#356 – Crafting Holiday Romance Novels with Holly Cassidy

In this episode, we spoke to Holly Cassidy, also known as Hannah Mary McKinnon, author of holiday romance novels as Holly and thrillers as Hannah! Holly’s latest, The Christmas Countdown, is a “charming holiday rom com about a young, recently heartbroken woman who is tasked by her sister to complete Advent calendar challenges in the lead up to Christmas to reignite her belief in herself, the holidays, and love again.” The Christmas Countdown is Hannah’s second holiday novel writing as Holly Cassidy, the first being The Christmas Wager.

We discussed Hannah’s writing career (and, as she says, how it was borne of failure), writing ten novels, moving from rom-coms to thrillers and back again, writing in two very different genres, how she creates her characters, her pen name, details about The Christmas Countdown and how it relates to her own holiday traditions, and much more! Hannah has had such a wonderful career and it was great to hear from such a prolific author with unique perspectives on both romantic comedies and thrillers. Don’t miss this episode if you’re a write (or reader) of either… or both, just like Hannah!

To learn more, visit Hannah’s website and follow her on Facebook, Instagram, Threads and X/Twitter.