It’s release day for my latest Christmas romcom novella, Girl in the Snow. Hooray! It’s two months till Christmas and the countdown is on. Do you have enough books for the holidays? You know you need more . . .
Book release day is a little odd for me as an Australian author, since we’re about 15 hours ahead of somewhere like New York. I essentially get two release days, with Australia and New Zealand first while the rest of the world is asleep! This exhausted author is madly trying to pre-schedule posts and drive teens around while drinking enough coffee to drain Brazil dry. But I’m so glad my newest little book baby is out in the world.
Today, release day number one, I thought I’d share an excerpt of this story for my lovely readers. I hope you enjoy it!
Excerpt – Girl in the Snow
Chapter One
Heathrow Airport, London, UK
Two days before Christmas
Deanna wandered through the airport terminal in a haze of confusion and unshed tears. She dragged two suitcases behind her and tried to blink her vision clear, as she ducked and weaved through groups of people queuing for check-in, security or milling around.
She’d found herself at Heathrow without a plan. This wouldn’t come as a complete shock to anyone who knew her. Deanna was a last-minute decision, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of girl. As a flight attendant, she was generally happy to go wherever the wind took her. But this was different. She had no clue what she was doing with the rest of the holidays, let alone the rest of her life, or where she was going to live it.
The long and the short of it was: she had to get away.
It was nearly Christmas, awfully late in the season for making plans. Still, she had to try. Staying in London all by herself, with the echoes of missing family, was too much to deal with. But where should she go?
She came to a stop, biting the inside of her cheek, and stared up at the flight information board scanning the list of upcoming departures. Her eyes caught on the latest update: New York. A flight departing in a couple of hours. That was an option…
The clock was ticking if she wanted to make it somewhere, anywhere, by Christmas. She no longer had to move to London, and Mermaid Airlines management, aka her soon-to-be ex-employer, could metaphorically go jump without a parachute.
Deanna’s manager hadn’t given her time off when she needed it, hadn’t listened when she explained her need to move to London, so now they could suck it. Their offer? Re-locate to the middle of nowhere. No, thank you. Okay, Hanoi wasn’t really in the middle of nowhere, but she didn’t want to live there.
Deanna had narrowed down her options to moving elsewhere in the UK or maybe heading back home to Australia. Her aunt in Sydney would put her up for a while, but the US was also a possibility. She had friends in New York, and some decisions to make.
Should she stay or should she go?
The old punk song by The Clash ran through her head as she tapped her foot in her platform sneakers.
Her gaze fixed on the flight information. New York. She could go to Winterbourne Lodge. It was only a few hours’ drive from the New York airports. She’d forgotten about the lodge, or maybe she’d blocked it from her mind. Now, she couldn’t shake the idea that she was supposed to go there.
Something about the idea of New York at Christmas rang a little bell in the back of her mind. Not staying in the city, but nearby, in the snow. Having a real white Christmas appealed to the little girl inside the woman. She wrapped her Burberry trench coat a little tighter around her waist . . .
Read more in the Girl on a Plane series:
#0.5 – Girl Under The Christmas Tree – just one night at a hotel on Christmas Eve . . .
#1 – Girl on a Plane – debut novel, featuring Sinead and Gabriel (flight attendant meets CEO)
#1.5 – Girl on a Babymoon – Sinead and Gabriel return on their anniversary getaway trip
#2 – Girl on a Layover – second chance lovers reunite at a resort wedding
#2.5 – Girl in the Snow – new release Christmas novella
#3 – Girl on an Island (to be completed – this is my next project!)
