Any reader would probably wonder why I set my book AN UNUSUAL CHRISTMAS in a little

known country such as Belarus.

During the mid-nineties, I often traveled to Russia and Belarus for business. I was quite impressed by the Russian culture and hospitality and decided to set my new book in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. With my heroine, Dr. Jillian Burton, you will discover a different civilization, visit interesting places, marvel at the Russian architecture, taste the exotic food, toast with vodka, wear the warm chapka, experience many of the local customs, and fall in love with a gallant Belorussian doctor.

Traveling to Minsk was a long and tiring twenty-four hour flight. Starting from Cincinnati, OH, I flew on Delta to New York with a couple of colleagues, spent three hours before boarding the big jet to Germany, and arrived in Frankfurt or Munich the next morning around seven. We hardly had two hours to change terminal. Carrying a couple of carry-on luggage, we rushed from one terminal to another to catch the Lufthansa flight connection to Minsk that flew only three times a week. When we missed it, we were stuck for two days or rerouted to Moscow.

In Belarus, the government stops the heating between May 1^st and October 31^st. I went to Minsk for the first time in October 1994 and was greeted by a freezing rain and a brisk cold that seeped through my clothes. Do I have to mention that I was shivering outdoors and indoors, and I never drank as many cups of hot tea—shaye?

Our first official meeting attended by officers, chemists and doctors, took place in a government building called the Hall of Officers. After a series of speech, our Belorussian hosts invited us to celebrate the new contract with toasts of vodka that we were supposed to drink bottoms up while saying Na Dzhrovia.  No orange juice or ice was added to dilute the 40% alcohol drink. My throat burned and my stomach caught fire. It took several trips for me to get used to the vodka and find it a practical way to stay warm. When I got sick, my Belorussian friends insisted on treating me with vodka, their universal remedy against cold, cough, stomach pain, and headaches!

The Belorussians are very hospitable people. We were invited for dinner in many homes. After the inevitable toasts of vodka, we ate the delicious stuffed cabbage, potato pancakes, black bread and sausage. The children impressed me with their impeccable manners and their fluent English. They often acted as interpreters for their parents.

In Minsk, I used a car with an excellent heating system and a chauffeur who spoke English. My rental car became a haven during the freezing months of winter and the only place where I felt warm and comfortable. Out of curiosity I took the underground train once. It was old and not very clean, a far cry from the magnificent trains of Moscow.

To go to Moscow, railroads were the most comfortable means of transportation. I traveled with, the overnight Red Train that left Minsk at midnight and arrived in Moscow the next morning. In the sleeping compartment with couchettes, we were provided with sheets, covers, wool blankets. Dinner was included in the fare and came with a bottle of vodka, of course.

Short Synopsis for AN UNUSUAL CHRISTMAS: Dr. Jillian is always running away to the end of the world to avoid Christmas celebrations and the sad reminders of her dead son. But in Belarus, a baby girl, four little boys, and a handsome doctor will teach her the true meaning of Christmas.

If you like this novel you may also enjoy: 

CHRISTMAS HERE AND THERE: A box set of Christmas Stories.

HER CHRISTMAS CRUISE (Christmas Wedding Muddle): The perfect fiancé is a cheater and the fabulous Christmas wedding is off. But the would-be honeymoon cruise may fulfill the dreams of Julia and her unexpected companion.
AN UNUSUAL CHRISTMAS: Dr. Jillian is always running away to the end of the world to avoid Christmas celebrations and the sad reminders of her dead son. But in Belarus, a baby girl, four little boys, and a handsome doctor will teach her the true meaning of Christmas.
CHRISTMAS BABIES: When a health problem jolts Dr. Madelyn into the realization than there's more to life than just work, she longs to surrender to the magic of Christmas. But can she handle the charming and secretive Dr. Nick Preston who carries his own package of disillusions? Can she allow two newborn twins to worm their way into her heart?

HOLIDAY BABIES SERIES: A box set of three bestselling books at Amazon.com

CHRISTMAS BABIES: It takes a health crisis and two adorable orphaned babies to bring Dr. Madelyn Ramsay to her senses and force her to look life and love in the face.
VALENTINE BABIES: Can he love a woman expecting another man’s baby?
MOTHER’S DAY BABIES: Can a woman from Kentucky teach an ‘old dog’ new tricks, even if he's a CEO?

 

DOCTOR’S ORDERS BOX SET: A box set of three bestselling books at Amazon.com

BABIES in the BARGAIN: "ER" and "Grey's Anatomy" in the NICU.
RIGHT NAME, WRONG MAN: What's a girl to do when she whispers another man's name in her fiancé's arms?
NO MORE LIES: A lie that brings a smile or a truth drawing tears?


If you like to travel and love to read, come and enjoy my international romances. I will take you around the world through stories that simmer with emotion and sizzle with passion.

