2022 Christmas in July Reader Blog Tour & Giveaway

Happy Christmas in July! Welcome to the 2022 Christmas in July Reader Blog Tour & Giveaway, which runs July 15-22, 2022 (contest closes at 8 p.m. Eastern on 7/22). At the bottom of each author’s blog post, you will find the name of a Christmas song. Write them all down and provide the provide all song titles (26 in total) on this Google form. Click here for a list of all participating authors and their links!
Note: You must grab all the song titles from every author in the 2022 Christmas in July Reader Blog Tour & Giveaway to be eligible to win the grand prize of a $520 Amazon gift card, plus a copy of each participating author's book OR first place prize of a copy of each participating author's book. At the end of this blog post is a link to the next blog, and so on, to the final blog post (26 authors in all). ​

July is a great month for talking beach Christmas, right? Because usually when you think of the beach, you think summer. Well, in my novella, Mistletoe Make-believe, (and in all the novellas in the collection), our characters are spending Christmas on the beach. In my story, it's St Simons Island, Georgia, just off the coast of Brunswick.
I've spent several weeks at St Simons. Once, on my honeymoon (perfect!) and once a few years ago when we took the kids. It's absolutely gorgeous, so when I was invited to write a story for this beachy Christmas collection, I knew it's where I wanted my characters to go.

Can you think any difficulties with having Christmas on a beach? I discovered several.
For one thing, the water isn't warm. And sometimes the temperatures dip down where it's cooler than you might wish for bare feet, even in the south. Needless to say, my characters went back and forth between sweaters and jackets and short sleeves during their week, depending on the weather.
Sure, there aren't as many people on the island, but there probably also aren't as many things to do. For instance, the dolphin tours are closed for the winter on St Simon. Good thing the ones on Jekyll, right next to it, still run so my characters had a chance to do that.
But there are also extra fun things to do, too. Like decorating a piece of driftwood like a Christmas tree, going ice skating (man-made rink) and playing miniature golf without freezing, and riding the trolley around to look at Christmas lights.
So, maybe Christmas on the beach would be fun after all. Definitely not as hot as if you visited in July. ;)

Now, it’s time to for my Christmas song title:

O Come All Ye Faithful

Save the holiday song titles from each of the 26 blog stops, and when you reach the final blog, enter all the song titles on this form for a chance to win the grand prize of a $520 Amazon gift card and a copy of each participating author's featured book OR first prize of a copy of each participating author's featured book.
Thank you so much for visiting! The next author on the tour is B.D. Lawrence and his Christmas book, The Finger Snatcher and the One-Armed Man. You can find it at this link. Remember, the 2022 Christmas in July Reader Blog Tour & Giveaway ends July 22 at 8 PM EST!

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