Diary of a Novella November 26

join me as I plan and write a Christmas novella

As some of you may know I’ve been part of two Christmas anthologies published in 2023 and again this year by HQ Harper Collins. Last year’s collection, A Country Vet Christmas was so well received the publisher signed us up again before it was even released. And this year’s offering, A Country Farm Christmas is also proving popular so we’ve been asked to do it all over again in 2025!

I have to tell you I did face the first one with trepidation — I’d never written a novella and was paralysed with fear about how NOT to include backstory and delve deep into the psychology of my characters. Also, as this was primarily a collection of romance stories, the relationship (unlike in my women’s fiction) had to be front and centre. I managed to pull it off and keep it in my same style for A Christmas to Remember published in the 2023 anthology. It’s the story of vet Darcy Houghton who returns to her small town home after years overseas in the middle of bushfire season. She’s come back to see her ailing father but soon finds herself rescuing threatened wildlife alongside mysterious refuge manager Chad. Sparks fly, in more ways than one! You can grab the complete anthology here or a copy of my individual novella here

For this year’s anthology I decided to do something completely different (for me) and write a rom com, or at least a light hearted romance. I’m a HUGE fan of Emily Henry and I love the banter between her leads, especially in her enemies to lovers stories, and also the cast of kooky support characters. Once again, I wasn’t sure I could do it, but at least this time I’d done it before — and I had EmHen as my muse. The resulting story, The Christmas Contract, was a whole lot of fun to write.

Here’s the blurb:

Bridie has until Christmas to convince her dad not to pull the loan he gave her to set up her organic produce farm. So when she gets an unexpected offer of assistance from her elderly neighbour's son - the same elderly neighbour who's been actively trying to railroad her into selling - she can't say no. Are all the resulting feels another complication or exactly what she needs?

You can buy a copy online here or find one at your nearest discount department store or bookshop.

So, now it’s time to start on novella number 3. I’m heading back to Yarrabee to tell the story of one of the more minor characters in the Blackwattle Lake series. It’s going to be a return to my usual, more dramatic style of story-telling but I do hope to pen more rom coms in the future.

I’ll be diarising my process in writing this novella for the paid Substack subscribers, so if you’d like to be a fly on the wall and receive my weekly video posts it’s as easy as clicking the button below.

If you’re already a paid subscriber you’ll find the first entry in the series below.

Have a great day,

Pam x