Focus on Christmas fiction with Donita K. Paul

Please help me welcome Donita K. Paul to my blog today to talk about her Christmas book. There is also a link to a great contest at the bottom of the post (this is a link not this blog). Thanks Donita for joining us today.

1.    Firstly can you tell us a little about yourself?

 I live in Colorado Springs, Colorado, right near the foot of the mountains. I have two grown children and two energetic grandsons. I taught elementary school before I was a writer . I've always been a reader, and I think that is a strong foundation for those of us who cross the line and become writers.

  

2.    Can you tell us how you came to write a Christmas book?

 The first books I wrote were Christian romance novels. I started writing those in order to give my daughter, who was 13 at the time, something to read that didn't shock me. Later, I started reading fantasy books, and was inspired to write one. The Christian themes flowed naturally in my writing. That might be the result of teaching Sunday school for more than three decades. I love Christmas stories, and after I had turned in a dragon manuscript last year, I felt particularly drained. As a "vacation," from what I have been writing for the past 8 years, I dove into a modern winter city scene and found the most interesting characters trying to make merry for Christmas.

  

3.    How did you come up with the title?

Actually, the marketing department at WaterBrook did some brainstorming and came up with Two Tickets to a Christmas Ball. Aside: This is my favorite cover of all time. I love the colors and the feel of the scene.

  

4.    How did you find the topic and was it easy to write for you?

Usually, the topic finds me. I invest a lot in my characters and am truly interested in how they are going to resolve the problems in their lives. The story carries me to a point of making decisions. Hopefully, I convey that when you form your life around prime Biblical truths, you tend to make right decisions.

  

5.    How did you come up with the characters for your story?

A couple of the characters were inspired by people I knew, and even one of my dogs. However, most of them sprang out of depths of my vivid imagination.

  

6.    Do you have a message you hope readers take out of your story?

Even the unpleasant occurrences in life prepare you to enjoy your life to the fullest. 

  

7.    Can you tell us a little about your story?

 My Christmas book, Two Tickets to a Christmas Ball is a fun combination of romance, magic, and Christmas spirit. Contemporary matchmaking wizards decide to give a pair of protagonists the opportunity to fall in love. Neither protagonist is interested at first; they have opposite personalities. But as time passes, they begin to see each other as the ideal mate.

  

8.    Do you have any upcoming projects you would like to share?

I have three recent books. My fantasy novel, Dragons of the Valley, is a continuation of the Chiril Chronicles.  Vanishing Sculptor was the first in this series and is the prequel to The Dragon Keeper Chronicles. Vanishing Sculptor will be reissued this spring as The Dragons of Chiril. My other recent book is co-written with my daughter, Evangeline Denmark. It is a picture book called, The Dragon and the Turtle. Evangeline originally told the story to her 3-year-old son when he couldn't sleep. It turned out to be a wonderful tale of friendship with the main characters actually modeling how to become friends.

  

9.    Finally where can we find you one the net?

My website is www.donitakpaul.com

The website for the picture books I wrote with my daughter is www.dragonandturtle.com

At the moment there is a great contest at http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/contests-and-giveaways/  scroll half way down the page for the details. This contest will end 11/17/2010.