If you have followed my interviews for some time, you know how passionate I am about highlighting those behind-the-scenes, and authors are often the ones who are more out of the public eye when it comes to movies than just about anyone. Of course, the author’s name appears in the credits, and he/she can boast that the movie is based on his/her book (characters and stories that HE/SHE created), but most viewers spend more time extolling the efforts of the actors, especially the leads. Recently, I had the opportunity to interview author Nancy Naigle, and in light of the fact that she is practically the “Hallmark Poster Child” right now (two movies this holiday season and a Hallmark book to boot!), I am honored to feature her today in anticipation of all of her work (current and upcoming) with Hallmark.

RH: Why did you decide to become a writer? What was your path to becoming a writer?

NN: Great question. I was a senior vice president with Bank of America. I’d never dreamed of becoming an author, but I was always an avid reader. The year I turned forty, my position at the bank required me to offshore our work. Although it was an excellent business decision at the time, it wasn’t something that made me feel very good personally. I think a lot of ladies do soul-searching when they turn forty, so it’s no surprise that I started thinking about what I wanted to be known for, or what changes I wanted to make. I realized that during the most difficult times in my life, books were where I turned for solace. If I could write one book that could help one person get through a tough time…that would really be doing something. I decided at that time that I’d dust off one of those stories that I’d scribbled just for fun and try to turn it into a novel and finish it. I joined RWA {Romance Writers of America} the following year and attended a conference. It took me nine years to get published after I made that decision. In 2014, I took an early retirement from Bank of America to just write. I’ve never looked back, and I’ve never been happier. I’m so thankful to all of the readers that have shared in allowing me this gift to write stories for a living.

What was the first professional work you ever published? What are your memories of the experience?

Oh gosh, my first published work was a short story in a Valentine’s Day anthology called Be Mine, Valentine, with a small publisher who is no longer in business. I was so excited to see my name on a book. My first novel published was Sweet Tea and Secrets later that same year. That story became the back story for Derek, who is the hero in Life After Perfect. Readers can download that free short story on the FREE DOWNLOADS page of my website.

Please tell us about your “Non-Hallmark” books.

All of my books are small-town stories. I love small towns and it’s such a wonderful setting to weave all the things I love together – community, love, and hope.

Adams Grove Series – There are six books in this series, and they are all love stories with a small mystery/suspense plot to each one. The tagline for this series…”Welcome to Adams Grove, where the tea is sweet, but trouble is brewing.” The books include:
Sweet Tea and Secrets
Wedding Cake and Big Mistakes
Out of Focus
Pecan Pie and Deadly Lies
Mint Juleps and Justice
Barbecue and Bad News

Boot Creek Novels – There are three books in this series. This is more of a women’s fiction series. The tagline for this series is… “A second chance at love awaits you in Boot Creek.”

Life After Perfect
Every Yesterday
Until Tomorrow

G Team Mysteries – There are five novels and two novellas in this series that I co-author with Kelsey Browning. We like to say this series is like “the Golden Girls meet Dirty Harry”. These gals are more like Dirty Harry, only over fifty, female and from the south. These are not your momma’s grannies!

In For A Penny (free on all digital platforms)
Fit To Be Tied
In High Cotton
Under The Gun
Gimme Some Sugar
Plus two novellas!

You can get my full book list, including all of the single titles I’ve written on my website at www.NancyNaigle.com

The first book you wrote for Hallmark Publishing was the novelization of Christmas in Evergreen. First of all, were you a Hallmark fan? Secondly, what was the process of writing this novelization?

I have been a Hallmark Channel fan for years! I’ve had Facebook pajama parties with my readers just because it’s fun and I love those movies so much. When I was asked to write the novelization of Christmas in Evergreen, two of my novels were already optioned for movies. It sounded like such a fun project to write a book from an existing movie.

I watched the movie several times before I ever got started. Hallmark supplies the script, so the first thing I did was translate that script into a word document and change all the formatting of dialogue into a novel format. Screenplays and manuscripts are formatted completely different so that took some doing. Then I started from the beginning and started layering in the internal thoughts and trying to convey all that beautiful scenery in the movie into words that would take the readers to those places. It wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. It actually took just as much time as writing a novel from scratch. I learned so much from this experience. I’m so glad I did it.

In addition to this, I understand that two of your books has been optioned for a Christmas movie this year on the Hallmark network. Please tell us about that experience and how it came about.

Christmas Joy

Yes, two of my books were optioned this year, and those movies have been filmed and will air this season. Christmas Joy premieres on Hallmark Channel’s Countdown to Christmas on Saturday, November 3rd, and Hope at Christmas will premiere on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Miracles of Christmas on Tuesday, November 20th!

