Of course, since I’m a writer, it is always a joy to feature authors, screenwriters, and other members of the writing community on my site, and Barbara Ankrum is one of those special people who’s about to have a rather special dream actualized. On Saturday, November 23rd, her book-turned-movie, Holiday Hearts, will premiere on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel (November 24th on the W Network in Canada). Recently, she and I had a brief online chat, and I am honored to share this interview in anticipation of this weekend movie premiere!

RH: Please tell us about your journey to becoming a writer. Please tell us about your acting career as well.

BA: First, thanks for having me, Ruth. I’m so happy to be here to chat with you. So, my writing career path is a bit convoluted. I was always a voracious reader and I think as a result, story-telling was something that was close to my heart. It was the path of least resistance in college (lol!) as an English major and over the years, I began a lot of stories, poems that I never really finished.

In Vancouver

But I never saw writing as a path for me. I had always planned on acting as a career. In fact, I wound up moving to Los Angeles in my twenties and doing just that. I fell into doing commercials, which was fun and fit in well to my schedule as a wife and mom of two littles. I did a lot of national commercials back then, including an infamous dandruff commercial for Head and Shoulders which my friends still love to tease me about.

But in acting, there is a lot of waiting in between jobs and frustrating auditions and I began to read a lot of romance as an escape. I’m not sure when it occurred to me that I could maybe write one of those books, but it was around that time that my sweet husband found a box of my old writings and said, “You’re a writer!” No one had ever encouraged me like that. I guess I was ready for a change and a little more control over my creative world and I dove into writing my first romance novel. See why I write happily-ever-afters?

In Vancouver

Please tell us about the writing and publishing of your first book and how that changed your life/career. 

The idea of writing a book and the actual writing of a book are quite different, I discovered. It took me about three years to wrangle a hundred pages or so of that first book, a historical western romance. I naively entered it into a national RWA contest and, sadly, did not final. But out of that contest, weirdly, I was introduced to an agent who took me on. She sold that book in a two-book deal with Zebra/Kensington pretty quickly.

I felt lucky and honestly terrified. I had never actually finished a book before. Now I had four months to finish it. But somehow, I managed to do it and that book ended up winning an RT award. I never went back to acting after that. I wrote in my living room, surrounded by my kids, the dog, the cats and all the chaos. I loved it and I wanted it that way. I didn’t want to miss my life as I wrote books. And for the next ten years, I wrote mostly when my kids were in school. Seeing my books on the bookshelf and now online, is still a thrill for me. Writing is a lot of hard, emotional work, but it’s also full of joy for me. And while I took a brief detour into teaching and screenwriting for a few years, novel writing is my happy place.

Please tell us briefly about your books, your style and what inspires your books.

In Vancouver

I’ve written both historicals and contemporaries for the big five publishers in New York, including Harper Collins and Harlequin Books. But a few years ago, after a break, I began writing for contemporaries for Tule Publishing. Inspiration comes from everywhere, but often from my own life.

A few years ago, my husband and I decided to leave California and move to the mid-west to be closer to our daughter and her family. Even though we were excited for the change, that move was scary, leaving our friends and our son behind. My books during that time were all about change and feeling stuck and moving forward. Themes tend to pop up in my books that I’m dealing with in real life.

So if you’re a reader of mine, I guess you’ll get a little piece of me on that journey. My books have been described as emotional, but they’re also fun and full of warm characters who struggle with the same problems many of us do. I guess I write to try to figure it all out. I probably never will, but that only means more books for you!

Please tell us about how your book was optioned for a Hallmark movie. How long did the process take?

Jane Porter, the publisher at Tule Publishing, is totally responsible for making that happen. She became interested in Hallmark a few years ago and has sold a number of Tule authors to Hallmark. She sent my first ever Christmas book, The Christmas Wish, (now re-titled HOLIDAY HEARTS), to a producer, Shelley Hack, who loved the story and optioned it. Shelley championed that book all the way through the process, which took almost a year and a half from the option deal. The movie got the green light in late August this year and it took a while to peel me off the ceiling when it happened! It was…thrilling! I didn’t write the screenplay for HOLIDAY HEARTS, but a really talented screenwriter named Susan Brightbill did and we’ve become friends on the outside now.

Please tell us about your experience of going to set of Holiday Hearts. Any standout moments?

