New Book for Christmas! 🎄

Whaaaaat! This December has been a whirlwind of book launch prep, and I have enjoyed every SECOND of it!

Off-Script & Over-Caffeinated was such a joy and a challenge to write, and I’m so excited it’ll be here in time for Christmas. It’s not a story ABOUT Christmas, but it is a story with a lot of Christmas in it. Amid the fun and the funny, I hope readers are encouraged to reach for the God of love for the strength to love others. It’s because of Christmas—because of Jesus—that we are called to love our neighbors, and it’s because of Christmas—because of Jesus—that we are able to love our neighbors.

☕☕☕

If there’s one thing Harlow Cruse hates more than those schmaltzy Heartcast TV movies…it’s the fact that she loves those schmaltzy Heartcast TV movies. She loves them angrily. With popcorn. Popscorn?

As if she doesn’t get enough drama in her day to day—directing a ministry-minded community theatre that cranks out three shows a month and trying to keep up with her aspiring screenwriter bestie, Teagan, a self-described “dramagician.”

When the Heartcast Movie division announces they’ll briefly be allowing submissions for new, original Christmas movies, Teagan is convinced this is her time.

Roped into workshopping scenes from Teagan’s in-progress spec script (“Christmas in Snow Prairie.” Or maybe “Jingle Bell Kiss.” “A Twice-Baked Christmas”?) Harlow finds herself paired with an even more reluctant co-star. Jack Bentley might have the most Heartcast Original Movie name on the planet, but he is anything but formulaic.

As she begins to see past assumptions she hadn’t even realized she’d made, Harlow recognizes that all the time she’s been rolling her eyes at the predictable dance of made-for-TV plot-points, she’s unknowingly been holding people to the expectations of her own formula. Her own opinions. Her own preferences. Her own strengths.

She’d never thought of herself as overly-judgmental. Or cynical. Or even narrow. But in the midst of laughing her way through poorly-executed tropes and half-painted backdrops, out-of-season sweaters and various metaphorical and literal fires, Harlow’s eyes begin to open to the beauty of not-like-me in the body of Christ. And to the truth that oneness was never meant to be a synonym for sameness.

Novel available in paperback and Kindle.

Journal companion also available!