Yvonne's Thoughts on Christmas

Today’s guest is best-selling author of over fifty books, Yvonne Lehman. Leave a comment below and you will automatically be entered into a drawing for her book, Christmas Moments.


By Yvonne Lehman

Hey! I didn’t plan this. I don’t do things like this. I’m a novelist. Then what in the world am I doing with a Christmas book of three short stories?

Well, it’s like this. I had the opportunity to write a short story for a publisher that would be light, sweet, entertaining, and Christmassy. The pay would be a good flat fee and I thought, Why not?

I looked in my idea file and saw a few notes on a possible collection of midwife stories several of us writers considered for a compilation that never materialized. Not wanting my ideas to go to waste, I figured a midwife story just might be light and sweet enough.

Don’t laugh.

I started the story and other nice little ideas began to come like someone who doesn’t want to buy a toy for a young boy, and then a scandal. The characters veered from that straight and narrow path as if crashing headlong into a brick wall. Hmmm, or better yet, a mountain.

Sure . . . why have a holly-jolly-jingle-bell-white-Christmas when you can crash into it? Hold on. I did name a character Holly. Is that good enough?

I thought the publisher would love my stories, regardless. Not one . . . but three.

Again, don’t laugh.

Well, no. These didn’t quite fit with the light and sweet imperfections covered with a blanket of white snow. But then, Christmas events aren’t always snow-covered. I figured, why not entertain my readers with what’s beneath the surface and get to the heart of the matters like we struggle with even at Christmastime. Maybe the struggle is more difficult since we would love to have those perfectly happy and ideal Christmases.

I decided that we’re not always riding in a sleigh pulled by Clydesdale horses over a soft, snow-covered landscape singing, “Oh, what fun it is . . . dashing through the snow.” Sometimes, “Grandma gets run over by a reindeer.” Sometimes we get caught in a blustery blizzard and crash headlong into those mountains.

But . . . maybe it can be a blessed Christmas anyway.

Don’t laugh, but believe it.

Just read about the unexpected in Crashing into Christmas, my book of short stories for which I get no pay unless it sells. But it’s Christmas. The giving time. I will give a different free book, Christmas Moments (another of my recent unexpected books) to the winner of a drawing to be held this week. All you have to do is leave a comment below to enter the contest. And don't forget to check out Crashing into Christmas.

TWEETABLES





Yvonne Lehman, best-selling author of fifty-five novels, founded and directed the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference for twenty-five years. She is now director of the Blue Ridge Autumn in the Mountains Novelist Retreat, and has joined Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas as Acquisitions and Managing Editor of Candlelight Romance and Guiding Light Women’s Fiction. Her recent releases include Love Finds You in South Carolina, Reluctant Brides, and Hearts that Survive – A Novel of the TITANIC. Her first non-fiction book is Divine Moments (a compilation of fifty articles written by thirty-seven authors). Yvonne blogs at www.christiansread.com and www.novelrocket.com. You may contact her at yvonnelehman3@gmail.com.











Comments

  1. Yvonne,
    I love your concept of these stories, and I love that you re-purposed them when they didn't fit the original manuscript.
    And even more delightful is the way you shared this switcheroo on the blog. You rock!

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  2. Yvonne, I could hear your "voice" loud and clear as I read this (I've had the honor of hearing you speak at Writer's Boot Camp). You always make me laugh. Sounds like a wonderful book.

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  3. What a delightful twist on Christmas. Can't wait to read the book.

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  4. I'm encouraged! If you can step out of your comfort zone, so can I.

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