As I mentioned yesterday in the introduction to this little project, I got the inspiration to write a Christmas short story as a gift to my friends back in 2000. I was fresh out of college, working at a newspaper, and scribbling away at a story that had grabbed me about a reporter who discovers he has super powers, and thus wants to become a superhero himself. Originally intended to be a short story, when “Capes and Masks” reached 25,000 words and I realized I wasn’t even halfway through, I understood that I was actually working on my first novel. The book was eventually finished and given a slightly catchier title, Other People’s Heroes, and it’s kind of been the hub of my writing ever since. 

As I was working on the book when the idea to do a Christmas story came to me, I wound up incorporating that universe I was building into the story in question, a habit that would become more and more pronounced for me over time. You will find, over the next few weeks of this time capsule project, that a great number of these Christmas stories are linked either to Siegel City, to my other fictional world which I refer to as “The Curtain,” or to various other projects that were in the works at the time and may or may not have ever been completed. (Mostly have not.)

But for now, my friends, please enjoy — and feel free to share — the first story in my annual tradition, the Siegel City tale called…

Lonely Miracle