Happy Saturday, friends! I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. Just in time for the Christmas reading season, we have Susan G. Mathis joining us to talk about her new Christmas book! Be sure to leave a comment to get your name in the drawing for that!
Welcome, Susan! I hear you have a new Christmas book out called Christmas Charity. Can you tell us about it?
Yes, Christmas Charity is my first novella (short novel). It’s about Susan
Hawkins and Patrick O’Neill who find that an arranged marriage is much
harder than they think, especially when they immigrate from Wolfe
Island, Canada, to Cape Vincent, New York, in 1864, just a week after
they marry—with Patrick’s nine-year-old daughter, Lizzy, in tow. Can
twenty-three-year-old Susan Hawkins learn to love her
forty-nine-year-old husband and find charity for her angry stepdaughter?
She hopes so—and before Christmas comes.
How did you research your book?
My
cousins did lots of research on our ancestry, and I did extensive
research about the history and culture, the customs, and so much more. I
also enjoyed visiting Wolfe Island, Canada, and Cape Vincent, NY
several times, and have made friends in both places. This past August my
hubby and I spent two weeks enjoying the area, visiting Wolfe Island,
Pullman Island, Dark Island, Cape Vincent, Clayton, and Alex Bay. It has
become our annual pilgrimage from Colorado Springs to this island
paradise.
Tell us about the Thousand Islands, the setting for your novels.
The Thousand Islands is 1,864 islandsthat straddle the Canada–US border in the Saint Lawrence River as it emerges from the northeast corner of Lake Ontario. They stretch for about 50 miles downstream from Kingston, Ontario. The Canadian islands are in the province of Ontario and the U.S. islands in the state of New York.
During
the gilded age of the thousand islands (1874–1912) wealthy summer
residents built summer homes, castles and mansions, and the region
retains a historically important collection of vacation homes from this
time. Several grand hotels provided luxurious accommodations while
steamboats offered extensive tours among the islands.
Among
the lavish homes built during this time were several castles, some of
which remain as international landmarks. The region's first was built on
Pullman Island, the setting for my first novel that comes out in March.
"The Towers" on Dark Island, now called Singer Castle, is the setting for the novel I’m working on now.
Who is your main character?
Susan is the nine-year-old girl from my debut novel, The Fabric of Hope: An Irish Family Legacy.
Susan is all grown up now and enjoying teaching on Wolfe Island. But
when her parents betroth to a man twenty-six years her elder and the new
family moves to Cape Vincent, NY, just days after the wedding, life
gets tough, especially when she becomes an instant stepmother.
How much of yourself you write into your characters?
Christmas Charityis
loosely based on my family story—my great grandparents, Susan and
Patrick, although naughty little Lizzy is a creation of my imagination.
Ten-year-old Susan from my debut novel, The Fabric of Hope: An Irish Family Legacy,
is now twenty-three and unexpectedly marries Patrick, a forty-nine year
old widower. Not only is Patrick’s kind personality similar to my
husband’s, but also my family story is woven into the novella.
How do you choose your characters’ names?
The characters are the actual names of my ancestors, except Lizzy.
What's your next project?
Katelyn’s Choicereleases on March 15thwith Lighthouse Publishing, and it’s the first in the Thousand Islands Gilded Age series!
It’s the story of nineteen-year-old
Katelyn Kavanagh who leaves her family’s struggling farm to work on
Pullman Island for the famous George Pullman. There she finds herself
serving powerful men such as President Ulysses S. Grant, and Generals
Sherman and Sheridan—and falling in love with her best friend’s brother.
Katelyn gains popularity with some of her friends by spilling the
sensitive high society gossip she’s privy to. But when she overhears a
possibly damaging presidential conversation, she knows she can’t tell
anyone. She could lose her job—and endanger the president’s 1872
reelection—and jeopardize her relationship with the man of her dreams.
Still, the scandalous news just keeps begging to be told…
What are you working on now?
I’m
having a blast, writing book two in the Thousand Islands Gilded Age
series, this time about Singer Castle on Dark Island. I hope it’ll
release next summer, but I need to finish writing it first!
I’ve
been posting photos on Facebook that we took while at the castle this
past summer and asking friends to tell me about them. It’s been so much
fun and has given me so many great ideas. Friend me on Facebook and
let’s get connected!
How can we get your books?
They’re available in paperback and as e-books on Amazon and Barnes&Nobles. Here are the links: Christmas Charity and The Fabric of Hope.
Thank you so much for joining us today, Susan!
Readers, leave a comment for Susan to get your name in the drawing for Christmas Charity! Winner announced in the December 3rd edition of the Weekly Windup.
