Pam Hillman’s first published novella, The Evergreen Bride part of The Twelve Brides of Christmas Collection, was pure joy to write.
When Pam saw the list of proposed titles for the series, she jumped on The Evergreen Bride as her title. “I knew immediately the story would be set in my home state of Mississippi, which is an evergreen state. We rarely have snow and even in the middle of winter, we still have a lot of greenery,” thus the heroine’s trip to see a white Christmas with her own eyes.
She chose her time period from local history:
“As more and more families settled in Mississippi in the mid-to-late 1800’s, it created a need for homes out of the most valuable resource available: miles and miles of virgin pine forests. Logging crews and sawmills sprang up all over the south as the need for lumber increased.”
Set near where she lives in those same piney woods, The Evergreen Bride tells the tale of a struggling sawmill owner who falls in love with a woman desiring a white Christmas in 1887. Will he get a chance to propose if she’s leaving for Illinois?
Pam learned a lot about Christmas.
Christmas celebrations have changed over the years, Pam noted.
“Christmas in the rural south in the late 1800’s wasn’t a lot of fluff and expensive presents. When families couldn’t afford to buy presents, they often made them. And many times, these handmade presents were treasured way beyond anything store- bought.”
You’ll have to read The Evergreen Bride to discover what gift the heroine received!
Most of Pam’s family live nearby, and the celebration begins at Thanksgiving and continues through New Year’s. The Evergreen Bride is close to Pam’s heart in several ways.
“I was raised about a mile from Sipsey Creek, and even though the characters, the Sipsey Creek school and church, and the exact location are fictional, I drew from the area even as I pictured it the way it was in 1887.” She laughed, “other than being separated by a little over one hundred years, a few more gadgets that make life easier,” she lives in the area where her story was set.
Her sequel, The Lumberjack’s Bride, fits right in.
“I was amazed at how easy this story [Evergreen Bride] was to write. And by the time readers have their hands on The Evergreen Bride, I’ll be writing The Lumberjack’s Bride, set in the same area featuring the heroine’s first cousin and a hunky itinerant lumberjack. I’m so excited to visit the characters in Sipsey Creek again and can’t wait for readers to meet Lucy and Eli.”
Like the other authors in this project, Pam enjoyed the writing camaraderie.
“The 12 Brides of Christmas Collection has been an amazing opportunity and working with Barbour and the other eleven authors so much fun. And then to be able to write a spin-off story of secondary characters for The 12 Brides of Summer Collection is like slicing into a cold watermelon that’s been chilling in the creek! It’s deliciously fun!”
You can purchase an ebook copy of The Evergreen Bride for only 99 cents here!
Who is Pam Hillman?
Award-winning author Pam Hillman writes inspirational fiction set in the turbulent times of the American West and the Gilded Age.
Her debut novel, Stealing Jake, was a finalist in the International Digital Awards and the 2013 EPIC eBook Awards.
Pam is the financial officer/assistant director of American Christian Fiction Writers. She lives with her family in Mississippi.
Pam blogs on the sixteenth of the month for Heroes, Heroines, and History.
For more about Pam, visit her webpage www.pamhillman.com
You can also find her on
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[…] The Evergreen Bride by Pam Hillman: Mississippian Annabelle Denson dreams of visiting cousins in Illinois and seeing a white Christmas. In the face of her excitement, Samuel Frazier hides his growing affection for her behind a quiet smile and a carpenter’s lathe. […]