we are not German, lol! My father remarried when I turned 18 so we never got to overstuff and dance the night away again but that “last” Christmas we had to ourselves is my fave!!

  • Stacy Gragg

    04/12/2015 at 3:14 pm

    Well, I’m Jewish so we celebrate eight wonderful days of Hanukkah. My all time favorite memories are when the entire family would get together for dinner and presents. We would be close to twenty people I was the youngest and my great-grandma would be the oldest. We would sit in the living room and pass out all the gifts then one by one we would open a gift, by the time it would come around to my Bubbie (great grandma) she would already have her gift open and as soon as it was the next person’s turn she would working on the next. We would laugh so much when we were a family altogether. I really miss that and the family that I have lost over the years.

  • Lisa G

    04/12/2015 at 4:35 pm

    I love the cover and can’t wait to read this. One of my most favorite series!

    My favorite Christmas was in England. My dad was stationed there after Vietnam and we stayed at a wonderful country estate – The Woodhall Hotel while waiting for our housing orders. Most memorable Christmas ever!

  • Kathy B

    04/12/2015 at 4:36 pm

    My best Christmas memory was getting engaged to my husband. Now my favorite is enjoying it through the eyes of my 5 year old son.

  • Jen reilley

    04/12/2015 at 4:57 pm

    Well, my best memory is that my mom would kate this cherry nut cake, only on Christmas, and my sister and I would fight over it. She passed away 2 yrs ago and dad attempted to make it for us which came out not too bad, couldn’t have been bad because we still fought over it

  • goentropo

    04/12/2015 at 6:22 pm

    I have a couple of memories but it’s the same theme of tricking my daughter at Christmas.

    For instance, there was the year I told her that I was hiding her little brother’s present under her bed and to not let him find it. On Christmas morning, I told her she could now go and get her present from its hiding place…under her bed….

    Then there was the time I bought her (as a teenager) a beautiful long satin dressing gown and I wrapped it up to feel hard and making all sorts of strange crinkling noises. Never in a thousand years did she guess ‘clothing’.

    Kids always go looking for presents and my two always got a stocking from ‘Santa’. They could open their stocking on Christmas morning and play with everything without mum and dad being there. Worked perfectly, mum and dad got a further hours sleep. Of course, when looking for her stocking this year (before Christmas morning) she found hers and her lil’ bros. Of course, everything in her stocking was individually wrapped so she couldn’t see what it was…..

    But the absolute very best memories was choosing and buying each of them, from their birth year onward, a special ornament. They each had their own box of ornaments to put on the tree and watching them re-examine each one every year we trimmed the tree, always gives me the warm fuzzies. One day, when they are married, they’ll get their special boxes sent to them to share with their own families and create their own families memories…

  • Claire Potterton

    04/12/2015 at 6:40 pm

    Since having my children, all my Christmas memories are the best memories. They still all pile on my bed on Christmas morning to open their stockings, then fight over who gets to hand out the presents under the tree. I think my absolute best Christmas memory is still to come…..the year that I get to stay asleep past 5am!!!!

  • Lisa

    04/12/2015 at 6:46 pm

    My Best Christmas Memory is when my mom took me clothes & shoes shopping weeks before Christmas! She wanted me to be the one to pick out some outfits for Christmas since I was a little picky! So, back then Contempo, Wet Seal, and Millers Outpost were all the rage, and I knew I had to have an outfit from Contempo!! So we bought a couple different outfits that I Loved and headed home! On the drive home she said to me ” you do understand that these are all going to be wrapped and under the tree, right? Your NOT getting to wear them until AFTER Christmas.” I was like, sure mom, of course, what else would I do with them?…….. So at home she had me help her wrap each outfit and the one from Contempo came with a snazzy Contempo Box. I put the outfit in, tapped it up and under the tree they went!!
    Well one night as my parents were asleep, I went and grabbed the Contempo bag/box gift and brought it to my room! I was going to do it!! I carefully took the outfit out, sealed the box/bag back up, and put it under the tree!! Well I hid the outfit in my backpack, changed into it at school, felt so happy, then after school walked home, changed, put it back and nobody was the wiser.. Right??
    Christmas morning, I’m looking for the Contemo bag, knowing it should be there, when my mom tells me “that’s what happens when you sneak at your gifts, and WEAR THEM TOO!! Your lucky you ONLY wore that one, or they all would have gone back!!”
    I NEVER peeked at another present again.. We die laughing now when we tell the story!!

