About The Reindeer Keeper

Abbey senses something special about the little man tending to the reindeer who, along with a century-old farmhouse, a barn full of animals, and fields abounding in woods and pastures, was a gift to Abbey from a stranger. Abbey and her husband, Steve, move in just before the holidays. They've been together since the '60s, eloping when Steve returned from Vietnam. Now with Abbey's cancer in remission, they're looking forward to their boys coming home for Christmas.  

Turns out Christmas proves to be more magical than anticipated as Abbey realizes an understanding never thought possible through the rekindling of a belief rooted in childhood. Of course it's who delivers this gift on Christmas Eve that gives Abbey and Steve the strength to face their greatest challenge. 

Where The Reindeer Keeper Began...

There were 3 other houses besides ours sitting in a row along a country road that seemed to stretch forever when I was growing up. And inside those houses were aunts, uncles, cousins, dogs, cats and a grandmother nicknamed Giddy by my brother. This woman of French-Canadian heritage with hands that tilled the soil, cooked, baked, worked in the barn, canned, stacked wood, tended to babies, sewed, knitted, crocheted, cut old clothes into strips and braided them into rugs of all sizes was our mentor. Her strength was mighty; her wisdom-visionary; her beauty-breathtaking.

To say I was lucky to have fields to wander and a creek to explore doesn’t do justice to the backdrop nature provided. I was blessed. That stretch of road continues to influence me, for what was at my finger tips as a child remains with me today-coming out in bits and pieces in my Christmas story, “The Reindeer Keeper," released in 2010.

I invite you to follow my blog-meet my family; run with me and my cousins through corn fields and backfields; ride with us on our homemade rafts along Sucker creek or when it freezes, skate with us under millions of silver stars. Learn about our get-togethers and Giddy’s molasses cookies so big it took both my hands to hold one. Experience the serenity of Pine Tree Grove where cedar and pine grew in thickets. Play inside the old chicken coop-gutted and filled with the desks, books, and chalkboards of an abandoned one-room schoolhouse. It was there-inside that old building with windows void of glass and a door that did not fit that Louisa May Alcott and Laura Ingalls Wilder-to name a few-were read. It was there that we played and imagined; drew and created. As you join me you’ll get to know me-where I come from and where I hope to take you through the pages of my books.