December | 2014 | Anneli's Place

Are you like me when it comes to January? Do you look forward to productive hours doing what you really want, but can’t find the time for right now?

I don’t go in for New Year’s Resolutions much. For me, making resolutions is a recipe for failure. For January, I would rather plan and organize and chisel away at my favourite jobs, one of which is writing.

With Christmas looming and all the festivities taking over my life, I’ve had to put some things on hold. I’m desperate to get back to my writing, but social events take precedence. Christmas is wonderful, but when January comes, and all the hullabaloo is over, I’ll sit down at my computer knowing I have hours of uninterrupted time ahead of me, and I’ll smile. The words will come racing out onto the monitor. They’ll jump into chapter formation, and smile back at me when I reread. Yes! This is what I’ve been missing.

December: Family time, friends visiting, Christmas celebrations.

January: Quiet time, thinking time, writing time. TIME is the key! Having time to write is precious. I can’t wait to get busy at the keyboard again.

A Fairy Tale in New York… involving snow and a stranded rock star. How extraordinary. The rock industry is hardly the stuff of fairy tales, or is it?

Well. As far as I’m concerned, Christmas, rock, music, and fairy tales go together perfectly.

Fairy Tale in New York is my version of the perfect Christmas story, and I really went all out on the happiness factor. Everything gets kicked off with an epic snowstorm—and I mean epic, of the ground-all-planes-and-halt-all-transport variety. Obviously there’s romance, because I’m a hopeless romantic. And true to form, there’s a rock musician because you know how much I love my golden-voiced bad boys. Honestly, trust me, it’s a winner!

But there’s more to this story than just good cheer and fluff (yes, fluff, it is a Christmas book after all!). I kind of sneaked in a message of personal growth and caring for others. Because that’s what Christmas is all about, first and foremost. Presents are conspicuous in this book only by their near-complete absence, but the characters still have a fabulous time.

And why New York? I’m asked. Why not London, or anywhere else in England?

I wanted to take my characters somewhere different. New York City was on Jude and Carrie’s wish list I have to confess that this is in part because ‘Fairytale of New York’ by The Pogues is one of Carrie’s favourite Christmas rock tunes. So why not make their dream come true? After all, granting and fulfilling wishes for one’s characters is one of the perks of being an author-slash-creator. So between us, Carrie, Jude, and I had a lot of fun exploring New York in the snow and discovering some of the differences between an American Christmas and a British one.

In fact, the connection with The Pogues song inspired a whole raft of Christmas-rock-tune related chapter titles, so I invite you to go and work out my playlist. Plus you can have fun playing spot-the-movie-reference bingo—I told you this is an all-out, all-round uninhibited Christmas fun story!

Here’s wishing you all a wonderful Christmas time. I’d love to hear what you think about my Fairy Tale!

Fairy Tale in New York

New York. A restaurant near Park Avenue. It’s early evening, and dusk is falling. So is the snow. Jude and Carrie are only killing time while they wait for their flight to London. They don’t know yet that their life will never be the same.

When rock star Jude gets stranded in New York with his family on Christmas Eve, he has no idea that he is setting in motion a chain of events that will turn their Christmas into the most magical one yet…

No good deed goes unpunished, or so it seems to Jude and Carrie on the morning of the twenty-fourth of December. The previous day, they gave up their London-bound flights to someone in crisis. And now, a spectacular whiteout is grounding all planes, and Jude, Carrie, and baby Maya are stuck far from home.

Tired, hungry, and just a little panicked, Jude loads his family into a cab and returns to their hotel. But there’s no room at the inn, and not even a platinum credit card will make a difference. Snow is falling heavily, and the family is facing a very bleak night indeed.

How do you celebrate Christmas with no place to stay, no food, and no presents? Join Jude, Carrie, Maya and a cast of colourful characters in this fairy tale story of Yuletide in New York.

Fairy Tale in New York is now available in Kindle and paperback editions from all Amazon domains, including: Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

About Nicky Wells: Romance that Rocks Your World!

Ultimate rock chick author Nicky Wells writes romance with rock stars—because there’s no better romantic hero than a golden-voiced bad boy with a secret soft heart and a magical stage presence!

Nicky’s books offer glitzy, glamorous romance with rock stars—imagine Bridget Jones ROCKS Notting Hill! If you’ve ever had a crush on any kind of celebrity, you’ll connect with Nicky’s heroes and their leading ladies.

Born in Germany, Nicky moved to the United Kingdom in 1993 and currently lives in Lincoln with her husband and their two boys. Nicky loves listening to rock music, dancing, and eating lobsters. When she’s not writing, she’s a wife, mother, occasional knitter, and regular contributor at Siren 107.3 FM with her own monthly show. Rock on!

Nicky’s books: Sophie’s Turn | Sophie’s Run | Sophie’s Encore | Spirits of Christmas

| Fallen for Rock | Fairy Tale in New York

Did you know? There’s a single out now by Nicky’s fictional rock band Tuscq come to life! “Love Me Better” is available for download from Amazon, iTunes and many other places.