  • Kim

    04/12/2015 at 6:57 pm

    When my eldest was born , close to Christmas , my sister brought a hallmark Christmas decoration with the year on it. She brought one for me every year till she passed, now I buy them for her daughter. Soon, 15 years later, our tree will only have these hallmark decoration.

  • ouremuk66

    04/12/2015 at 9:52 pm

    My best Christmas memory was way back in 1972 when I was very young and we lived in Saudi for my dad’s job. Celebrating had to be done behind closed doors and you couldn’t buy anything festive due to the strict Muslim laws.

    Came into the living room on Christmas morning to find my mum had made us a Christmas tree, and all the decorations and even the wrapping paper!

    And even better than that, we had a taped message on cassette from my grandparents back in England. I couldn’t tell you what presents I got that year but that wasn’t the point of the day 🙂

  • Cathy S

    04/12/2015 at 10:18 pm

    All my Christmasses, can’t pick a fav. All the traditions we started with our two girls that have grown each year and they are now taking to their own families and friends. I love that it’s a blazing 40 deg outside and we get cards covered in snow and watch snow themed Christmas movies and eat a hot dinner and pudding with brandy custard. It seems totally ridiculous in theory but it’s the way we do it on Oz and we ain’t not changing not for no one. (And, yes, I know that’s bad grammar) Merry Christmas folks.

  • Jenny B

    04/12/2015 at 10:38 pm

    That cover is amazing. Takes me straight into the Outback; red dirt, scrub and a large sapphire blue sky.
    My Christmas memories always involve family and food (cooking and eating), especially after my daughter was born. But resting afterward under an aircon vent with a good book is the part of Christmas I never miss.

  • Shirley Ann Speakman

    04/12/2015 at 11:59 pm

    My best Christmas has to be the ones when I was a child we would travel to my Aunt and Uncles house late at night and arrive for Christmas Eve they had four children and the house was usually in chaos. Christmas morning was so exciting waiting to get our Christmas presents great memories.

  • Robin T

    05/12/2015 at 12:31 am

    I am Jewish by birth so the first Christmas I spent with my now husband is definitely memorable. From tree trimming and cookie making, presents, food, food and more presents, I was exhausted. I think I fell asleep on his parents couch around 11am in front of everyone. I have gotten better over the years though

  • debby236

    05/12/2015 at 12:38 am

    I have many great memories but one that stands out is the time my cat climbed the tree. She got up to the top of the tree and everything came tumbling down. We had to tie up the tree that year.

  • Michele Koepfer

    05/12/2015 at 2:20 am

    My best Christmas was the last one I had with my dad before he passed. I remember getting a pair of roller skates that I have been asking for. Of course with snow you could not skate outside. So my dad spent most of the morning cleaning part of are basement just so I could skate.

  • Jenn Donald

    05/12/2015 at 3:22 am

    One of my favorite Christmas memories was leaving a note and cookies for Santa and coming out Christmas morning to see his ‘reply’ and there was always a ‘hoof print’ from Rudolph. It was made me so happy as a little kid! 🙂 Merry Christmas! 🙂

  • jenf27

    05/12/2015 at 3:22 am

    Love the cover! Can’t wait to read this story.

    My favorite Christmas memory is of the first Christmas my son was old enough to open presents. He had a bunch under the tree, but would open one and then crawl off to play with it. We had to coax him back to open the rest. Was the longest present unwrapping session ever. But I loved every minute!

