Writer of the Netflix sensation A Christmas Prince and holiday hits for Hallmark and Lifetime, Karen Schaler, has a new heartwarming story, Finding Christmas, just released!
We had the pleasure of chatting to Karen about Finding Christmas, her love for all things Christmas, writing, book recommendations, and more!
You can find Karen on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, along with at her website.
Hi Karen! Tell us a little about yourself!
Hi! As a writer I wear a lot of different hats. This made it really tricky when I was trying to create a two-line description for my website summarizing what I do. This is what I’ve come up with so far. I’m a three-time Emmy Award-winning storyteller, author, screenwriter, journalist and national TV host. I’ve written original screenplays for Netflix, Hallmark, and Lifetime Christmas movies, and three Christmas books, earning the nickname in the press as “Christmas Karen”.
I grew up in Washington State, north of Seattle and moved to Los Angles, California, when I was seventeen, to work as a nanny to gain residency for the college I wanted to attend. I chose California State University Fullerton because they had one of the top Broadcast Journalist department in the country and my goal was to become a foreign TV correspondent.
I graduated with honors with a double major in Communications Broadcast Journalism and Sociology. After a year of accumulating a huge rejection file, I finally accepted my first TV reporting job in Billings, Montana, making a whooping nine-thousand six hundred dollars a year, being told I was lucky to get that because there were hundreds of other eager applicants waiting to the take the job if I didn’t want it.
When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
Well, my mom always says I started telling stories as soon as I started talking and never stopped. I can remember as early as first grade having a diary I would write in every day and always started with Dear Diary. I’m thankful my mom kept all of them, because I kept up this tradition all the way through college.
It’s really fun to read them now. I would write about anything and everything, from what I wore that day to school, to the boys I had a crush on, and the life I was going to have someday. It was part journalism, part dreaming, and part make-believe. It all sort of jumbled together. I didn’t overthink what I was writing. I wrote because I loved it and I felt I had to write. It was part of who I was.
I always say my love of writing also probably started because my grandparents lived in Mexico for half the year and my grandma pretty much bribed me saying if I wrote her letters, she would send me these amazing painted tin Christmas ornaments. I loved getting those ornaments so much. I would write her all the time and as promised she would write back with a new ornament.
So, my grandma was pretty much my first pen-pal. We continued writing those letters all the way up to when she passed away last year at 103 years old. She also read a book every day and so did my mom, so my love of reading also was inspired by everyone in my family always having a book in their hand.
Finding Christmas is out now! If you could only describe your book in five words, what would they be?
Oh, that’s so hard. How about ‘an uplifting heartfelt holiday romance.’
Let’s hear a little more! What can readers expect?
I first wrote Finding Christmas as a screenplay after I wrote the original screenplay for the Netflix hit A Christmas Prince and Hallmark’s Christmas Camp followed by writing the Christmas Camp novel and novella sequel Christmas Camp Wedding. All the Christmas stories I write are filled with heart and hope and for my latest, Finding Christmas, there’s a surprise twist that I hope makes this another fun and festive holiday read.
In Finding Christmas, Emmie’s one true love is Christmas and she can’t wait to share all her favorite holiday traditions with her new boyfriend, Grant. She thinks he’s the one. But, when Grant’s crazy work schedule has him more “Bah Humbug” than “Ho, Ho, Ho,” Emmie creates a holiday-themed scavenger hunt to help him find his Christmas spirit. The plan is at the end of the journey, Grant will arrive at the charming town of Christmas Point where Emmie’s planned this amazing romantic weekend filled with holiday activities.
But Emmie’s perfect plan backfires when a mix-up has the wrong guy following her clues! Sam, a best-selling mystery writer, thinks Emmie’s clever Christmas clues are from his agent, who is trying to help him get over his epic writer’s block.
You can imagine Emmie’s surprise when Sam shows up at Christmas Point! Sam, instantly feels she’s someone special but all Emmie can see is that the wrong guy has shown up. Impressed by the small, charming town, Sam decides to stay, hoping it will help inspire him to write.
When Grant keeps getting delayed by work, he tells Emmie to go ahead and do the Christmas activities she has planned without him. Emmie is disappointed until she keeps running into Sam and they start doing some of the activities together.
When Grant finally shows up at Christmas Point but still isn’t getting into the holiday spirit, Emmie can’t help but wonder if he’s really the one for her. She also can’t get Sam out of her mind and all the great times they had together. With Christmas coming fast, Emmie will need the magic of the season to help steer her in the direction of true love…
Where did the inspiration for Finding Christmas come from?
My dad inspired my novel Finding Christmas by always doing a Christmas scavenger hunt for me when I was growing up. He has never missed a year. We didn’t have a lot of material things, but my dad, no matter what, would send me on a scavenger hunt to find my present. I remember as a little girl being so excited to follow the clues to figure out where dad had hidden my present. As a child, it was all about finding the gift, but as I grew up, I realized the real gift was my dad taking the time to put the scavenger hunt together and doing something special for his daughter. As a teenager, I remember teasing him about how I thought I was getting a little too old for the hunt, but that never stopped him.
Every holiday there were clues and a present to be found. Even last year, at 78-years old, my dad was as excited as a kid at Christmas to keep up our family tradition and create a scavenger hunt for me. I know he has just as much fun as I do, and I can’t imagine a Christmas without our scavenger hunts together.
To help other families who might want to start a tradition like this, I put some of our Christmas scavenger hunt tips in the bonus section of my Finding Christmas novel, which also includes some of my favorite Christmas recipes, like my Finding Christmas Gingerbread Snowballs Cookie Recipe. You have to try them. They’re delicious and so easy to make. When it comes to the other Christmas activities that Emmie does at Christmas Point, they’re all inspired by what I personally love to do and try to do every Christmas.