I’m not sure exactly how Crown Media found me, but I remember the day my agent called me to tell me that we’d gotten an inquiry about Christmas Joy. The book hadn’t been published yet, although I’d turned in the manuscript the previous summer. We were so excited! The book was optioned by Crown Media in March 2017. It moved to production in April of 2018! Now, THAT is when I really got excited.

With these films, what was your involvement after they optioned your books? 

There isn’t any involvement on my part once the movie is optioned or moves to production. It’s just a wait and cross-your-fingers that it will someday become a movie and air. I was able to go on set of both movies and that was so much fun. I’ve had so much fun getting to meet all of the talented people tied to making a movie and there are SO many!! I had no idea how many people it took to make a movie. One thing people always ask about is if I was worried about how the movie would turn out. The answer is no. I’ve never met a Hallmark movie I didn’t like, so I wasn’t worried at all. I knew it would be heartwarming and filled with joy.

Hope At Christmas

For fans of the book, what differences do you think they will see between the book and the movie?

There are most definitely differences between the book and the movie, but now I understand why. My books run around 88,000 to 93,000 words in length. A Hallmark movie script is about 20,000 words. Seriously, you cannot fit all the characters, and story arcs from a novel into a 20,000-word script. There’s just no way. So, although there are changes I can promise you this. Both Christmas Joy and Hope at Christmas still carry the essence of those stories. The emotion, community, and love that makes these stories special are all still there. I think people who loved the books will still love the movie and the changes. And for those that watch and love the movie that haven’t yet read the book, I think when they read the book they’ll be totally delighted to learn more about these characters and meet new characters from the book that didn’t make it to the movie!

I’ll be honest, some of the lines in the movies are so adorable that I wished I HAD written those!

Any other upcoming works you can mention?

Well, I’m working all the time. I’ve got a new Hallmark Publishing book coming out on January 19th called The Secret Ingredient. It’s a Valentine’s Day themed book centered around a baking contest and that’s so much fun. Oh, and it’s a reunion romance. I do love those!! It’s my favorite trope. I’m also working on my 2019 release from St. Martin’s Press called Christmas Angels. Readers can stay connected to book and movie news by joining my newsletter at www.NancyNaigle.com

What is your favorite holiday of the year and why?

I love them all. Any reason to get friends and family together makes me happy.

What is your purpose in and/or reason for writing romance novels?

I just want to make people smile, take a moment to relax, and remember there is hope and kindness still all around us. That’s why my logo is Read. Relax. Repeat.

Special events in addition to both Christmas movies:

I’ll be on Hallmark’s Home & Family show this Friday (November 2nd) at 10 AM Eastern.

There’s a fun Movie Night Party Planner on my FREE DOWNLOAD page on my website.  I’ll also be on my Facebook Author page on movie night doing a couple giveaways and showing readers the Christmas trees here at my house (yes, already!) for the premiere party night.

As far as I’m concerned, Nancy is the quintessential author to represent Hallmark during this season of the year. In fact, it would appear she was a “Hallmarkie” long before it was the fashionable and discerning thing to do. She adores small town romances, humor, Christmas, pajama parties…she even discovered her true calling later in life and left the corporate world to follow her passion. (Almost sounds like a Hallmark movie to me! 😁) It truly makes no difference how or why Hallmark chose to adapt her novels and bring her on board because I, for one, am eternally grateful! No, I have not seen either of the movies as of yet, but I have no doubt that they will be as splendid, heartwarming, and magical as all Hallmark movies are. Additionally, the fact that Hallmark has Nancy hard at work on another book assures me that Hallmark is quite pleased with her work, and I have no doubt the fans will continue to respond to her style.

I hope that all U.S. households plan to tune in and watch both of Nancy’s movies this holiday season–Christmas Joy on the Hallmark Channel this Saturday, November 3rd and Hope At Christmas on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries November 20th. Additionally, Canadian viewers can watch Christmas Joy on the W Network November 24th and Hope At Christmas on the W Network on November 25th. I would also invite all of my readers to check out Nancy’s links below and don’t forget to watch for your chance to get a free copy of Nancy’s book Christmas In Evergreen during the premiere of Christmas Joy this Saturday! I cannot thank Hallmark enough for introducing its fans to yet another accomplished romance author who cherishes Hallmark as much as we do (maybe even more so!). I look forward to an abundant and beneficial relationship between Hallmark and Nancy, and I expect that all the true Hallmarkies will come out in full force to demonstrate their unconditional support of her and her work!

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