  • Dee Schwark

    05/12/2015 at 4:16 am

    When we were young we didn’t have much but Mom always found a way to make it special by making popcorn for us to string wit cranberries. ..stuff like that. We were so proud of our work…it really is true…kids remember the time we invest in them more than what we buy them…she gave us an invaluable gift by doing that…we are better parents because of her! So that and my time with my 2 kids at each and every Christmas is my favourite!

  • maryd

    05/12/2015 at 6:33 am

    Wow what a Christmas treat can’t wait to read it.

    My best Christmas was when we were moving house in the new year. There were boxes everywhere and we couldn’t find where we packed any decorations (they were in a safe place and we still can’t find them) so we stacked boxes into a tree shape my son (11 at the time) covered them in green paper and drew the decorations on them. That year was special to me.

  • Nancy

    05/12/2015 at 9:16 am

    Oh my, after nearly 70 holiday seasons it is hard to pick just one. The Christmas Eves spent at my greatgrandmother’s are the ones I think about the most. Such a sweet little woman who didn’t speak much (later realized she just didn’t speak much English) but always had a smile and a hug for you. Ahh the food!! A true smorgasbord with smoked and pickled fish, pate, beef tongue and heart, black bread, butter, potato salad, eggs, big bowls of pickles, plain old turkey and ham and a whole table of desserts. Cakes and pies and cookies galore but my favorite was a grape pudding(don’t remember the Danish name). Wish I had some of her recipes *sigh*. After dinner there would be the sound of someone clomping down the stairs and there would be Santa in a long black overcoat, black boots and a black fedora over his white hair. He had a long white beard and carried a big lumpy bag. He knew all our names and had a gift for everyone in that big bag. I also remember the summer day my rotten cousins took me upstairs and showed me the beard and wig hidden in the window seat.

  • Ree Dee

    05/12/2015 at 11:18 am

    My best Christmas memory is a trip my kids and I took to Hawaii! We spent the day at the beach, had shaved Ice and just had a wonderful time. Different that normal but memorable!

  • Trix

    05/12/2015 at 12:05 pm

    In 2006, I remember sitting in my nieces’ room on Christmas Eve, wearing the new San Jose Sharks hockey jersey I’d just gotten and telling them about Steve Martin in the movie THE JERK. We were all giggly. I saw my brother (their dad) peek in, smile, and get a little misty.

  • waxapplelover

    05/12/2015 at 1:26 pm

    My favorite memory is the year we went out of town not realizing that nothing would be open. We ended up eating at the only open restaurant we could find and had the best time!

  • H.B.

    05/12/2015 at 4:00 pm

    The first several years of my life my family didn’t celebrate Christmas, it just wasn’t a part of our culture. The first one happened after my sister went away for College. She came back for winter break and along with her came decorations and presents. She also introduced some new foods. It was fun.

  • AngieAxox

    05/12/2015 at 4:14 pm

    My best Christmas memory would have to be nearly 19 years ago when my daughter was born at 12:15 am Christmas morning 1996. Best Xmas present ever. 😘

  • AvidReadr

    05/12/2015 at 4:32 pm

    I’m Jewish and one of my best memories is every year, one of my gifts would be three Nancy Drew books. I loved those books and would start reading them immediately.

  • flutterfli

    05/12/2015 at 5:44 pm

    Christmas has always been my favorite holiday. The first Christmas that comes to mind is the year my daughter received her first cell phone. We were pretty sly. My ex handed her “his” phone and I called it, told her Merry Christmas and that the phone was hers. She jumped out of the car and did a happy dance.

  • Nikki

    05/12/2015 at 9:15 pm

    My best Christmas memory was going into labour with my eldest girl even though she eventually kept me waiting until boxing day (December 26th – I’m British) before joining the world.

  • Rachel C

    06/12/2015 at 4:39 am

    My favorite Christmas memories are visiting my grandparents during the holiday. They lived in a wooded forest, and in the winter it would turn into a snow wonderland. I would ski, sled, and build huge snow forts. It was magical, and I treasure those memories.

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