Sara Raasch
MELISSA WHITLER | NBCU Fellow
Melissa@DallasVoice.com
Go Luck Yourself, Sara Raasch’s much-anticipated sequel to The Nightmare Before Kissmas, releases Tuesday, March 11, just in time for St. Patrick’s Day. The novel follows the younger prince of Christmas while he investigates his study room rival for stealing joy.
Set soon after the events of the first book, Christmas realizes that another holiday has been stealing part of their generated joy, and all shamrocks point to St. Patrick’s Day. Desperate to prove his importance and be helpful, Kris volunteers to investigate. The only problem is, Loch, the heir to the Irish holiday, is very infuriating and very hot.
Go Luck Yourself is an amazing follow up that provides just the right amount of joy and spice for readers. Prior to the book’s release, Sara Raasch talked to Dallas Voice about her writing experience and inspiration.
Dallas Voice: What has the reception of The Nightmare Before Kissmas been like for you? Sara Raasch: It’s been amazing and exceeded all my expectations. I’m so glad it resonated with people. I wanted to bring people some joy, and it’s done what I hoped it would do. It’s been so much fun interacting with fans online. It reignites my own excitement to put my ridiculous ideas out and have other people laugh and enjoy them.
How did you decide on the second pairing of Christmas and St. Patrick’s Day? It really came from me selfishly wanting to explore St. Patrick’s Day history and traditions. I have some Irish ancestry and visited Ireland around 10 years ago. It’s different from Christmas or Easter, because it’s more closely tied to a culture and a people. I thought it would be fun to work with that interplay, to deal with a holiday tied to a specific culture. In the book Loch explains what the holiday means to him and his culture beyond what we might think in America.
With the books coming out within six months of each other, what was the writing process like? How much of this book came to you while writing the first? When I finished the first draft of Kissmas, I was so high in this world and immediately wrote Kris’ book. I don’t usually have projects overlap, but in this case it was a lot more helpful than harmful. It was nice having the foundations to both books.
When I was working on early concepts, Coal wouldn’t work with me until I created his brother. Nothing came together until I created Kris as a character, and I thought it would be fun for Kris to have his own book. Coming out of 2020, I just wanted to write something happy. The goal from the very beginning was to bring people joy.
It was different from my previous works because with high fantasy concepts I knew where it began and ended before writing. As this was an adult romance, it also was spicier. I had lot more freedom, which is great, but it can get overwhelming. Planning out intimate scenes is a lot like mapping out battle scenes: There are a lot of limbs and things to keep track of. Because of these scenes I don’t share these books with my family.
How did you develop Kris’ voice and relationship with Loch as distinct from Coal and Hex? They both have quite different voices for sure, although both are so loud! Kris is my little cinnamon roll; he’s more internal, introverted and closed off. I put a lot of my own struggles into him. He’s also a lot more matter-of-fact and crass than Coal is. Their personalities are reflected in the happiness and jokes of each book. The sibling dynamic is something I’m interested in, and so their interactions with each other helped me to see their differences.
As for the relationships, I knew I wanted to write enemies to lovers. Coal is very reverent and has gone for Hex from the very beginning. Kris and Loch are fighting from the beginning; they’re always butting heads.
I built Loch around who would complete Kris, on what he doesn’t realize he needs. It was fun to do that with a character like Kris, who built his personality on being amiable. Loch was exciting to write, and he also didn’t work without his sisters, so the theme of siblings is recurring.
Another important aspect of the characters’ personalities is their clothes. How did you decide on their signature clothes? I had so much fun dressing the characters. This was my first book set in our time, so it was different than looking at historical clothing. I’m big into Pinterest and created aesthetic boards for each character to capture the mood of things and figure out the pieces. I really enjoyed getting to sculpt the outfits around their personalities, like Hex with his corset vests. For Kris, I had a list of Christmas puns for his silly shirts. It’s something for readers to have fun with.
Your covers do a really good job showcasing the character and their relationships. How much say did you have in the designs? I had quite a bit, maybe too much say — ha! I was lucky enough to have Lilith, the artist that does the covers for Ali Hazelwood. I absolutely love the art and how the covers capture both holidays.
Even though it is a fun book, it deals with some heavier topics, like mental health and family relationships. What is it like writing through that? It’s a careful balance, which is maybe just a big metaphor for mental health. You can’t get consumed with the bad; you need to have that joy. I was constantly aware of this and tried to balance out the heavy with silly scenes. Kris must acknowledge those darker parts of who he is but also gets to experience real joy. His problems are not easily solved, and the struggles are ongoing, but he has a basis of joy that is worth fighting for.
Any future holiday romance plans? I would love to do a book for Kris and Coal’s friend, Iris, but up next I have another romance coming. The Entanglement of Rival Wizards is a fantasy enemy-to-lovers releasing in September.
To order Go Luck Yourself, go to SaraRaaschbooks.com/Go-Luck-Yourself.