It’s crunch time. Christmas is only one week away. Have you kicked up your Christmas reading? I know I have. Today we have a treat to finish off the Christmas Banquet. Ava Mallory’s cozy mystery series makes a stop in a small town at Christmas.
I am sad that today is the last time I will be asking this question. Tell us, Ava, why did you decide to set this installment of your series at Christmas?
I chose to add a Christmas story to my series because Christmastime is my favorite time of the year. As a mom to four children, I find Christmastime to be especially meaningful. Most of my marriage was spent living a nomad lifestyle as a military spouse. We’d often find ourselves living far from home base. For me, home is Spain, where my family is from. We made a trip yearly to Spain during the holidays and did nothing particularly exciting other than to be surrounded by family and doing the things that families do, like laughing, talking, eating and sometimes squabbling. Now, that two of my children are in college and beginning their new adult lives, trips back home will be different. I wanted to create a story that reminded me in some ways of the playful banter between those I love the most in the world and still spoke of the Christmas spirit and generosity of people. I wanted to see how my main character’s world played out during the holiday season and, hopefully, provide a few laughs along the way.
Tis the Sneezin
is the latest novella in my A Mercy Mares Cozy Mystery series. This series features a meddling traveling nurse as she takes on new and interesting job
assignments in small towns across America. Mercy, my main character, is too feisty for her own good. Her penchant for melodramatics and mayhem play out
town after town. She, along with those she calls her band of misfits, never veer too far from trouble. It follows them everywhere and Mercy takes it upon
herself to get involved.
In this installment of the series, Mercy is up to her eyeballs in donations for the town’s annual holiday celebration. Every nook and cranny of her house and all of her friend’s and neighbor’s homes are overflowing with gifts for ill children in her local hospital. It’s all she can do to keep trackof what is what and who is who.
On the night that she and her merry band of helpers are to deliver gifts, everything, including gifts she bought for her loves ones, simply disappear without a trace.
Now, Mercy has to find the thief before those who appointed her this year’s Mrs. Claus find out that they’re missing and dozens of children are left disappointed.
Enlisting the help of her reluctant loved ones, Mercy has a humdinger of a mystery to solve in a flash in order to save Christmas.
I adore Mercy! As a former hospice and dementia care nurse, I feel a special connection to Mercy and those she meets on her mystery adventures. There’s
nothing particularly amazing about her. Her strength comes in just how ordinary she is. That’s what I love about her! I wanted to create a character that
people could relate to and learn to love as much as I do. As an homage to many of the fantastic patients, doctors, and nurses I met over my 20+ years ‘in
the trenches’, I created side characters, who are just as spectacular as any ornery and lovable bunch would be.
The entire A Mercy Mares Cozy Mystery series is available on Amazon for Kindle Unlimited, here:
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I have a new release!
It is the final book in my Seasons of Faith series.
You might want to pick up Summer Storms, book 1 of the series while it is FREE!
Liwen Y. Ho works as a chauffeur and referee by day (also known as being a stay at home mom) and a writer by night. She penned her first children’s picture book, “A Rainbow of Nine Colors” in high school (available at Meegenius.com) and has published two novellas in the Taking Chances Series for grown-ups.
Unruly schoolchildren, three suitors, and too many things to do. When Ruth Brookings rejects one of the suitors, he refuses to accept no for an answer.
