The Real Gift of the Santa Train

By Kari Kilgore

When a Disaster Turns into a Dream
Susan works hard to dress up Estonoa, Virginia, for the arrival of the Santa Train.
Only to find the wind sent everything tumbling down.
Paul looks forward to inspecting the train line every year to keep Santa on track.
But he jumps at the chance to help rescue Susan's plans.
Will their chance for a holiday love story make Santa's list?

Also available in the collection A Tapestry of Holiday Tales: Winter Adventures from the Odds and Endings Bookstore

 

An excerpt from The Real Gift of the Santa Train:

Saving the Day, and So Much More

With reinforcements on the way, now Paul was free to do his best to recreate that heart-melting smile of Susan's as often as he possibly could.

He turned and almost crashed right into her, and that did the trick.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" she said, drawing back, but not before Paul caught the enticing aroma of her hair, still trying to escape from the cutest pink scarf on the planet. "I didn't mean to sneak up on you like that. I've got six people on the way, and my friend Will promised to bring coffee and hot chocolate. We may have to wait on the sugary treats, but help will be here in about five minutes."

"Hey, that's great! I've got four guys headed in. A couple of them are bringing tools in case the holiday village needs a bit of a remodel."

Susan closed her eyes and held one hand over her heart, which gave Paul time to swoon a bit over how beautiful she looked, even in the overcast morning light.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Spiral Publishing, Ltd
• Release date: Nov 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201771683

Kari Kilgore

Kari Kilgore started her first published novel Until Death in Transylvania, Romania, and finished it in Room 217 at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, where Stephen King got the idea for The Shining. That’s just one example of how real world inspiration drives her fiction. Kari’s first published novel Until Death was included on the Preliminary Ballot for the Bram Stoker Award for Outstanding Achievement in a First Novel in 2016. It was also a finalist for the Golden Stake Award at the Vampire Arts Festival in 2018. Recent professional short story sales include three to Fiction River anthology magazine, with the first due out in the September issue. Kari also has two stories in a holiday-themed anthology project with Kristine Kathryn Rusch due out over the holidays in 2019. Kari writes fantasy, science fiction, horror, and contemporary fiction, and she’s happiest when she surprises herself. She lives at the end of a long dirt road in the middle of the woods with her husband Jason Adams, various house critters, and wildlife they’re better off not knowing more about. Kari’s novels, novellas, and short stories are available at www.spiralpublishing.net, which also publishes books by Frank Kilgore and Jason Adams. For more information about Kari, upcoming publications, her travels and adventures, and random cool things that catch her attention, visit www.karikilgore.com.

Book preview

The Real Gift of the Santa Train

For everyone who finds the best gifts

by helping others

THE REAL GIFT OF THE SANTA TRAIN

KARI KILGORE

SPIRAL PUBLISHING, LTD.

CHAPTER 1

The day of the Santa Train’s arrival in Estonoa, Virginia, dawned cloudy and overcast, but Susan McFarland refused to let the November gloom sink into her own mood. Even if the forecast proved out and the gray-bellied clouds made good on the snow she smelled in the air, that would only bring a little bit more joy to the occasion.

The truth was she absolutely refused to let her first turn as chair of the official welcoming committee go off as anything other than a spectacular success.

And she was going to do everything she possibly could to hold on to that sense of optimism no matter how the day turned out.

The first thing that meant was arriving downtown unreasonably early to make sure the committee’s hard work in creating a reasonable facsimile of a winter wonderland hadn’t suffered during the strong winds overnight.

Which was the only thing that could possibly explain her standing in an empty parking lot beside the railroad tracks at seven on a Saturday morning, clutching a stainless-steel Clinch River Books tankard in one hand and the loose knot of an extra-long pink scarf in the other. Doing her level best to warm up, wake up, and keep the overly brisk and ambitious wind from picking her up and carrying her away.

Maybe to a place where someone else might take over and deal with this mess.

The silver of the tracks up on their own steep, rock-covered little hill stood out against the winter-gray circle of the mountains around Estonoa, seeming to draw a line connecting the tan brick building of a law office and town museum on one side to the red brick bank and post office on the other.

Funny how the things people needed consolidated themselves closer together in a small town, rather than sprawling all over the place like in a big city.

When Susan had finally