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.
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