A Pioneer Christmas: Reprise 2015

Barbour Publishing has just rereleased A Pioneer Christmas Collection, two years after it was first published.

Now’s your chance to get and enjoy a copy if you missed it the first time around!

As one of the nine authors, I’m pleased to see the  book again–full of fine stories that can entertain and give readers a gift of their own as Christmas approaches.

(I know, but it’s sooner than you think!)

It’s a beautiful book, but it’s also a rich read. It appeared on several best-sellers lists in the winter of 2013-14, and it holds up well this year.

We think A Pioneer Christmas Collection is a special treat. I asked several of my co-writers to explain why.

Lauraine Snelling, who wrote  The Cowboy’s Angel, reflected on the basic qualities:

“A Pioneer Christmas is different from other Christmas novellas because it is set in differing time and places . . . In addition, there is an element of the reality of living in all of these differing times and places added by details as basic as the houses the characters live in. Some are in teepees, some cabins, some  sod houses, all contributing their owns set of problems.”

The stories range over 120 years of American history, beginning with Shannon McNear’s RITA Award finalist Defending Truth, set during the  American Revolution, all the way to Michelle Ule’s  The Gold Rush Christmas--which took place in 1897  Skagway, Alaska.

“What makes this collection great is the heart-warming stories of love and Christmas,” said Cynthia Hickey, author of  A Christmas Castle.

In  A Pioneer Christmas, several writers tweaked the genre for a different angle on pioneer romance. I found them delightfully satisfying and a bit bemusing, wondering more than once, “how is this one going to end?”

The stories are inspirational romances, easily read in about an hour. They’re not your average romance, however, in that a third of the stories reveal unusual depictions of pioneer marriages. The romance is young and passionate, but also consummated.

So, where’s the romance in that?

I’m not giving away any spoilers . . .

It’s helpful to remember life on the prairie was difficult and spouses frequently died prematurely. Marriages sometimes had to be made for convenience and “falling in love,” may not have been practical when stock needed tending.

Cynthia’s  A Christmas Castle is upfront about marital challenges between virtual strangers: her heroine is a mail order bride. Or, in this case, a mail order widow upon arrival in a small Arizona ranch town riven with controversy.

Without ever laying eyes on her husband, the new wife/widow takes to her inheritance with dash and aplomb, not to mention instant motherhood. She displays the deering-do necessary to survive, particularly when neighbors attempt to steal her late husband’s property.

Lauraine’s  The Cowboy Angel features an anxious pregnant woman whose husband is long overdue from town with the necessary supplies. What will happen to her out in that sod house property they’ve fought so hard to “own up” if he does not return?

Her cheerful example in the face of tragedy, a determination not to give in to despair, resonated with me and I marveled at her strength.

Anna Urquhart’s  A Silent Night begins with a young couple fully in love but facing a voyage across the Atlantic to a new life. When her husband goes missing with blood left on the ground, the heroine scarcely has time to mourn before being forced to consider the unthinkable: marriage to an older neighbor.

How else is she to survive the winter  in a half-built cabin with a small child to protect?

Even Margaret Brownley’s story  A Pony Express Christmas features an unusual twist: the hero is rescued from certain death by the matter-of-fact heroine in an abandoned Pony Express station.

But what was that single woman doing out on the prairie to begin with?

Anna Urquart, MFA

Anna Urquhart, a newly minted  Master of Fine Arts, had this to say about the collection:

“What makes  A Pioneer Christmas Collection different is that every story is set “in transit”—the settings (especially the Christmas scenes) are at times precarious and at times surprising, and they show the reality for people of that time that Christmas wasn’t necessarily a day “set apart. Christmas was a day still filled with challenge and requiring courage. It was more about the people and finding contentment and joy amidst difficult circumstances.

“I love that all of the writers of this collection didn’t shy away from making things hard for their characters. I also love that they didn’t shy away from acknowledging that joy and hope is always possible, regardless of circumstances.”

If you’ve got a copy from 2013, why not join us in rereading these fine stories of love and courage?