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Can you imagine waging a war over a Christmas tree? What if your tree might be one to grace the halls of the White House or Rockefeller Center? Well, my friend Delores Topliff is here chatting about her book that talks about just such a situation. I think you're going to love this cute Christmas story.  Like most authors, I enjoy each book I write, but Christmas Tree Wars was the most fun because I received the whole story came as an almost complete download one Sunday morning as I drove a country road in rural Minnesota. A Christmas tree farm lined one side of the road. A hayfield bordered the other with one lone, straight Christmas tree standing at its edge. I don’t know how many thought layers can converge in a single moment of time, but they all did. I knew the Christmas tree farm owner would claim the tree on the other side, although he had plenty of his own. Underneath that story line, I glimpsed the account of Israel’s King David claiming Bathsheba, although he already possessed plenty of wives and concubines. I knew my story line involved two feuding Christmas tree farm neighbors, a Swede and Norwegian, who are dreaded cultural antagonists in Midwestern life. Financial shortfall make both desperate for sales answers so the son of one and the niece of the other have the farmers compete to provide the winning tree for display at the Rockefeller Center, Washington D.C.’s National Mall, or the Whitehouse tree to be decorated by America’s first lady. The year was 1966 and the first lady was LBJ’s bride, Lady Bird Johnson, a strong advocate of natural prairies and wildflowers. For two summers during college I worked for the US Forest Service handling personnel and payroll in the main office while enjoying job perk “show me” trips to distant Washington state forestry sites plus working long hours keeping pay and time records during one raging forest fire that more than covered my college tuition. Years later, I spent two more summers doing forestry and vegetation surveys along the Alaska Highway for Canada’s Department of Agriculture which kept my love for the outdoors growing like moss on trees. That included riding in a truck that raced through a fire wall blocking the road and flying in a forestry spotter plane where I saw fabulous scenery and even a double waterfall not accessible by road. Every experience made me love the outdoors scenes more. It’s no wonder then that when I received the Sunday morning story download, I was keen to write the Christmas Tree Wars. At first I thought it might be a 20,000 word novella, but then like Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Topsy in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, it growed and growed until it became a full-blown book standing on its own. I’m not sorry. I enjoyed the process. I also saw how the book’s cover should look. Scrivenings Press’s Linda Fulkerson created that perfectly. The story has an underlying Romeo and Juliet theme. Many say it should be a Hallmark movie. I would love that. Without sharing a spoiler, I’ll say that Christmas Tree Wars has a suitably happy ending. It also mentions Christmas-in-July fun with skiddoos racing across open lakes based on real events in Grantsburg, Wisconsin each Fourth of July. After all, what’s a Christmas celebration anywhere without lots of joy, happiness, and problems solved? The book’s closing pages also include authentic Swedish and Norwegian holiday recipes for readers to enjoy. If you’ve read the book and posted a customer review on Amazon or other sites, thank you. If you have not, consider adding it to your reading list for this season and/or giving it as an inexpensive print or eBook gift. Nothing says Christmas like a cold, crisp walk through fragrant pine and spruce woods while reading about a prizewinning tree that features in a love story and America’s most famous national Christmas display.  Christmas Tree Wars Christmas is meant to be a time of goodwill, but there’s no peace between two neighboring Christmas tree farmers involved in a longstanding feud. Can this year be different with a bit of holiday romance tossed into the season?scrivenings.link/christmastreewars When the financial planner son and forestry major niece of feuding Christmas tree farmers come home to help their families in crisis, it takes Christmas tree wars to a whole new level. As the young people seek success by competing to provide a national Christmas tree, romance fills the air and connects them like mistle to toe.  Delores Topliff grew up in Washington and Oregon but also spent many adult years in western Canada. Grade school teachers encouraged her writing, and she loves to encourage and mentor other writers now. She earned college degrees via scholarships and interesting jobs. Many summers she worked for the Forest Service in both the U.S. and Canada. She enjoys wild life, jewelry-making (including using porcupine quills), photography, and gives convincing moose calls. She teaches online and on-campus at the Univ. of Northwestern—St. Paul (MN) while enjoying dividing her time between Minnesota and Northeastern Mississippi. Travel may be her favorite means of learning.
Delores is a college teacher, speaker, and freelance writer with over 360 publications besides providing editing and publishing services. Her writings are found in Aglow, Angels on Earth, Today’s Christian, Family Life Today, the Minnesota Christian Chronicle (later the Christian Examiner and Refreshed Magazines), and Revell, Guideposts, and James Stuart Bell compilation books. Website: https://www.delorestopliff.com Blog: https://delorestopliff.com/blog/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DETopliff Instagram: delorese.topliff Newsletter subscription: https://mailchi.mp/919a77d66e15/newsletter-sign-up
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This is a place for me to tell you about what I'm writing, talk about the process or where some of my ideas came from, or even have other authors come in and talk about their books.
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