~ BLOG TOUR STOP SILENT DAYS HOLY NIGHT ~

~ BLOG TOUR STOP ~

--  'SILENT DAYS, HOLY NIGHT'  --

AUTHOR PHYLLIS CLARK NICHOLS

~Post Includes:  Book Spotlight, Author Bio,

Unique Guest Post by Author & Giveaway~

Let's all get in the mood for Christmas with this blog tour and giveaway for Silent Days, Holy Night by Phyllis Clark Nichols, hosted by JustRead Tours.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Title: Silent Days, Holy Night  
Author: Phyllis Clark Nichols  
Publisher: Gilead Publishing  
Release Date: October 30, 2018  
Genre: Contemporary Women’s Fiction/Christmas  

The sounds of Christmases past echo through a silent house...  

Everyone in town knows Emerald Crest, the green granite mansion atop the highest hill: the legendary, lavish Christmas festivities that used to light up the nights— and the silence that followed when the parties abruptly stopped many years ago. And everyone has heard whispers about the reclusive, mysterious master of the manor, Henry Lafferty the Second . . .

When eleven-year-old Julia Russell steps into the great house for the first time and meets Mr. Lafferty, the entire course of her life is altered. She meets a man who is nothing at all like the rumors she’s heard from neighbors and classmates. He’s kind and extraordinarily talented—he also happens to be deaf and uses a wheelchair. And when she overhears a secret about him, Julia decides it’s time for the town to bring Christmas back to Emerald Crest—an act that will change them all forever.

PURCHASE LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | CBD | Book Depository

GUEST POST BY THE AUTHOR:

--Little-Known Facts About the Book Shared by the Author:

We writers are always revealing so much as we write – descriptions of places, depictions of characters, and timely revelations to keep the reader interested. But there are always a few secrets that we keep to ourselves. I suppose now they won’t be secret anymore.

1.)  I drew heavily from my experiences in learning sign-language from a friend who was deaf-blind. Like young Julia, I so wanted to communicate with her that I was drawn to learn her language. Learning tactile sign language was quite an experience.

2.)  Emerald Crest is the green mansion on the hillside in a fictitious, small West Virginia town. I imagined every room in the house, even to drawing a floor plan and placing furniture. I feel that I knew every creaking board and could feel the marble countertop on the kitchen island. I could hear the piano’s resonance against the stone walls and marble floors. I could smell the wood shavings as Henry and Julia carved birds. It was a magical place to be while I wrote the book.

3.)  My research taught me much about woodcarving and all its tools.

4.)  Writing the story in first-person, and in the voice of a ten-year-old was quite a challenge. I was grateful Julia was such an inquisitive and loquacious child. She kept me awake many nights with her oh-so-decisive voice in my head.

5.)  Because I’m Southern to my “bless-my-heart” core, there is always food in my books. I so enjoyed the afternoons spent in the kitchen making cookies and deciding which cookies Grancie would have really made. The reader will find two of her favorite cookie recipes in the book.

6.)  One of the most difficult passages to write was the story that young Julia wrote about the King on the High Mountain. Telling the story in her voice was much easier than writing a story she reveals in the book. That story was shredded several times and then again.

7.)  The story opens present-day with the main character remembering a past Christmas in the first chapter. The remainder of the book is about that Christmas sixteen years ago. But since I knew the end of the story had to be present day again, I worked at weaving present-day scenes throughout the book. Tying those scenes together with her memories was challenging.

8.)  Another real challenge was how to present visibly the sign language taking place between the characters so that the reader would understand. Italics to the rescue!

9.)  There is always a cardinal or two in my Christmas books! They’re my favorite birds.

10.)  The cover of this book is my favorite book cover of any of my books.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Phyllis Clark Nichols’s character-driven Southern fiction explores profound human questions using the imagined residents of small town communities you just know you’ve visited before. With a strong faith and a love for nature, art, music, and ordinary people, she tells redemptive tales of loss and recovery, estrangement and connection, longing and fulfillment . . . often through surprisingly serendipitous events.

Phyllis grew up in the deep shade of magnolia trees in South Georgia. Born during a hurricane, she is no stranger to the winds of change: In addition to her life as a novelist, Phyllis is a seminary graduate, concert pianist, and cofounder of a national cable network with health- and disability-related programming. Regardless of the role she’s playing, Phyllis brings creativity and compelling storytelling.

She frequently appears at conventions, conferences, civic groups, and churches, performing half-hour musical monologues that express her faith, joy, and thoughts about life—all with the homespun humor and gentility of a true Southern woman.

Phyllis currently serves on several nonprofit boards. She lives in the Texas Hill Country with her portrait-artist husband.  

CONNECT WITH PHYLLIS: website | Facebook | Twitter

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TOUR GIVEAWAY

(1) winner will receive (US only):

• a print copy of Silent Days, Holy Night by Phyllis Clark Nichols
• a print copy of Sleigh Bells Ring by various authors

Enter via the Rafflecopter giveaway below. Giveaway will begin at midnight December 10, 2018 and last through 11:59pm December 17, 2018. US only. Winners will be notified within a week of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.

Giveaway is subject to the policies found here.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!

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