Christmas Stories Volume 1

For the past five years or so I've made it a tradition to write at least one Christmas story during the holiday season. I really enjoy the process and find that it usually helps me ease into some sort of suitable spirit. A lot of times I'll end up writing another story right after Christmas as I suppose that sometimes it's hard for me to shake off that spirit once suitably absorbed.

I'm a clinger.

Anyway, on the heels of the Mercy Stone kindle publication I decided to put together a little ebook of Christmas stories. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to get it together in time but just wrapped up my own editing and formatting last week. I'm sure that there will be something that I'll look back on and wish I had done better but I'm not a stickler for perfection. So here it is... what follows are some notes regarding the included stories.

The first story in the collection, Aquene, was written last year and is one of those stories written during the period just after Christmas. It felt strange to finish this story about two troubled men stuck in an airport right before a huge blizzard actually hit the east coast stranding real people. Then a week or so later came the tragic Gabrielle Giffords shootings in Tuscon and when I saw a photo of the little girl who died that day, Christina Taylor-Green, I was struck by the fact that her pretty face was so similar to the image of the little girl that I had in mind.Very chilling and very sad.

Christmas Eve Medicine Park 1907 was written way back in December of 2007 during the Oklahoma Centennial as I had the urge to try to write something historical about my home state in honor of its first 100 years. The late Senator Elmer Thomas is actually my great-grandfather and I trust he doesn't mind my dusting off of his persona for my own literary pursuit. From all accounts he appeared to be a little more serious than the fellow depicted in my story but heck, I had fun writing it so lets just go with it. As an aside, I recently completed a novella called The Mercy Stone about the life of Geronimo and had the idea to devote a chapter in that work to the telling of this same story but from Geronimo's perspective. That proved to be another fun exercise.

I thought long and hard about the inclusion of Here We Come! understanding that its content might not be considered acceptable holiday fodder for some readers. But back in December of 2008 when I wrote the piece it sure seemed like a reasonable response to compose this angry tirade with its (hopefully) humorous edge directed toward our foolish and greedy (and still to this day unpunished!) leaders - hell, we were seemingly stuck in a fiscal death spiral at the time. So I pulled no punches then and offer no apologies now. In fact, it might serve us all well to remember that such industrious elves, gremlins, and Siberian ogres may still be lurking out there biding their time! And yet I believe that Two Hills And A Mountain, which came later that same December, serves as a karmic rebuttal to my more cynical inclinations. It's arrival seemed to balance out the scale for me at the time.

A couple of years ago I finally got around to reading A Christmas Carol and found the segment about the Ghost of Christmas Future taking Scrooge on a mystical journey which included the viewing of a solitary lighthouse as an interesting launching point. It seemed like such an arbitrary insertion into the story and to serve what purpose? Perhaps to spark a creative impulse in some future reader? So I asked myself what if there was someone in that lighthouse far below watching the seas and the heavens that night? I noted this idea in my calendar and in December of 2009 A Solitary Lighthouse was writ.

Naturally I've always wanted to write a story that somehow fed off of It's A Wonderful Life. I'd actually thought of the title George And The Bridge and was trying to come up with a compelling story line - maybe I still will one day. But then the idea of Frank Hagney came to me in December of 2010. I did a little research on the man and came up with all the facts that are revealed in the story. However, I truly know nothing of his personal family life including the dispositions of his descendants. My account is strictly from the point of view of a fictional character who I assume does not exist. I certainly intend no disrespect to the family of Frank Hagney or the man himself.

In October of this year, while I was thinking about putting this Christmas collection together, I decided to write a couple of stories to help fill it out. I wound up producing four stories within a two week period. Two of those stories, Merry Christmas and Levitation, were written simultaneously and share their brevity with a certain tone although their theme and sentiment are quite different. I wound up writing An Atheist Christmas right after those two and then finished the flurry with Beyond which is a semi-autobiographical piece.

I've always enjoyed the mystical aspect of the Christmas story. The star and the guiding light, angels from heaven, the benevolent magic of the season. I consider it all as a part of some greater cosmic scheme which, when you boil it all down, only wants us to be a little nicer to one another.The cover photo of the Christmas Tree Nebula seems to be a fitting symbol for this sentiment.

So I end with a heartfelt Merry Christmas (although not exactly like the one experienced by our man in the similarly-titled story) to one and all... I appreciate your support... so give it!