A Masterful Analysis of A Christmas Carol

Hi Readers,

I know, I know.  It's been a long time since I've posted anything, something which I've resolved to change in the coming year.  If you follow this blog with any regularity, you may remember when I analyzed my Christmas novel, A Shepherd's Song, with regard to Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

Well, I came across this fantastic post on A Christmas Carol by Kristen Lamb that I just had to share with you.  She does a masterful job of it, and I encourage you to click on the link below.  For those of you who have read A Shepherd's Song, there is meaning to the names I've given my characters too.  See if you can figure them out.

Enjoy the Christmas season!

What Ebenezer Scrooge Can Teach Us About Great Writing  

Thankful for Great Books Blog Hop & EBook Releasea

Hi Regular Readers and Newcomers!

Welcome to Day 2 of The Thanks for Great Books Blog Hop.  I hope you are enjoying learning about all the other authors participating in the event. Here's some background on A Shepherd's Song.

I began to write it in 1996, and I had originally entitled it The Good Shepherd, but don't you know it, they made a movie called that while I was in the process of publishing it.  Darn you, Brad Pitt for stealing my title!

I considered calling it The Bad Shepherd, but I was afraid people might think it was like Bad Santa. 

I was inspired to write this book in response to the Tickle Me Elmo craze that swept the nation in 1996 when the toy debuted.  My niece Leah was only a six-months-old baby then, and she received one for Hanukkah, which fell a number of weeks earlier than Christmas that year.  As Tickle Me Elmo mania broke out in the country, many people urged my sister to sell Leah's Tickle Me Elmo for a ton of money.  The toy retailed for $28.99, but people were selling them for up to $1,500 a toy.  My sister didn't sell Leah's Elmo, but while people were assaulting each other trying to acquire the toy, I started to think about what kind of a person would "scalp" toys?

That's when Tom Shepherd came alive in my mind. The book is written from his perspective, that of a 22-year-old, disaffected young man who doesn't know the true meaning of Christmas.  When I read the first few chapters in my creative writing class, everyone liked them, but the young guys in the group all agreed that Tom needed to think about sex more often to be more realistic! So I had to learn to think like a guy! Why I felt compelled to write from the perspective of a young guy, I'll never know, but I'm thinking maybe therapy is in order.

Tom is my Ebenezer Scrooge.  I hope you will enjoy his journey as heals from his past and finally comes to know the joy of Christmas.

This book is also an allegory.  Does anybody remember from your English Literature class what that is?  Can you name any other allegories that you have read?

Don't forget to enter the raffle to the right and to check out the other authors participating in the blog hop. 

A Shepherd's Song is Moving Along

Below is the preliminary draft for the cover of my Christmas novel, A Shepherd's Song, which will be out in November.  I will keep you posted when I have a specific date.

Here is the back cover info that goes with that lovely cover the designer created for me.  I hope to have the book out in November to get everyone in the Christmas spirit by reading it.


Tom Shepherd is anything but a hero. A senior physics major at Three Rivers University in Pittsburgh, he just wants to make some easy cash. On the last Sunday in November, he arrives to sell the Christmas season’s hottest toy, So Big Sammy, for three times its retail price to a buyer, but a snafu lands him in the middle of a bone marrow drive benefitting four-year-old Christo Davidson, who has leukemia. When everyone there—including the media covering the event--assumes that Tom has come to give the toy to the sick boy, Tom has no choice but to give it away. 

Lauded by the media as a hero and bestowed with the nickname The Good Shepherd, Tom finds himself an overnight celebrity. As a toy scalper and liar, he knows he’s unworthy of the honor, but when Gloria Davidson, a fellow student and Christo’s relative, seeks out Tom to thank him for being kind so kind to her little cousin, Tom, bewitched by her beauty, embellishes his character and lies to further impress Gloria. 

Tom asks Gloria out, beginning a relationship that will lead him to examine everything he believes. On Christmas Eve, Tom finds himself facing choices that will affect not only himself but also Gloria and Christo. Tom must choose between sacrifice and honor, love and loneliness, life and death. 

A Christmas romance with the charm of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol and the spirit of It’s a Wonderful Life, A Shepherd’s Song, with set your soul to singing.