Novel-ties: Christmas Countdown Blitz: Color Me Christmas

DAY 3 (I'm caught up!): Color My Christmas

Natalie-Nicole Bates is a book reviewer and author.
Her passions in life include books and hockey along with Victorian photography, Frozen Charlotte dolls, and antique poison bottles. Natalie contributes her uncharacteristic love of hockey to being born in Russia.
She currently resides in the UK where she is working on her next book and adding to her collection of 19th century post-mortem photos.

Q & A With The Author:

1. 1. What is the hardest thing you've ever done?

Had to cut toxic people out of my life. People I once cared deeply for.

2. Now that we've gotten to know each other, tell me a story. It can be long or short. From your childhood or last week. Funny, sad, or somewhere in between. Just make sure it's yours. What's your story?

A few months ago, I was walking through a church cemetery. The majority of the graves are from the eighteenth century. A lot of the epitaphs are no longer readable due to age and the weather. On the side of the church and against the wall, I found a beautiful gravestone for a woman named Hannah. There is an almost perfectly readable epitaph that describes her as twenty-seven years old, and leaving behind her beloved husband and new baby. As lovely as it is, there is something so sad about it as well. She’s all alone. There are no relatives buried near her. It was like she was loved, and then her family moved on, and she is now forgotten. I visit her grave every time I’m in the area and leave her a crystal gemstone that I bury near the gravestone.

After an unfortunate incident, Dr. Timothy Martin’s career as a surgeon is in tatters. Unable to cope with the changes in his life, his mother insists he visit Meggie Marie, a woman she says can perform miracles with her alternative therapy.

Timothy is reluctant, but maybe Meggie is his last chance to heal.

When he sees Meggie, he is intrigued by the eccentric woman with vibrant red hair, who wears tie-dye and flower headbands. When he gets to know her, she becomes something else to him – hope, joy, and maybe even love.

But is Meggie for real, or is she simply providing him with her special brand of therapy?

With Christmas just around the corner, has Timothy found his Christmas miracle, or is Meggie’s motive something darker waiting to be discovered?