Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award-winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.
In this interview, Roseanna talks with us about her latest novel, Christmas at Sugar Plum Manor.
FF: You have a festive new novella coming out in time for the holidays called Christmas at Sugar Plum Manor. Can you tell us a little bit about this story?
Absolutely! In this book we’re primarily following Lady Mariah as she endeavors to remind her family about the joy that should permeate the Christmas season, all while she’s trying not to fall in love with her childhood best friend who she thinks is all-but-engaged to a young lady she knows to be selfish and cruelhearted. To complicate matters further, a Danish nobleman out for revenge against that friend is also trying to convince her to be his wife for purely political reasons.
FF: Some readers might pick up on the “sugar plum” reference in the title of your book. In what ways is this book loosely influenced by The Nutcracker?
Christmas at Sugar Plum Manor is what I like to think of as Downton Abbey meets The Nutcracker. My daughter danced in our local production of The Nutcracker ballet every year of her childhood, so it has a special place in my heart, just as it does in so many other families’. When I decided to write an Edwardian Christmas story, I thought it would be so much fun to use that as my inspiration! Because it has more backstory, I decided to base it on E. T. A. Hoffman’s original Nutcracker and Mouse-King instead of the ballet, which is an adaptation of an adaptation. So we have Lady Mariah as Marie; she still has siblings Fred and Louise; we have an ingenious professor character who creates the nutcracker dolls as well as other automatons; Cyril as our Nutcracker prince character; and Gyldenkrone as Mouse-King, who was identifiable in the original by his gold crown (that’s what Gyldenkrone means in Danish).
FF: Over the course of your writing career, you’ve created novels set in many different times and places, and Christmas at Sugar Plum Manor takes place in the Edwardian era. What made you choose this time period as the setting of this holiday tale?
At this point I’ve written more in the Edwardian era than anywhere else in history, and I love the charm of it. It’s a world where you can find still horses and sleighs (in the case of this Christmas story), but there are also automobiles emerging. The main form of communication is still letter or telegram, but telephone companies had begun to spring up in cities. I just love the emergence of modern society from Victorian and what that meant for the world, and I knew it would provide a perfectly enchanting backdrop for this Christmas tale!
FF: Are there any holiday traditions from the Edwardian era that you made sure to include in Christmas at Sugar Plum Manor?
Indeed! I included the classics like sleigh rides and Christmas plays put on by the children of a small village, but I also enjoyed including old-fashioned treats like sugar plums (dried plums that are rolled in sugar and baked at low temps all day long) and the classic Danish pastry called kringle. But one of my favorite things was reminding everyone of what Christmas looked like over one hundred years ago: when the church service was the highlight of the day, when trees were not decorated until Christmas Eve, and so on.
FF: Can you tell us a little bit more about the history between your characters, Cyril Lightbourne and Lady Mariah Lyons? Where do we find them at the start of the book?
Cyril is a very distant cousin of Mariah’s stepfather and heir to his title and estate. When they were children, Cyril was introduced to the family and spent another Christmas with them, and he and Mariah became dear friends. For years they exchanged letters regularly while he was away at school, but they drifted apart once Mariah was a teenager, and for the last several years hadn’t spoken or written to each other. Still, Mariah had been dreaming of him…until she learns that he’s courting Lady Pearl, who she knows from finishing school to be a conniving, selfish creature. In her mind, anyone who would actually like Pearl clearly has no sense. So when Cyril finally comes for another Christmas, she’s determined to be nothing but his friend, if that. For his own part, Cyril thinks the girl he’d once liked so much has grown out of the whimsy he always most appreciated about her. And he’s coming to Plumford Manor with a bruised pride from Lady Pearl’s rebuff, though no one knows that yet.
FF: There might just be a few love triangles over the course of this story. What challenges did those present as you were writing the book?
It was actually SO much fun! In the original Nutcracker and Mouse-King, the rivalry between the two title characters begins in the same scene when the beautiful princess scorns the Nutcracker character, so I definitely wanted to include the rivalry and the breakup with that beautiful lady. It proved the perfect foil to my whimsical heroine who would otherwise never have given up her dreams of the boy she’d cared for so much.
FF: Each year, many readers pile up a stack of books to savor during the holidays. What key elements do you think make Christmas fiction such a hot commodity for readers?
There’s a feel to Christmas that doesn’t exist any other time of year. It’s such a tangible reminder of the Light of Christ coming into the world. Even though I wrote this in the summer, just fixing my mind on all Christmas should represent—God made man, light, joy, and believing in the impossible—filled my heart to overflowing. And that’s what Christmas books remind us of—that we should cling to joy, we should believe in the impossible, we should always be looking for the light in a world of darkness.
FF: What is your favorite Christmas book and why?
I am a total classics girl in this case. I mean, I love the modern Christmas stories, but I always return to Dickens. A Christmas Carol is something I’ve enjoyed with my kids over and again in one form or another (the book, of course, and the various adaptations for the screen and stage).
FF: What aspect of this story are you most excited for readers to experience?
There’s a scene involving a tumble into a frozen river that is probably my favorite, and I think readers will love the unexpected fallout from it.
Christmas at Sugar Plum Manor
Roseanna M. White
Bethany House
Genres: Historical Romance, Christmas Romance
Release Date: September 3, 2024
ISBN-10: 076424292X
ISBN-13: 978-0764242922
Book Summary:
The Nutcracker and Edwardian-Era England combine to weave a magical tale of love and friendship at Christmastime.
As the beloved stepdaughter of the Earl of Castleton, Lady Mariah Lyons cherishes her home at Plumford Manor, but her idyllic world will be threatened when the estate passes to Cyril Lightbourne, a childhood friend she hasn’t seen or heard from in years. Once, Mariah dreamed their friendship would kindle into something more, but that was before she heard Cyril was courting the cruelhearted Lady Pearl. Now Mariah is willing to welcome him as a friend and pray he will be the heir her stepfather needs, but she’ll keep her heart locked safely away from anyone with such poor taste.
Cyril Lightbourne has long avoided returning to Plumford Manor, yet he reluctantly arrives in time for Christmas. When his friendship with Lady Mariah reignites, he finds himself caught between his affection for her and her family’s misunderstanding of his attachment to Lady Pearl. Then, more trouble arrives in the form of a Danish lord on a mission to win Mariah’s hand by Christmas. Will the magic of the holiday season help lead to the discovery of true love, or will duty to country leave all longing for what could have been?
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