Both of us who write under this pen name honor all who celebrate turning towards the light, in whatever tradition has come to be meaningful for you. At the center of this turning is warmth, love, peace, light, and hope. This is what we wish for all of you, not just in this season, but year-round.
Sometimes our characters experience this as well. Here is Christmas Eve from A Reluctant Santa
Set Up: Cliff spent the middle of the day playing Santa to needy kids, hosted by a local golf course lodge, with Carol assisting him as his elf. Now it’s late evening.
Carol snuggled into Cliff with his arm around her waist as they leaned against the lodge balcony railing, both of them in awe of the star-studded sky forming a canopy overhead. “This is so spectacular. The stars seem so close. And so many more are visible up here than in the city.”
“For sure. Sometimes I feel like time stands still while the night sky does its nightly dance. You should be here sometime when the Northern Lights put on a show. Dazzling. It can be like sheets of color fading in and out, daring you to ignore them. The night sky up here is so vast, almost overwhelming.”
“The stars are so brilliant. Santa won’t have any trouble navigating his way tonight.”
Cliff squeezed her tighter. “Especially if his favorite elf serves as his navigator.”
“Thanks again for taking me to the Christmas Eve service. It was so special.”
“Sarah thought you would like it.”
“It was just right. I gave up long time ago trying to deal with Christmas intellectually. I’m not into debating whether this happened or that didn’t. It’s the feeling of Christmas that moves me. And those kids certainly did that tonight. I nearly lost it when they marched down the aisle to The Little Drummer Boy with coffee cans hanging around their necks, pounding those cans like they were the most sophisticated drums ever made.”
“They were happy and proud, from the oldest to the youngest.”
“That says a lot about the adults, including children in the service like that. Wonderful. The Christmas spirit was palpable.” Carol suddenly pointed toward the sky. “Did you see that?”
“A shooting star. I hoped if we stood out here long enough we’d see some. That was a long, bright one. Don’t see many of those.”
“So fitting for the night. For Santa.” Carol hesitated. “For Santa and his elf.”
BLURB
Derek’s world is about to change forever—again.
After his father’s stroke, Derek Weston dropped out of college and returned home to help his parents with the family business, Oak Landing Apartments. Now living on the premises as the groundskeeper and handyman, he never expected the girl he’d secretly crushed on in high school to move into a unit right before Christmas or stir up desires he thought long gone.
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