So I’ve obviously written a few superhero stories, and I’ve done a lot of monster yarns as well. Oddly enough though, despite my avowed love of things like Star Trek, I haven’t done an awful lot of science fiction. I suppose it’s the homework aspect of it that intimidates me – you can get away with a lot of breaking the rules in physics in a monster movie or in a universe where people can pick up an airplane without it cracking in half, but sci-fi fans are a different breed. They like things to be accurate, and science isn’t my strong suit.

But a few years ago, I got an idea for a science fiction saga and I did something I don’t do often: I outlined. I conjured up a dozen alien races, the rules of their respective cultures, the history of their interaction with humans once we escape the cradle of Earth and get out into the galaxy, all of that building up to the story I was going to tell with them…but I haven’t. Not yet. I started working on it, but the world – as it tends to do – got into the way. Having a kid, losing loved ones…lots of things derailed my plans for writing, and although I eventually found my way back behind the keyboard I haven’t gotten back to this universe yet. But I’m stressing yet. Unlike some of the other abandoned worlds I’ve alluded to here, this is one I feel I may just make it back to some day. In the meantime, this tale of a creature from another world discovering our Christmas is the sole artifact of that currently-lost world.

Christmas 2015: Akkis’s First Christmas

This one will take a teeny bit of explanation. In 2011, after I finished writing “Lucky Penny,” I apparently had another burst of creativity. An idea came to me that I liked so much that, even if I had already written the story for that year, I simply had to put to (digital) paper before I lost it. Oh sure, I could have put it aside and waited to debut it the next Christmas, but that isn’t really in the spirit of my little project.

“Stowaway” is a different kind of story for me. I don’t often write period pieces, and I certainly don’t attempt to write in period style, but I did the best I could here. This is one of those stories where, if I did what I wanted, the reader will actually have a better handle on what’s going on than our narrator. I like stories like that. 

Christmas 1827: Stowaway

This may well be the first time I’ve ever written a story inspired by a word. I heard something called “toyetic” and discovered it was an actual industry term, used to describe a character design that is amenable to selling toys. Well hell, if it was a real word, I thought it should be used a little bit.

Even before I had a child of my own, I wrote a lot of stories that featured children in one way or another. As I go back and look at them again as a father, they hit differently. My son is the same age now as Lucas is when this story begins (but not ends – this was the Christmas story with the longest time-frame until the novella Santa’s Odyssey ate up over a year), and as I mentally place him into the story, it gives me feels I didn’t expect. I also…I hate to sound like I’m bragging, but I really like this one. One of my favorite filmmakers, Adam Green (of the Hatchet franchise) contends that it takes artists of any type about seven years of distance before they can look at something they’ve created and see it the way the audience does instead of just seeing the flaws that all creative types obsess over. I think he’s got a point. I don’t think I’ve actually read this story since I first presented it 13 years ago, and damned if I don’t think it’s actually pretty good.

This is another story from the world of The Curtain, by the way. It’s easy to pick out which stories belong to my two ongoing universes. The Siegel City stories are about superheroes. Curtain stories are about monsters. 

Christmas 2010: Toyetic

I didn’t remember this story very well when I sat down to edit it for this project, then it came back to me in a sort of rush. This was inspired by my girlfriend at the time, now my wife, Erin. Erin is from Pittsburgh, and we did the long distance thing for quite a while before we got married. This story came about because we had a very similar conversation during one of her visits to New Orleans – she’s the one who likes to have adventures and explore, I’m the one who gets serious anxiety if he doesn’t know exactly where he is and where he’s going. We’re still that way. Although unlike certain characters in this story, I like to think I’m mature enough to recognize that life should probably be lived somewhere in between the two extremes.

Without spoiling anything, this is an example of my favorite subgenre of Christmas story.

Christmas 2009: Turn Right at the Sign

This story has two sources of inspiration. The first was an article I read about a real town called “North Pole” (although not in Wyoming) and how it gets bombarded with letters to Santa Claus every year. The other was a song. Music is a powerful thing, and Christmas music especially so, and I’ve always loved MercyMe’s beautiful song “Joseph’s Lullaby.” That was in my head when I wrote this story. I am particularly proud of this one.

Christmas 2008: Return to Sender

Oooh! Unlike yesterday’s story, I actually do remember where the concept for “Circle” came from! It was close the day before Thanksgiving and I was making a pumpkin pie, but I had to run to the store for a few of the ingredients. It was one of those situations where you don’t get a cart but…well, basically I just used what happened to me and turned only slightly fictionalized it for the first scene in this story.

One thing I didn’t remember, though, is that the characters from The Beginner show up again in this story, which means that “Circle,” too, takes place in the world of the Curtain.

Christmas 2007: Circle

When I started putting this retrospective together, my goal was to look back at each story and give you a little background or insight as to what was going on when I wrote it. But alas, for the first time, I’m stymied. It’s been a long time, guys, and in truth, I really don’t have the slightest idea what I was thinking about or going through that led me to the composition of this story. It’s a shame, too, I really like this one, and it seems to be one of the ones that my readers connected with the most. Wish I remembered how I got the idea. In the original Long November eBook, I wrote that this story was a way to sort of double down on my notion that Christmas Eve is the best night of the year for a miracle, and I’ve gotta admit, that feels pretty on-brand for me.

Christmas 2006: Helper