Anne McAllister talks about getting in the holiday spirit alongside Jess and Alison (plus a cookie recipe!) for recent release.

Hi Everyone,

So glad you’ve dropped by to join me on the Tule blog today as I’m welcoming  the release of my book, Wanted: A Cowboy for Christmas, and getting into the spirit of the holiday season.

Back when I was five years old, I imprinted on a cowboy.  He was my stepdad’s much younger brother whom I was meeting for the first time.  He came to stay with us on his way to Army basic training – and he brought his saddle.

I was enchanted.  I followed him everywhere, like a duck.  He was quiet – barely said two words if one would do.  He was tall – pretty much everyone is tall to a five-year-old.  And of course he was handsome.  I had found the prototype hero of my dreams.  And, honestly, I’ve never looked back.

My heroes have not always been cowboys, though. My husband of many many years was a college professor for most of them.  But he is quiet, tall and handsome. He’s also honorable, kind, steadfast, responsible and good with kids and dogs.  So he fit the bill from the start – and he still does.  Which is to say, I guess, that while my heroes – real and fictional — have frequently done other jobs, they all have a cowboy core and a cowboy heart.

None of them has more of a cowboy core – and heart — than Jess Cooper.   He, too, is a man of few words, one who is tall enough, and of course, he is drop-dead gorgeous besides.  But Jess also has a fair amount of history that convinces him he’s not marriage material.  Marriage would ask too much of what he’s not sure he can give.  

Alison Richards knows better.  She sees the core – and the heart – of  Jess Cooper. She has since she was a child (she wasn’t quite as young as five, but still…).  Alison knows a good man when she sees one, when she spends time with him, when she pins her own heart on her sleeve for him. Not literally, of course, but Alison is an adult now. She doesn’t hide her feelings. She doesn’t hide her love.  She lets him in.

All of which is pretty terrifying to a guy like Jess.  It makes him want things he’s sure he has no business wanting.  Spending time with Alison awakens a part of him that he’s determined to bludgeon into unconsciousness.  If he can just hold it together – and her off — until she goes away, as she inevitably will, well, he’ll survive.  Jess is, after all, a survivor.

But Alison isn’t going to make it easy.  She’s wanted this particular cowboy for half her life.  She’s a survivor, too.  But she’s convinced that they’ll do more than survive if they have each other.  

Now all she had to do is convince Jess.

That they had to deal with each other at Christmas made it that much more fun for me as an author. I got to make them trundle around in knee-deep snow in southwestern Colorado, borrowing and tweaking the ranch that my grandparents owned.  I fell in love with it when I was six – and uniting Jess and Alison with the ranch I loved was a no-brainer.  In fact, to be honest, the whole book is probably an homage to many of the people and places and things I loved as a child.

One of the things that didn’t make it into the book (at least I don’t remember that it did) was a cookie recipe that my grandmother made every year. She made it at other times than Christmas because it is not a traditional Christmas cookie. But it was simple and good, it always made an appearance at Christmas, too. 

I had lost the recipe for a lot of years, but fortunately my cousin still had it and shared it with me last year.  So I made these cookies with my grandkids right after Thanksgiving, and they wanted them again as soon as the first batch was gone.  And so we made them again. And again.  I think I may start making them earlier this year. Like tomorrow.

I thought I’d share the recipe with you in case you’re up for a very basic, homey, easy recipe that doesn’t call for anything you might not have around.  But if you don’t, well, go get what you need because Grandma’s Frosted Chocolate Drop Cookies are worth it.

Jess and Alison, the Prof (my husband) and I, all the kids, grandkids and (yikes!) great-grandkids, along with the current dog, Gib, all send our warmest holiday wishes to you!

Frosted Chocolate Drop Cookies 

1  c brown sugar

½ c butter or margarine

1   egg, well beaten

1   tsp vanilla

2  1 oz. squares of unsweetened chocolate, melted

1 ½ c flour

Pinch of salt

½ tsp baking soda

½ c milk (regular or sour)

Cream brown sugar and butter; add egg, vanilla and melted chocolate. Blend well. 

Sift together dry ingredients; add alternately with milk to the sugar/butter/egg

mixture. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes

at 350 degrees. Let cool briefly on sheet,  then continue cooling on wire rack. When cool, frost with frosting made from:

1 ½ c powdered sugar

3 TBSP butter

1 tsp vanilla

Milk as needed to spread

Cream together.   Spread on cooled cookie.  

Let icing dry in the air before storing in container.

About the Author.

Years ago someone told Anne McAllister that the recipe for happiness was a good man, a big old house, a bunch of kids and dogs, and a job you loved that allows you to read.  And write.  She totally agrees.

Now, one good man, one big old house (since traded for a slightly smaller house. Look, no attic!) a bunch of kids (and even more grandkids) and dogs (and one bionic cat) and seventy books, she’s still reading.  And writing.  And happier than ever.

Over thirty plus years Anne has written long and short contemporary romances, single titles and series, novellas and a time-travel for Harlequin Mills & Boon and for Tule Publishing. She’s had two RITA winning books and nine more RITA finalists as well as awards from Romantic Times and Midwest Fiction Writers. One of the joys of writing is that sometimes, when she can’t go back in person, she can go back in her mind and her heart and her books.