The Priceless Gift

My short story "The Priceless Gift" was released in November 2007 through The Wild Rose Press. It started out a few years ago as a really bad erotica. I mean, really bad...not 'bad' as in "wow, you bad boy," but as bad in not good. When I reread it, I was shocked at how really bad it was.

So, when Skhye told me TWRP was still looking for 'western' Christmas stories last August, we started brainstorming. Unfortunately, we were thinkg "Old West" not comtemporary West. That mistake only lasted a couple of days, when I figured I'd better check out the "Yellow Rose Line" at TWRP. I called Skhye and told her, "Um, that wagon train story I've been thinking about--it won't work."

Then I remembered the really bad erotica. I loved the first line of that story:

Gavin Holloway was a leg man and the legs standing beside the information desk had more than his attention on alert.

I did change the location of the story (from Houston TX to Montana) and the time of the year (to Christmas) and it's not an erotica, though it is very sensual. I set about writing a short story and did it in 4 days. I sent it in on a Tuesday, was told I'd hear something (yes or no) in a couple of weeks, then on Thursday (yep, two days later and during the worst flooding I've seen in my neighborhood since we moved here 7 years ago) I got the 'call' via e-mail. My editor loved the story and wanted to contract it.

Here's the blurb:

"The last thing Christina Scott expects Santa to bring her is a sexy—and very familiar—cowboy. Gavin Holloway’s just as shocked to discover she’s the woman he’s sent to pick up from the airport for a Christmas visit with her brother. They'd spent one hot week together months ago—a week where they both left their identities and individual problems behind. Neither ever expected a reunion.

Little do they know, Santa's elf has more than coal up his sleeve. Ho ho ho and a badgering we'll go before reindeer two-step on their rooftop and deliver THE PRICELESS GIFT that will leave their snowy days sizzling."

Today, I'll be talking about "The Priceless Gift."

-Anna Kathryn

To buy it:

http://www.thewildrosepress.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=635&zenid=2e112d41a2034b6b0ea6edde158d4817