Guest Authors,  Writer's moments

Author Spotlight: Welcome Anne Armistead!

November 29, 2023 /

One of the very best part of being an author is meeting other authors. Anne and I just met recently–we are both doing sprints through November with the amazing Bryn Donovan. Anne and I connected immediately in the short time we get to chat between sprints and I’m so delighted to introduce you to her today.

Anne Armistead earned her English literature degree from the University of Georgia and her MFA in Creative Writing from Spalding University and is a member of the Georgia Writers of Romance (GRW), Atlanta Writers Club (AWC), and Historical Novel Society (HNS).

The damaged hero wins her heart and the hearts of the heroines in Anne’s stories. Her novels include the historical paranormal Dangerous Conjurings, and historical fiction With Kisses from Cecile. Her sweet contemporary romance is A Christmas Cannoli Kiss. Her time travel romance A Tryst in Paris, Book One of The Carousel Time Traveler series, introduces Mirabelle Montgomery as a time traveler in 1900 Paris and Jacques Thibaut, a dangerously sexy French rogue who steals her heart.

When Anne’s not writing, she’s reading tales conjured by others and spoiling her two adorable grandsons. She also participates monthly in walks for charities she supports, watches BBC television, and serves on the advisory board for The Feeney Legacy Project, FLP, a non-profit advocating for bystanders to take immediate action when someone goes into cardiac arrest. Call 911 and start CPR. Be someone’s second chance. The power is in your hands.

Anne, welcome to the blog; the floor is yours!

Thanks Nan! It’s no secret from anyone who knows me: I love Hallmark Christmas movies. When The Wild Rose Press put out a call for a Christmas romance that in some manner featured Christmas cookies in the story and in the title for their line of  A Christmas Cookie Romances, I knew I must try my hand.

Something I had filed away as a great story idea came to mind. While planning her son’s wedding, my neighbor who was from Ohio introduced me to the Wedding Reception Cookie Table, a tradition that allows friends and family to show their love for the wedding couple through the labor of their baking. The idea is linked mainly to European immigrants of Catholic descent including the Italian, German, Irish, Slovak, and other Eastern European cultures. It is prominent in Catholic weddings in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Youngstown, Ohio.

Drawing on the idea of a Cookie Table, a story began forming for my Christmas Cookie Romance.  I would set my story in Pittsburgh around a Christmas time wedding. My main character promises to bake her late mother’s beloved cannoli cookies for her best friend’s Cookie Table. From there, my imagination ran loose, and A Christmas Cannoli Kiss was “baked.”

I chose Cannoli Cookies because my late, full-blooded Italian mother-in-law would often claim, “there’s nothing like a good cannoli.” I also loved the alliteration of Cannoli, Christmas, Kiss. Not being a baker, I researched if cannoli cookie recipes existed and found out, yes! The publisher required the recipe to be included in the published book, and it had to be the author’s original. I spent many hours in my kitchen taking a basic cannoli cookie recipe and tweaking it into my own.

I hope you enjoy reading A Christmas Cannoli Kiss and baking a batch of cannoli cookies for the holidays! Just for fun, here is a link to the book trailer!

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A Christmas Cannoli Kiss

cannoli book coverWhen Isabella decides to move back home to Pittsburgh, she doesn’t expect to meet her teen crush Nate on the flight home…or to find out that he has come back to turn the beloved neighborhood corner bakery into a parking deck. Can Isabella cook up a solution that will save the bakery and their romance in time for A Christmas Cannoli Kiss?

 

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