Welcome, Booklovers!
Winter has come to the Midwest, so no more deck days until spring. We'll be around the fireplace until then, and joined by Latte, my tortoise shell Siamese. So pull up a chair and join me in welcoming this week's guest writer, Augustina Van Hoven, with her featured book, The Christmas Kiss, a holiday time travel romance.
Good morning, Augustina. If I'm not mistaken, on a previous visit to the blog you said your coffee preference was chocolate mocha with a shot of caramel.
AVH: That's right.
Ally: While my magic pot prepares your drink, please tell readers about your background.
Bio:
Augustina Van Hoven was born in The Netherlands and currently resides in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and pets. She is an avid reader of romance, science fiction and fantasy. When she’s not writing she likes to work in her garden or in the winter months crochet and knit on her knitting machines.
Something unique/unusual that isn’t in my bio: “I immigrated to the United States from The Netherlands. While doing research on ships for my current WIP, I decided to research the ship I sailed on when we immigrated. I found out that a few years after I arrived here, Eddie and Alex Van Halen from the rock group Van Halen, immigrated to the USA on the same ship.”
Author Contacts:
Website: https://augustinavanhoven.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/augustinavhoven
FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/Augustina-Van-Hoven/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/augustinavhoven/
Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/author/augustinavanhoven
BookBub page: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/augustina-van-hoven
Newsletter sign up: https://augustinavanhoven.com/join-newsletter/
Augustina Van Hoven was born in The Netherlands and currently resides in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and pets. She is an avid reader of romance, science fiction and fantasy. When she’s not writing she likes to work in her garden or in the winter months crochet and knit on her knitting machines.
Something unique/unusual that isn’t in my bio: “I immigrated to the United States from The Netherlands. While doing research on ships for my current WIP, I decided to research the ship I sailed on when we immigrated. I found out that a few years after I arrived here, Eddie and Alex Van Halen from the rock group Van Halen, immigrated to the USA on the same ship.”
Author Contacts:
Website: https://augustinavanhoven.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/augustinavhoven
FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/Augustina-Van-Hoven/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/augustinavhoven/
Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/author/augustinavanhoven
BookBub page: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/augustina-van-hoven
Newsletter sign up: https://augustinavanhoven.com/join-newsletter/
INTERVIEW:
Ally: Who or what inspired your featured book?
AVH: I was watching the television show Downton Abby, and I wondered what it would be like to take a person from the early 1920’s and bring them forward to our time. The rest of the story developed from there.
Ally: Are people you know models for your book characters? In what way?
AVH: For some of my characters, that’s true. I usually don’t use the whole person, rather bits of their personality or appearance. I’ll take a person and make them the base for the character and add on the features, flaws and personality traits I need for the story.
Ally: Do you write from an outline?
AVH: I always spend time working out the story before I begin writing. I find I need a road map to help me get to where I want to go. My outlines are not very detailed, just the main things that need to happen in the chapter. I add in the details as I’m writing.
Ally: How many drafts (revision passes) do you do on a typical book before submission to your editor/publisher?
AVH: I generally do three passes before the story goes to my editor. Sometimes I discover I need to change a detail I wrote in an earlier chapter in order to make something else work later in the book. After I make that sort of change, I have to go back through the story to make sure it’s fixed in all the chapters where it appears.
Ally: What is your next writing project? Anticipated release date?
AVH: I’m currently working on a time travel novella. In this story, you’re introduced to The Honorable Henry Benedict Percival Darington, the third son of the Earl of Linferd. The year is 1803, and Henry is arriving in New York hoping to stay at the estate of a distant cousin. Something happens and he finds himself at the home of a woman in modern times with no clue about how he got there or how he can get home. The novella is scheduled for release in January 2022.
Ally: Which of the trivia questions did you choose?
AVH:
Ally: Who or what inspired your featured book?
AVH: I was watching the television show Downton Abby, and I wondered what it would be like to take a person from the early 1920’s and bring them forward to our time. The rest of the story developed from there.
Ally: Are people you know models for your book characters? In what way?
AVH: For some of my characters, that’s true. I usually don’t use the whole person, rather bits of their personality or appearance. I’ll take a person and make them the base for the character and add on the features, flaws and personality traits I need for the story.
Ally: Do you write from an outline?
AVH: I always spend time working out the story before I begin writing. I find I need a road map to help me get to where I want to go. My outlines are not very detailed, just the main things that need to happen in the chapter. I add in the details as I’m writing.
Ally: How many drafts (revision passes) do you do on a typical book before submission to your editor/publisher?
AVH: I generally do three passes before the story goes to my editor. Sometimes I discover I need to change a detail I wrote in an earlier chapter in order to make something else work later in the book. After I make that sort of change, I have to go back through the story to make sure it’s fixed in all the chapters where it appears.
Ally: What is your next writing project? Anticipated release date?
AVH: I’m currently working on a time travel novella. In this story, you’re introduced to The Honorable Henry Benedict Percival Darington, the third son of the Earl of Linferd. The year is 1803, and Henry is arriving in New York hoping to stay at the estate of a distant cousin. Something happens and he finds himself at the home of a woman in modern times with no clue about how he got there or how he can get home. The novella is scheduled for release in January 2022.
Ally: Which of the trivia questions did you choose?
AVH:
- an author (living or dead) you'd love to take to lunch: JRR Tolkien
- ebook or print? ebook
- What type of music do you prefer? Classic Rock
- favorite quote: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for a few good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke
- Your pets - type and names: Three cats, Zayden, Tyrion & Molly
The Christmas Kiss
Genre: Time travel romance
Heat rate: 1
What happens under the mistletoe…
When a sledding accident catapults governess Annabelle O’Sullivan ninety-four years into the future, she panics. She doesn’t know how to get back to 1925, and she doesn’t know how to survive in the twenty-first century. Annabelle must depend on the kindness of a stranger and his daughter, and she repays that kindness the only way she knows how: by making a home. The longer she stays, the less she wants to leave. But can she trust this stranger with her life?
Since the death of his wife, Daniel Wagner has shut down his heart to everyone except his daughter, Olivia. Other women—including some of his employees at the ski lodge he manages—have angled for his attention. But Daniel found avoidance easy, until he was forced to rescue an unconscious woman lying in a snowdrift by the side of the road. Although the stranger seems to have no past, Daniel soon finds himself thinking about a present—and a future—with her.
Purchase links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Kiss-Love-Through-Time-ebook/dp/B07XXHKKNW
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1133591279?ean=2940163689958
Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/id1480184864
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-christmas-kiss-3
Genre: Time travel romance
Heat rate: 1
What happens under the mistletoe…
When a sledding accident catapults governess Annabelle O’Sullivan ninety-four years into the future, she panics. She doesn’t know how to get back to 1925, and she doesn’t know how to survive in the twenty-first century. Annabelle must depend on the kindness of a stranger and his daughter, and she repays that kindness the only way she knows how: by making a home. The longer she stays, the less she wants to leave. But can she trust this stranger with her life?
Since the death of his wife, Daniel Wagner has shut down his heart to everyone except his daughter, Olivia. Other women—including some of his employees at the ski lodge he manages—have angled for his attention. But Daniel found avoidance easy, until he was forced to rescue an unconscious woman lying in a snowdrift by the side of the road. Although the stranger seems to have no past, Daniel soon finds himself thinking about a present—and a future—with her.
Purchase links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Kiss-Love-Through-Time-ebook/dp/B07XXHKKNW
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1133591279?ean=2940163689958
Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/id1480184864
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-christmas-kiss-3
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