A novella I wrote several years ago is being rereleased in September 2019.
“The Gold Rush Christmas” is part of Treasured Christmas Brides.
I’m pleased to see it again. “The Gold Rush Christmas” was my favorite and most memorable novella to write.
What’s it like to write a novella?
Novellas are popular because they’re short–the stories I wrote were 1500-20,00 words in length.
They’re basically short stories but in the case of the novellas I wrote, they included romance and aspects of American history over a longer period of time than usually covered in a short story.
As with any interesting tale, they encompass emotion, action, and insight.
At least that’s what I strove to include.
It also needed to make sense and resolve in a satisfying way.
Here’s an example of the plot diagram I did for “The Gold Rush Christmas.”
Blocking it out like that was the only way to make sure I included a full and rich story in 20,000 words!
Plotting an authentic story
Given that I wrote in the inspirational historical romance genre, I felt a responsibility to put together an authentic story.
That meant I did plenty of research to make sure my tales were historically accurate.
I’m a stickler in that arena.
Because we’d lived in the Seattle area and taken a three-week camping trip to Alaska, I was familiar with the drama of the 1897 gold rush.
I took my children to visit both the Seattle Alaskan Gold Rush Museum and the Alaskan half of the museum.
We took a four-day ferry ride from Puget Sound to Skagway, Alaska. to accomplish that end.
Upon leaving the ship (at 2 am!) in Skagway–the site of my story’s drama–we spent the night in a former brothel.
“Why are the bathtubs so big?” The nine-year-old asked.
“Why are their mirrors everywhere?” My ten-year-old godson asked.
We shrugged.
Out in the wilderness, the six guys I camped with panned for gold while I read stories about the era.
All this, however, took place long before I wrote “The Gold Rush Christmas,” so I had to reread everything!
Two-thirds of the way into the writing, I found a fascinating historical detail begging to be included.
So, I rewrote, reorganized and by editing every word, managed to squeeze in a fascinating tale of the 1897 Skagway prostitutes.
I’m still shaking my head!
What makes a novella inspirational?
To get romance, historical accuracy and inspiration into one novella is a lot for 20,000 words!
And yet, properly honed, inspiration should be organic to a story.
It involves your characters and their dreams.
(Alaskan Historical Society)
“The Gold Rush Christmas,” tells the story of a pair of twins and the boy next door–who knows he’s in love with the girl half of the twins.
Actually, all three know.
But Miles wants to prove himself to Samantha and his God.
He learns to takes risks within his character.
Miles confronts people he never would have approached and for that experience learns an important spiritual lesson.
At the same time, Peter and Samantha seek their father.
They didn’t realize they were also looking to find themselves as individuals no longer linked to their twin.
And when the “three musketeers,” finally track down the man, everything turns around.
How?
You’ll have to read “The Gold Rush Christmas” to find out.
And, hopefully, be inspired along the way with this adventurous novella.
My thoughts seven years after writing
I still love this story.
The interaction between the characters makes me laugh.
I remember feeling the way Samantha did about her overbearing brother.
Loving him, yes, but exasperated!
And I love how the Christmas totem pole wraps it all up.
I’m so pleased to see “The Gold Rush Christmas,” back in print.
Thanks, Barbour Publishing, for the Treasured Christmas Brides Collection.
(“The Gold Rush Christmas” also appeared in A Pioneer Christmas Collection.)
Treasured Christmas 
Pioneer Christmas
Tweetables
An author reflects on her favorite novella–and why she still loves it. Click to Tweet
The lengths a writer will go to tell an authentic inspirational and historical story. Click to Tweet
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