Hi everyone! Today I am so pleased to welcome Eli Easton back to Joyfully Jay. Eli is hear to talk about her new release, Midwinter Night’s Dream. She is sharing some pictures of Springfield Farm, the setting for the book and her real life home. Please join me in giving her a big welcome!

A Visit on the Springfield Farm

“Midwinter Night’s Dream”, my Christmas story for 2015, just released on Nov 25th. It features Micah Springfield, Hank’s brother from “Unwrapping Hank”. One of the best things about writing “Midwinter” was that I could return to the Springfield’s family farm, where a lot of the action in both books takes place.

The Springfield’s farm in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania is a very familiar place to me. In fact, it’s where I live with my husband and our assorted menagerie. When I wrote “Unwrapping Hank”, I hadn’t planned on making Hank’s family farm mirror our farm so exactly, but it insistently wrote itself that way. Everything about the farm, from the rambling old farmhouse to the names of the cows and the chickens, is based on our IRL farm. We even have a chicken named Eggy Lee and a cow named Trueheart.

We bought this farm in 2010. I was originally born in Pennsylvania, but spent my post-college years living on the west coast. I lived in Seattle for a lot of years and also in various parts of California–the Bay Area, the mountains near Yosemite, and in Southern California.

I’ve always had a love for Lancaster County, PA though. There’s something about this rural farmland, with its old stone houses, big barns, horses, mules, hot green summers, gorgeous falls, and snowy winters, that is in my blood. When I lived on the west coast, I always dreamed of moving back to PA and living in an old fieldstone house someday.

Maybe because to me this place represents an old-fashioned family homestead to the nth degree, it felt like the right place for Hank and Micah to come from. And this year, Micah’s even bringing an entire theater troupe home with him for Christmas so we can have a play in the barn. What fun!

In “Midwinter Night’s Dream”, there’s a heavy snowfall and Hank, Micah, Sloane, Hank’s guy crush Leo, and some of their friends, go snowshoeing around the farm. So here are some pictures of the farm in the snow.

The old bank barn where Leo will be holding his Christmas Eve production of “Midsummer Night’s Dream”

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A view of the barn from the pond.

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The pond

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Our fieldstone farmhouse

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Trekking in the snow with the dogs

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Our dogs running in the snow. In the foreground is Lucy, our white bulldog who is “Grinch” in the stories. She appeared on the cover of “Unwrapping Hank”.

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Our cows, Trueheart and Tinkerbell, in the free stall in the bank barn.

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Hope you enjoy the new story from the Springfield Farm. Merry Christmas!

Eli Easton


Blurb

midwinter night's dreamMicah is the hippest, most chill guy on campus. But when he gets the hottest kiss of his life from a cute guy during a game of ‘spin the bottle’, Micah’s cool turns into a puddle of anxious goo. Sure, Micah’s always been a little bi-curious, but he never thought he’d pursue a guy, much less a guy who doesn’t seem to be interested in getting caught.

Leo is passionate about two things: gay rights activism and acting. He stays focused and in control, and he never, ever, dates straight guys. When a chance spin of a bottle at a party has him locking lips with Micah Springfield, president of the Delts, dread-headed, serial-dating, straight Micah, Leo is determined to forget about it, no matter how incendiary the sparks or how gorgeous Micah may be.

Leo has bigger problems. His senior project is directing Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream just before the Christmas break. When his venue cancels at the last minute, Micah offers the use of his parent’s barn in rural Pennsylvania. Leo’s play may be saved, but what about his heart? Between Micah’s sweet lips, his family’s welcoming arms, and a devious bulldog who is determined to play Puck, Leo may find himself falling under the spell of Christmas magic.

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