Mary Connealy: 12 Brides of Christmas

Mary Connealy and The Advent Bride

Mary Connealy’s The Advent Bride is the heart warming tale of an orphaned school marm using a puzzle box to spark healing in the hearts of a widowed sheriff and his rascal son, The Advent Bride makes for a satisfying holiday read.

What is a puzzle box? 

“I’ve wanted to use a puzzle box because I love the idea of hidden latches and drawers and secret compartments. I thought of Advent, with its set number of days and decided a puzzle box with the right number of drawers would be perfect,” Mary said.

Research sent her to Youtube where she spent hours watching videos on the intriguing and complex boxes. You can see one here.

The award-winning and best-selling author of many novels and novellas, Mary Connealy lives in Nebraska and has been looking for a story to set there for many years. The Advent Bride, located in a wind-swept Nebraska town, provided her with a place close to home.

But not too close. While Mary loves historical stories, she knows too much about what life must have been like from her own experiences.

“I love the modern world. I suppose it’s possible my inner pioneer toughness would be revealed if I was forced to live in the old west, but if it did, it would surprise everyone. I’m a wimp. I love air conditioning. I live pretty close to the soil here in Nebraska, on a ranch. I know how to do a lot of the things necessary to survive. Kill and clean a chicken, milk a cow, gather eggs, grow a garden, can food. I know enough about it to know its stinking hard work!”

Perhaps history intrigues her because her personal roots go deep into the American past. ”

“I had an ancestor come to America in 1638. I’ve got the paperwork to prove I could join the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) I have Irish ancestors who came here because of the potato famine in the mid-1800s. Many pioneers in that group.”

Mary has written full length novels as well as novellas, and enjoys the challenges presented by both. As to her characters? Like many writers, she writes heroines with characteristics she admires.

“My heroines are all how I wish I was, tough, take charge, speaking their minds. I’m pathologically non-confrontational and I tend to apologize for everything….and I’m really sorry about that.”

Mary and her husband have four adult daughters and Christmas if filled with “faith, food and fun.”

As to The Advent Bride, Mary incorporated her spiritual life by using  Advent as the theme. “As Christmas drew near my characters were on their own journey, just as Joseph and Mary were on their journey to Bethlehem.”

All twelve authors from The Twelve Brides of Christmas  returned to write The Twelve Brides of Summer. Mary’s story, The Midsummer’s Eve Bride takes place in 1897 Montana for a sequel to one of her earlier novellas featuring one of Belle Tanner’s sons from The Husband Tree.

Who is Mary Connealy?

Mary Connealy is the bestselling author of romantic comedy with cowboys. She is a Carol Award winner and a Rita and Christy and IRCC Award Finalist.

A teacher, Mary and her husband live in Nebraska and are the parents of four grown daughters

For further information on Mary, please visit her website at www.maryconnealy.com.

She regularly blogs at Seekerville and Pistols and Petticoats and My Blog.

or see her on social media:

Facebook

Twitter

You can buy The Advent Bride here!

For those of you who prefer to read on paper rather than in pixels, The Advent Bride is part of Christmas Wedding Bells, a collection being sold in Walmart stores nation-wide.