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Elisa Evans is the author of The Christmas Cookie Wars, which is available now.
Eliza Evans pens heartwarming holiday rom-coms. When not writing, Evans can be found teaching Pilates or exploring the great outdoors. A lifelong Colorado girl, Evans lives with her husband, two sons, and two fur babies. She is also the author of The Christmas Café.
In The Christmas Cookie Wars, Evans’ charming and heartwarming sophomore novel is a romantic comedy about a woman who’s determined to save Christmas for her sons, even if it means waging a holiday cookie war with their handsome principal…if she can resist falling in love with him.
Get to know Eliza as she talks favorite novels, writing holiday romcoms and more!
What are some of your favorite novels?
This is always such a difficult question for me! There are so many to choose from. If we’re talking classics, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is the book that made me fall in love with romance novels and continues to be one of my favorite stories ever. For more contemporary works, the stories I always go back to are The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton, Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate, and All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, just to name a few. I read across all genres and could probably fill up a whole book with all my favorite titles.
When did you know you wanted to become an author?
I wanted to be an author ever since I started reading in kindergarten. As soon as I learned to write, I began creating stories and joined the Young Writers organization in elementary school. In high school and college I mainly focused on journalistic writing but finally found the courage to follow my dream and wrote my first novel after my son was born. It was a long road to publication but I wouldn’t change anything about the journey!
What are some of your favorite aspects of the holiday romance genre?
The holiday romance genre is full of uplifting stories highlighting everything we love about the season—family, togetherness, celebration, and idyllic winter scenes. Some of my best memories come from holidays spent with my loved ones, and there’s just something nostalgic about stories rich with both new and old traditions. There is a joyfulness and hopefulness in the holiday romance genre that sets it apart and makes for the perfect warm reads during the cold and dark winter months.
What was the inspiration behind The Christmas Cookie Wars?
Actually, one of my friends was the inspiration for Melody’s character in the book. She was a fashion designer and is now a cupcake designer, and I thought that switch from fashion to food was so much fun to work with. My own two sons also provided plenty of inspiration for Finn and Tate’s mischievous antics. Overall, the plot started to formulate when I thought about what would happen if a single mom fell in love with her kids’ school principal. Talk about conflict! A lot of times, my inspiration starts with the characters and then evolves from there as the story takes on a life of its own.
Which was your favorite chapter or part to write?
The ending of each book is always my favorite chapter to write because that’s when you get to see the characters’ hard-earned happily ever after. No matter what they go through, that last chapter is a chance to show the characters’ growth and hopefulness for the future. My goal as an author is to always leave the reader with a sense of hope that lingers long after they close the book.
What are you currently reading and what’s on your TBR?
There’s a whole stack of novels sitting on my nightstand right now! I’m definitely making the transition to holiday reading. This fall has been such a busy time for me that I’m already gravitating toward those fun, humorous, festive reads. I just started One Big Happy Family by Susan Mallery, and then have The Merry Matchmaker by Sheila Roberts and Kiss Me at Christmas by Jenny Bayliss up next.
