Christmas Calling

CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE After the death of her guardian, Valerie Shannon O'Shea feels as adrift as a boat torn free of its moorings on Lake Michigan. She prays about her future and finds a challenge in the newspaper. IS THE PIONEER SPIRIT STILL ALIVE AND WELL? A skeptical financier doubts women in the late 1880s can live the hard life of their ancestors. He is offering train fare to Montana and a substantial cash prize to a young woman courageous enough to live in an abandoned one-room schoolhouse for a full year without help from anyone. The schoolhouse is near Whitewind, where Valerie and her father lived ten years earlier. Danny O'Shea was then convicted of a crime he swore he did not commit. There is little to connect Valerie Shannon, as she signs her paintings, with the gawky fourteen-year-old known as Shannon O'Shea. What if she can meet the newspaper challenge, paint the Montana landscape, and carry out her long held vow to clear her father's name? The long train trip across country brings back bittersweet memories. Many are of eighteen-year-old Locke Stuart, son of the judge who sent Valerie's father to prison. Locke had stolen Valerie's heart but never answered her letters. She wonders if he ever thinks of the girl he fiercely championed in spite of his father's opposition. Valerie and Locke must ride tangled trails and learn to heed the everlasting whisper, Trust Me, before they can find happiness. CHRISTMAS SNOW Janie Montgomery leaves Seattle to escape sad memories and spend Christmas with her aunt in Spokane.. On the way, she plunges headfirst into trouble. A truck zooms by, throwing snow on her windshield. Temporarily blinded, Janie fights to control the Camry - and loses. She ends up with her car stranded in a ditch, surrounded by a mountain of snow. EMT Greg Kincaid, who comes to Janie's rescue, appears like a knight in snowy armor, not riding a white horse, but driving an SUV sturdy enough to get her back on the road. He gives her his card. Janie continues toward Aunt Lou's, wishing the snow would stop. She glances at her cell phone. Mistake number one. She starts to slide. Slams on the brakes. Mistake number two. She holds her breath and prays for the car to stop, but it slams across the road and into the ditch. Now she is facing in the wrong direction and in danger of being hit by oncoming traffic. When Greg, who is patrolling the highway on his day off, arrives to rescue her for the second time, she thanks God. Janie calls Greg at his brother's. It is the beginning of a love story as mystifying as a white-out, as soft as gently falling snow, as fraught with danger as the storms that swing down from Canada, as colorful as Christmas decorations, and as sweet as homemade cookies. Only by the grace of God can Janie and Greg weather the storms and find true love.


Genre: Inspirational