Is there a particular scene, character, or chapter that you really enjoyed writing?
Another great question and a hard one to answer because it really was so much fun writing Finding Christmas. With this story I also wrote the screenplay before I wrote the novel and the first time I wrote the scene where the mix up happens where Sam, not Emmie’s boyfriend, gets the first scavenger hunt clue, I still can cringe. I can see it so clearly and I’m guessing the reader will react like I always do saying, “oh no!”. Especially when right after this we have Emmie’s talking about how it’s going to be the perfect Christmas vacation with her boyfriend. What happens certainly isn’t what Emmie planned but I always say sometimes the detour in a journey is the path to true love.
Some of the other scenes I really enjoyed writing were about all the Christmas activities Emmie does with Sam while she’s at Christmas Point. From making gingerbread men and snow angels, to finding, cutting down and decorating the perfect Christmas tree, to ice skating and volunteering wrapping presents at the community center, to making her very special snowmen family, because every activity I wrote about was inspired by some of my own favorite holiday traditions.
Now, you seem to really love Christmas with this book and others, along with writing screenplays including Netflix’s A Christmas Prince! Why do you love Christmas so much?
After all my recent Christmas movies and book projects the press nicknamed me “Christmas Karen,” and it turns out I have Christmas spirit in my blood, literally. My great aunt is featured in Ripley’s Believe it or Not! for being born on Christmas Day and being legally named Merry Christmas Day. True story! It turns out she was the fifth child and the parents let the other children name her. So, naturally the fact that she was a Christmas baby the kids the the idea to give her the first name of Merry, the middle name of Christmas, and their last name was Day.
My birthday is on December 19th, and for as long as I can remember everyone in my family has honored and loved Christmas. My writing background starts as a journalist where I was a crime and investigative television correspondent and a war correspondent reporting from Bosnia and Afghanistan. In this world, I would wake up every day and have to tell some of the most gut-wrenching stories in the world. Whenever I got to come home around the holidays, I would replenish my soul and spirit by watching positive and uplifting Christmas movies and by reading inspiring Christmas novels.
Once I started writing my Christmas movies and novels I didn’t want to stop. In my Christmas world I can always count on there being a happy ending, a happily ever after. It’s something I feel very thankful for, that I can tell these stories that mean so much to me, and hope that they bring other people as much joy as they have brought me over the years.
Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?
For any aspiring writer I always tell them the most important thing is to write. Write every single day. It doesn’t have to be perfect. You just have to write from the heart. I hear so many people say they want to write a book but they don’t have time. My response is that you make time for what matters most to you. If it’s your dream to write a book, get up a few hours early every day, or stay up a little later each night, and make it a priority to write.
Also, important, you have to write what you’re passionate about. Don’t try to chase the trends or write something because you think it’s what you can sell. Writing is a labor of love and trust me, the labor part is true, so you better really be all in with what you’re writing. It’s likely the only way you’re going to stick with it and finish is because once you start, you’re so caught up in your story, quitting won’t be an option.
Follow your heart, never listen to anyone who tells you you can’t do something. Believe in yourself and surround yourself with people who believe in you. Ask yourself the question that I ask myself every single day is, “What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail,” then do it.
What’s next for you?
One of the things I’m really excited about is that after writing my Hallmark original movie Christmas Camp and then writing the books Christmas Camp and Christmas Camp Wedding, I decided I wanted to create a real-life Christmas Camp that everyone could attend. So, I partnered with one of my favorite resorts, the award-winning Phoenician in Scottsdale, Arizona, that had just finished a multi-million-dollar renovation, and I’ve created a Christmas Camp experience, inspired by my stories that will run over several weekend this December.
At Christmas Camp you get to star in your own Hallmark movie with a long list of fun and festive activities from holiday baking, culinary and crafts classes, to Christmas decorating and gift wrapping. We even have a signature Christmas Camp cocktail mixology class, wine tasting, and star gazing with an astronomer, Christmas movie screenings and daily “Christmas Karen” chats with amazing giveaways and so much more. I host every event and it’s truly my happy place, being able to share these favorite traditions and experiences with others.
I’ve also created a line of Christmas Camp merchandise from clothing to home goods to even food items, like my signature Christmas Camp hot cocoa that’s featured in the movie and books. I’m getting requests from all over the world to hold my trademarked Christmas Camps so I’m working on some wonderful licensing programs so I can make this happen.
I’m also currently writing a holiday feature film script and several TV scripts. My next Christmas movie I wrote is Rediscovering Christmas coming out on Lifetime this December.
For 2020, I’ll have a new Christmas novel I can’t wait to share called Christmas Ever After and the novella sequel. I’ll also be writing a summer rom-com TV movie and my first summer beach read novel, followed by that novella sequel. I know it sounds like a lot, but honestly, everything is tied together. Even with the Travel Therapy TV segments I created and still host, the focus is always on the power of positive storytelling that I hope can help uplift us all.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for us?
Right now, I’m re-reading The Year of Yes, by Shonda Rhimes, because it always inspires me to keep moving forward and to keep saying “yes,” to all the opportunities and challenges that come my way. Of course, to help get everyone in the Christmas spirit I’d also love to recommend some of my very talented fellow Christmas authors who have new novels out this year including, Jenny Hale’s It Started with Christmas, Jenny Colgan’s Christmas at Rosie Hopkin’s Sweetshop, Jennifer Chiaverini’s The Christmas Boutique, Debbie Mason’s Christmas in Harmony Harbor and Annie Rains, Snowfall on Cedar Trail.
Where was Merry Christmas Day born?