Today, I want to introduce you to the characters in The Christmas Confection.
When I wrote The Christmas Calamity (Book 3 in the Hardman Holidays series), we had the opportunity to meet Fred Decker. At that time, he was an angry, troubled, rather belligerent teen with a mother no one in town liked. During that story, I’m sure no one could have viewed Fred as potential hero material.
But then Fred made a life-altering decision to change.
Evidence of that change is seen in The Christmas Quandary (book 5). He’s become friends with Tom Grove once again and is working hard to provide he’s different from the rebellious, furious teen he’d once been.
I’ll admit, I had only a vague idea of what Fred looked like when I started mulling around ideas for this story.
Then I ended up redesigning all the covers in the series and decided to go ahead and make the cover for The Christmas Confection while I was at it.
Suddenly, I had a much clearer idea of Fred’s character.
Brady Corbet just happened to do a splendid job of fulfilling my ideas for Fred.
(Those eyes! Oh, my gracious, those blue eyes!)
I can understand why the girls in Hardman might cast Fred a second or third glance.
I could so easily picture this as Fred. The rather subdued, brooding look. Fred is, after all, convinced he’s not worthy —of love, respect, or just about anything good — because of his parents.
The flawed way he views himself is why Fred needs a girl who sees his actually flaws and loves him anyway.
Beautiful Isabel Durant is exactly how I envision Elsa Lindstrom, Hardman’s lovely baker.
Her midnight blue eyes and golden hair are two things Fred immediately notices about Elsa, along with her smile.
I didn’t have any particular visual for Elsa’s brother, or the outlaws, but I did find a visual I loved for Fred’s three aunts that make me think of the three fairies in Sleeping Beauty.
Isn’t this such a fun photo! I have no idea what these three lovely young women are doing, but they appear to be having a great time at it. I could so easy see them in the story as Ari, Bett, and Claire.
Oh, and I can’t forget their sleigh! Isn’t it awesome! How I’d love to go for a ride! 🙂
The Christmas Confection, Hardman Holidays Book 6, available now on Amazon.
And here is the song I listed to while I wrote the story. Love Working on You from John Michael Montgomery seemed particularly fitting for Fred.
