Romance Reader: Intro on Author: Janice Lynn & Wrapped Up in Christmas Hope

This week we are introducing author Janice Lynn. She has a new book out this month, Wrapped Up in Christmas Hope.

Janice Lynn is a USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and Wall Street Journal Bestselling author. Janice writes sweet romances for Hallmark Publishing and writes contemporary Medical Romances for Harlequin. Her books have won numerous awards, including the National Readers' Choice Award, the Golden Quill for Best Short contemporary Romance and for Best First Book, Romantic Times Magazine's American Title, and the Holt Medallion Award of Merit. Janice lives in Tennessee with her Prince Charming, their seven kids, her vivid imagination, and an adorable Maltese named Halo who's the true princess of the house. In addition to writing romance, Janice is a nurse practitioner, a quilter, an exercise queen, a military mama and a member of and an avid supporter of the Quilts of Valor Foundation. Just kidding on the exercise queen.

For more information, please visit www.janicelynn.com. You can also connect with the author on social media at: https://www.facebook.com/janicemarielynn

or https://www.instagram.com/janice.lynn.author/.

If you didn’t write, what would you do for work?

I can’t imagine not writing, but I’m blessed in that I have two careers—writing and nursing. I love losing myself in my stories, but I enjoy my nursing career, too. Most of the time. I’ll admit 2020 was a difficult year to be in the health care field. 2021 has been almost as difficult. Regardless, I love my patients, my coworkers, and knowing that I’m making an effort to make the world a better place by helping where I can to help others have a healthier life. If I wasn’t an author or a nurse….maybe mission work. I volunteer at a few things from time to time and truly enjoy doing so. Not nearly as exciting as saying astronaut or secret agent, but much more accurate. 😊

Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones?

Yes. I read them. I get a lot of smiles from them…and sometimes I get one that makes my stomach hurt. Logically, I know that not every reader connects with every story, but my heart doesn’t seem to care much about logic. When I write a story, there’s a lot of me there because I’m one of those writers who pours myself emotionally into each book. What I am feeling is what’s there.

Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?

That’s a great question. I have been known to hide secrets in my books. Usually it’s little things such as I gave a secondary character in Wrapped Up in Christmas Joy the name of “Andrew Scott”. That’s my nephew’s name. That secondary character stole my heart and needed a happy-ever-after of his own and now I have Wrapped Up in Christmas Hope with a hero named after my firefighter nephew.

What was your hardest scene to write?

Black moments tend to be the hardest for me to write. I immerse myself into my stories to the point that when I am working on the black moment I actually feel tense and cranky, as if I’m ready to fight with my hubby at any moment. He’s a great person so I don’t like being that way and write my black moments when I know he’s going to be away form the house for several hours. 😊

Tell us about your book...

Wrapped Up in Christmas Hope is the latest release in my ‘Wrapped Up’ series from Hallmark Publishing. Each book is stand alone so that it doesn’t matter if readers haven’t read the first two books, but each is also a revisit to Pine Hill, Kentucky and the folks who live there. In Wrapped Up in Christmas Hope, my hero, Andrew Scott, is a dare-devil firefighter who aspires to become a smokejumper. My heroine is a widowed single mother who likes playing it safe. They’re thrown together helping with a Quilts of Valor Sew-in and with the town’s Christmas festivities. My Butterflies are there, a group of big-hearted, but meddling older women. Unlike with the writing the black moment, I laughed out loud several times while writing their scenes and I gave one Butterfly a happy-ever-after in this story. I hope you enjoy Andrew and Morgan’s story and another visit to Pine Hill. Happy Reading!