  Continuing with Small Blog, Big Giveaway, two lucky commentators will win copies of TO LOVE A HERO, international romance, or FRENCH PERIL, romantic suspense.

I've been often asked: What made you write this particular book? Why did you set your story in that particiular setting? So let me explain the whys behind three of my stories.

When I started writing, I already knew that my heroine would be an all-American gal, educated, assertive and independent. But I wanted my hero to be different from the men she met everyday at work. While traveling abroad, I observed the foreign male and study how he could attract my American heroine and be worthy of her love.

During my business trips to Belarus, I dealt mostly with officers, handsome, reserved, aloof at first sight.

TO LOVE A HERO --available for $0.99--highlights the hospitality and warmth of the gorgeous and valiant Belarusian officers who sing, toast with vodka and make a woman feel like a goddess.

The Russian hero, such as the handsome Major General Sergei of TO LOVE A HERO, is a perfect example of alpha hero: a patriotic officer, authoritative and chauvinistic but protective and gallant, honest and loyal.

FRENCH PERIL was inspired by a vacation in a modernized chateau, in the historical Loire Valley. I was so impressed by the magnificence of the French chateaux and the wealth of history of that area, I visualized gallant aristocrats entertaining beautiful women in lavishly decorated galleries and plush gardens. Stories played in my mind. I upped the stakes with a missing statue and the murder of a professor to create a romantic suspense, FRENCH PERIL--available for $0.99.

In France, the old gallantry has survived and many Frenchmen would not hesitate to write a poem to their beloved. The aristocratic male greets a woman by bowing over her hand for a kiss while the average Frenchman kisses her three times on the cheeks. The French hero is a playboy and a womanizer, determined not to be entrapped, but also a generous and passionate lover.

In NO MORE LIES, Dr. Luc George is a charming psychiatrist and gallant aristocrat, the perfect French lover a woman can wish for. He detests secrets, but the woman he loves, Dr. Olivia Crane, has secrets by the bucket-load.

A lie that brings a smile...or the truth that draws tears?

Olivia doesn’t want to remember the past, doesn’t want to talk about it and carefully hide it from her daughter and from the man she loves. As a successful doctor, she treats abused patients, yet she is so afraid of seeing the past destroy her daughter’s peace of mind, that one little lie leads to another, and another,…

All hell breaks loose when Luc strolls into her office, with open arms and a confident smile. Should she return his scorching kisses, or should she lock her door before he digs into her many secrets?

Secret daughter, secret friend, secret enemy. Had Luc really known his sweet Olivia back then? He wants her back, but he wants the truth too. Now, Olivia has to face her past before she can grab her second chance.

NO MORE LIES --available for $0.99--is a sweet and sensual story that will make you smile, laugh and cry— the story of two psychiatrists with conflicting theories on how to treat their patients and tame their own emotions.

In a different life, or more precisely ten years ago, I was Director of an environmental laboratory. I spent a boring predictable life supervising a staff of chemists who performed analytical tests. And suddenly everything changed when my boss asked me to write a proposal for the refurbishment of a laboratory in Belarus. For the sake of meeting a new challenge, I wrote my proposal, a winning one at that. But I thought I would collapse when the boss said, “Now that you won your contract, you need to go to Belarus and work on this refurbishment.”

Apparently a boss never joked. I opened the Internet to find out as much as I could about Belarus, capital Minsk, located South of Russia, East of Poland and North of Ukraine.

After learning a little bit about the food, I decided to play it safe and took with me green apples previously washed and individually wrapped in plastic bags, a box of crackers and a bag of mini BabyBel (the gouda cheese wrapped in red wax) and of course a dozen bottles of water.

We left for our first trip to Belarus at the end of October. We included: a government person and his interpreter, me, my lab manager and computer specialist. The first chapter of my book relates my first impressions: cold weather, gray skies and cigarette smell everywhere. The curious looks of the local people made me feel as if I was wearing the wrong clothes. Of course I didn’t have chapka (that fur round hat). I remedied the problem on my first visit to the bazaar where I bought myself the cutesy real mink chapka. I still have it. Between May and October there is no heat in Belarus and I literally froze my drafty hotel room and continuously requested and begged for a hot cup of tea. Of course I was often offered vodka instead.

Many of my special stories are related in my book, TO LOVE A HERO, that will be released on January 17, 2008.

I even included my fall on the broken escalator of the airport. I was rescued by my lab manager while my heroine (the smart woman) fell in the arm of a hero to die for, the handsome Major General Sergei who made her pulse race and stole her heart.

My story, TO LOVE A HERO, highlights the hospitality and warmth of the gorgeous and gallant Belarussians officers who sing and toast and make a woman feel like a goddess. I had a lot of fun writing this book and I hope you will discover a new country and interesting civilization while reading TO LOVE A HERO.