Credit: ©2019 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Bob Akester

In September, I went to Vancouver to the set of HOLIDAY HEARTS with my daughter, who was as excited as I was about the movie. We spent two days on the set (pinching ourselves!) and watching my story come to life. There were tears, I tell you. I met all the incredible crew members, (the 2^nd AD dragged us to the camera dollies for a picture!) the wonderful cast and all the production people behind the scenes.

on set

The first day, we walked onto the set to find a huge room set for a big party, exactly as I had pictured it in my mind as I wrote it. I told Shelley that and she smiled and said, “Me, too!” I knew then that she was going to make an amazing movie given all the attention to detail and the passion she had to tell it just right. We were invited to sit in the video village with headsets to watch the filming. Meeting Paul Campbell and Ashley Williams was a highlight. They are both so nice and funny and generous. And they’re so good in this film.

While changes are always made in the movie version, what do you think readers of the book will appreciate about the movie? What will viewers who haven’t read the book appreciate about the movie?

With Paul Campbell

While I haven’t had the chance to see the whole screenplay, I know there will be some changes from the book. But I do think they have tried to stay pretty true to the heart of my story. The story was part of my Canadays of Montana series about a family of sisters. I think seeing Ashley portraying Peyton (Eve in the book) will make my readers happy. She couldn’t be closer to who I pictured as I wrote that character. She’s hilarious and warm and exactly who Ben needs. And while Ben’s character in my book had a hard time showing his feelings, Paul has a natural warmth to him that I think my readers and Hallmark watchers will love.

From Set

And for those who haven’t read the book yet, I hope they take away what I wanted to portray in this story—this Christmas-y warmth of friendship blossoming into something more and moving forward, despite your fear. It’s a heartfelt, emotional story that I hope they will fall in love with. I also think they’re going to love the visuals in the film. It’s just so pretty!

Any other current/upcoming works you can mention?

I have a brand new Christmas book that just came out this week from Tule, called EVERY TIME A BELL RINGS. There’s a little Christmas magic involved. Maybe an angel, too. And that book and all of my Canadays of Montana books are about to become audiobooks, too, so that’s a fun new adventure.

How big a Hallmark fan were you before this film? Why do you believe this network is doing so well?

Andrew Airlie, Ashley Williams, Lisa Durupt Credit: ©2019 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Bob Akester

I started watching Hallmark a couple of years ago when we first began considering sending books to them. I immediately understood the draw. The world is stressful! Watching a Hallmark show was like opening a sweet romance novel without the eyestrain! And the movies have only gotten better over the years. Hallmark Movies and Mysteries channel is usually my choice because it’s most aligned with the kinds of stories I like to tell and watch. But Hallmark is an island in a storm, welcoming you in with coconuts and waving banana leaves, saying, “Here’s a safe place to be for a while. We won’t disappoint you!” And who doesn’t want that?

Credit: ©2019 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Bettina Strauss

What is one style/genre of books you’d like to write that you haven’t yet?

I would like to try a bigger book, maybe women’s fiction one of these days. It might even be a historical.

How will you be spending the holidays?

My daughter is throwing a big holiday watch party for the premiere of HOLIDAY HEARTS, which will be so much fun. We’ll be celebrating Christmas with our daughter’s family and our grandkids, then flying back to California to spend time with our friends and our son at the beach. And hopefully, having a big group West Coast showing of the movie! Hope you all enjoy HOLIDAY HEARTS!

And thanks so much for having me, Ruth!

Ashley Williams, Payton Lepinski, Paul Campbell Credit: ©2019 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Bettina Strauss

I do believe Barbara and I must have similar taste in Hallmark movies. I am forever telling everyone I know that in this household, we prefer Hallmark Movies & Mysteries (although there have been some truly dynamic movies on the Hallmark Channel this season that have totally knocked my socks off!). I already feel such a kinship with her because of the style of books she writes, the fact that she was an English teacher, and the way in which she pursued her dreams when it may have been easier to take the “least path of resistance.” While I have yet to read one of Barbara’s books, Hallmark has introduced me to such a vast array of authors through their movies and their books that I am certain I will be remedying my lack of knowledge of her written works very soon. 

I hope that everyone who is able to do so will tune in this weekend for what is bound to be one incredible movie premiere–Holiday Hearts (November 23rd on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, November 24th on the W Network). Additionally, I invite all of my readers to pay a visit to each of Barbara’s links that are listed below and perhaps consider following her and/or purchasing one of her books for their own collection. I am grateful to Barbara for not only taking the time to respond to these questions in such a thoughtful, engaging fashion, but she also was one to follow up on this interview due to the fact that I was literally swamped! I am definitely placing her books on the top of my to-be-read list, and I hope that all the Hallmarkies throw their support behind Barbara and this upcoming movie because after all, Barbara is realizing a dream that so many authors never see brought to fruition. Indeed, her story could be a Hallmark movie in of itself, and there is nothing better than witnessing a lovely, talented lady like Barbara join with a quality network like Hallmark.

FOLLOW BARBARA

Website

Twitter

Facebook

Instagram

Pinterest

Spread the love

Tweet