Trio of Louisiana authors releases Christmas fiction collection
Books come together in all sorts of ways, but “A Louisiana Christmas to Remember” has a great backstory that almost feels like cooking a pot of literary gumbo.
Take the idea sparked when debut fiction author Morgan Tarpley Smith of Pollock saw a social media post asking for Christmas books set in all 50 states. Since there wasn’t a Louisiana book on the list, her mind started cooking, so to speak. “The time period would be Christmas and the setting was going to be Louisiana, so I only had to find some fellow Louisiana authors to join me and we could figure out the rest,” she said.
A get-it-done businessowner and mom, she mixed in heavy-hitter co-authors: New York Times bestselling author Lenora Worth, Louisiana’s dean of inspirational romance with more than 100 books published; and writing coach Betsy St. Amant, author of more than 20 works of romantic fiction.
They added in a contract from inspirational Barbour Publishing and came up with a novella collection that you’ll savor, “A Louisiana Christmas to Remember,” released this month in the popular Christmas-themed book trend. If you’re looking for a good gift for a friend, a fictional taste of Louisiana or an uplifting read when you get overwhelmed, grab this book, a different take on story collections.
“We wanted to do something different for the novellas and have our stories interconnect as we follow three women from the same family during the weeks leading up to Christmas,” Smith said. “Lenora, Betsy and I are proud Louisiana girls who wanted to bring some of the warmth, humor and spirit of our home state’s Southern culture to the page.”
The collection centers around a rare holiday snowfall—and readers will recognize the locale, food, festivals and all the details that make Louisiana special. The stories are set in the fictional town of Moreau, loosely based on the city of Natchitoches. “Natchitoches was founded by a French explorer in 1714, and in the late 1700s, my ancestors were actually married there,” Smith said.
That sense of place combines with a theme of restoration for the heartwarming stories. “One of the central focuses of our book is the physical restoration of a historic chapel that was built by our characters’ ancestors centuries before and damaged during a hurricane. Our main characters—Mattie, Jolene and Adale—also have their own journeys of restoration as they are forced to face the past during this Christmas season,” she said.
St. Amant also emphasizes the theme of “second chances not only in romance, but in friendships, family relationships and with the town in general.”
Worth hopes readers will take away that “family matters and small towns can blend a whole community and faith will always guide our decisions…I love Louisiana even though I live in Florida now. I loved the Southern style of this book and the small-town theme.”
The creative process of pulling together three authors with such varied experience was enjoyable—and challenging. “I’ve never written this way and it was a lot of fun—and a lot of work,” St. Amant said. “There was a lot to coordinate, and Morgan was great with keeping us on task with maps and visual aids so we could keep consistency. The novella sets I’ve done before were loosely connected to the same town, but never to the same family in a continuation. But our never-ending Facebook Messenger chain of back and forth was pretty hilarious.”
The collaboration was refreshing for Worth. “It was amazing working with these two young, smart women. I was thrilled to be invited and had a blast with my characters and the story premise—to revive their town after a hurricane damaged many of the historical structures,” she said. “It was fun watching Morgan work hard and grow and change with her first novella…she's going to make her mark in the publishing world.”
More about the Authors
With her business, MTS Freelance Services LLC, Smith offers everything from grant writing, marketing and branding consulting to assisting authors with newsletters and website design. She also publishes children’s books under the pen name M.L. Tarpley. She loves to travel the world and weaves “stories of history and heart” that transport readers to faraway places and intertwine past and present. For more: www.morgantarpleysmith.com.
St. Amant of Shreveport, a talented writing teacher as well as author, has added author coaching and editing services through Storyside LLC to her career. Her upcoming books include “Their Holiday Secret” (Harlequin Love Inspired, October) and “Once Upon a Divorce: Walking with God After ‘The End’” (nonfiction, Kregel, January 2024). For more: www.betsystamant.com.
Worth, who lived in Shreveport for nearly 30 years, has an estimated three million books in print. She writes inspirational fiction for Harlequin’s Love Inspired and sweet romance for Tule Publishing. She also publishes with Kensington Books, with an August release, “The Christmas Quilt,” third in her Shadow Lake Amish series. For more: www.lenoraworth.com.
The authors plan a variety of signings in Louisiana later this year, and their books are available from your favorite booksellers. For more information, see their websites or follow them on Facebook.
Columnist Judy Christie is the author of 18 books, including the fictional “Gone to Green” series and the nonfiction “Before and After: The Incredible Real-Life Stories of Orphans Who Survived the Tennessee Children’s Home Society,” now in its fifth printing in trade paperback. Co-authored with Lisa Wingate, it is the true sequel to Wingate’s bestselling novel “Before We Were Yours.” If you’d like Christie to speak virtually to your book club, see www.judychristie.com or visit her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/JudyChristieAuthor.
This article originally appeared on Monroe News-Star: Trio of Louisiana authors releases Christmas fiction collection
