Christmas Charity, Susan’s novella, is out!

Hi friends! I’m thrilled to let you know that my newest book has just come out. Here’s a little more about it.

Anne Greene, multi-published, award-winning author, said, “This truly delightful novella goes straight to the reader’s heart. I love the Irish traditions and the family interactions. Susan Hawkins’ difficulties as a stepmother are real issues of life today and Susan G Mathis, does a masterful job showing the wise solution. This story grips the reader from the first scene to the last. Based on a true story, the reader will want to put this novella on her keeper shelf and reread it often.”

[Click here to buy Christmas Charity now.]

What’s Christmas Charity about?

Susan Hawkins and Patrick O’Neill find that an arranged marriage is much harder than they think, especially when they emigrate from Wolfe Island, Canada, to Cape Vincent, New York, in 1864, just a week after they marry—with Patrick’s nine-year-old daughter, Lizzy, in tow. Can twenty-three-year-old Susan Hawkins learn to love her forty-nine-year-old husband and find charity for her angry stepdaughter? She hope so—before Christmas comes.

Who’s your main character?

Susan is the ten-year-old girl from my debut novel, The Fabric of Hope: An Irish Family Legacy. If you haven’t read it yet, get it here. Susan is all grown up now and loving her teaching job on Wolfe Island. But when her parents betroth to a man twenty-six years her elder and the new family moves to America just days after the wedding, life gets tough, especially when she becomes an instant stepmother.

How would you describe your writing to someone who hasn’t read any of your books?  As with The Fabric of Hope, my writing is full of faith, hope, and love. My writing style is inspiring, yet a little pensive, for I deal with real topics that happen to real people, whether they live in the 1800s or today.

What inspired you to write Christmas Charity?After the great feedback from so many readers who enjoyed The Fabric of Hope, several wanted to know more about Susan, my great grandmother, whom I’m named after. Susan really was given in an arranged marriage to my great grandfather, Patrick, and yes, he was twenty-six years older. Oh my! I thought it’d be fun to write about such a marriage.

How did you research your book? My cousins did a lot of research on our ancestry, and I did extensive research about the history and culture, the customs, and so much more. I also enjoyed visiting Wolfe Island, Canada, and Cape Vincent, NY several times, and have made friends in both places.

Do you have any photos of the setting of your book?Since I didn’t have photos of my great grandparents, the man who represents Patrick is actually my grandfather. I have many, many photos of the setting—both Wolfe Island and Cape Vincent—on my website and Facebook pages. I hope you’ll check them out.

What’s your next project? Katelyn’s Choice releases on March 15^thwith Lighthouse Publishing, and it’s the first in the Thousand Islands Gilded Age series!

It’s the story of nineteen-year-old Katelyn Kavanagh who leaves her family’s struggling farm to work on Pullman Island for the famous George Pullman. There she finds herself serving powerful men such as President Ulysses S. Grant, and Generals Sherman and Sheridan—and falling in love with her best friend’s brother. Katelyn gains popularity with some of her friends by spilling the sensitive high society gossip she’s privy to. But when she overhears a possibly damaging presidential conversation, she knows she can’t tell anyone. She could lose her job—and endanger the president’s 1872 reelection—and jeopardize her relationship with the man of her dreams. Still, the scandalous news just keeps begging to be told…

I hope you’ll consider picking up Christmas Charity and/or The Fabric of Hope for yourself—and don’t forget they’d make great Christmas gifts.  [Click here to get Christmas Charity.]

Kathi Macias, bestselling author of more than 50 books, including To the Moon and Back said, “Christmas Charity is an absolutely delightful read—at Christmas or any time! With her lovable, well-defined characters and captivating storyline, the story carries the reader with it. I hope this is among the first of many such offerings from this talented author!”