Margaret Brownley always starts out with laughter:
“How many bullets have you taken out, Miss Langdon?”
“Yours was the fourth, or maybe the fifth.” She spoke in the same straightforward tone he’d already come to expect.
He stared at her. “That many?”
“Yes, and they weren’t all accidents.”
–The Nutcracker Bride (The Twelve Brides of Christmas)
Veteran author Margaret Brownley and I have participated in three Christmas novella collections together: The New York Times best-selling A Log Cabin Christmas Collection, last year’s best-selling A Pioneer Christmas Collection and this year’s The Twelve Brides of Christmas ebook collection. She’s a fun-loving woman who writes about the west and always makes me laugh. Click to Tweet
The ebook version of The Nutcracker Bride is available for sale at only 99 cents here!
The Nutcracker Bride started with an idea:
I kept envisioning a handsome stranger on a gorgeous black horse riding up to the heroine and shouting “Save it for me.” I had no idea what he wanted her to save but I was intrigued enough to keep digging.
You’ll have to read the book to find out. That’s what Margaret had to do–except in her case, she had to write it first.
“I never outline so I have no idea where a story is going or how it will end until the words appear on my screen. No one is more surprised by an ending than I am and the same holds true for The Nutcracker Bride. All twelve bride stories involve a special gift and I was especially surprised at what the hero gave my heroine.”
Margaret is partial to Texas Rangers, so you can guess what her hero did for a living, but her heroine was a little different.
“My heroine is caring for both an elderly grandfather and the stranger she shot. She’s clearly overwhelmed and maybe even a bit resentful. The Bible says a cheerful heart is good medicine but it’s a struggle for her.”
The story’s theme came out of that struggle.
The nutcracker title came from a ballet written by Peter Tchaikovsky for the Christmas season. Margaret has a small but impressive collections of nutcrackers she displays every Christmas. “Nutcrackers have a fascinating history, some of which I wrote about in my story.”
Margaret Brownley’s stories generally take place in the nineteenth century, and she’s always been fascinated by the similarities between that time period and ours today.
“During the 1800s banks failed and unemployment was high. Immigration, health care and education problems also added to the nation’s woes. If you think politics are bad now, take a look at what was going on back then. Today we’re losing jobs to robots; in the nineteenth century jobs were lost to the machine age.”
Even social media changes were afoot:
“Victorians had their tech challenges too with the advent of the telephone, electricity and automobiles. They even had an early form of social media called the telegram. With all these challenges it’s encouraging to know that our forefathers not only survived but thrived. That gives me hope for the future. I hope it does the same to readers.”
The Brownley family enjoys Christmas,”we always make a big fuss and celebrate the birth of Jesus with loving hearts, giving spirits and as many lights as will fit in and outside the house.”
The Nutcracker Bride, however, which required a far more modest celebration: “I wanted my heroine to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas in her own unique and meaningful way.”
Who is Margaret Brownley? Click to Tweet
Margaret Brownley has penned more than thirty novels. Her books have won numerous awards and she’s a former Romance Writers of American RITA® finalist. She’s also written for a TV soap. She’s currently working on a new series of mystery/romance novels. The first in the series Petticoat Detective will be published in December, 2014.
Margaret was a co-author (with Vickie McDonough and Michelle Ule) in last year’s best-selling A Pioneer Christmas Collection, along with Michelle Ule in the New York Times’ best-selling A Log Cabin Christmas Collection.
“Not bad for someone who flunked 8th grade English. Just don’t ask me to diagram a sentence,” she laughed.
For The Twelve Brides of Summer, Margaret is writing Dog Days of Summer Bride, set to release on August 10, 2015
Website address: www. margaret-brownley.com
You can also find Margaret at:
You can purchase a copy of The Nutcracker Bride here.
For those who prefer to read on paper rather than in pixels, The Nutcracker Bride is part of The Heartland Christmas, a collection sold in select Walmart stores .
Got them all?
[…] The Nutcracker Bride by Margaret Brownley: While gathering walnuts, someone throws a bag of money into Lucy Langdon’s wagon. Now Chad Prescott, a Texas ranger, is determined to recover the bag, but not before he is shot as a prowler. Waking up in a house full of German nutcrackers is rather disconcerting for this lawman, but not as troublesome as feeling his heart fall for the lovely Lucy. […]