Over a year ago I was asked to be the lead author in a
Christmas anthology scheduled for 2019. Since this compilation was going to
have broad exposure, I wanted to ensure my story was as good as it could be. I
really angsted over it. I’d written quite a few Christmas novellas, and several
had won awards. I wanted this one to be better than any I’d done before.
But I was fresh out of ideas for warm, heart-melting
Christmas stories. So I thought I’d start watching Christmas movies on the
Hallmark channel for inspiration. Right here I must give thanks to my patient
husband for allowing this. You see, like most men, he doesn’t really enjoy this
style of chick flick, but he indulged me all in the name of research. Oh, there
was a lot of eye rolling and yawning on his part, but his complaints were of
the mild variety.
With few exceptions, I found that these movies fit a
pattern. They are set in small, rural towns. And these towns all had a
commonality in that everyone in these towns is so welcoming and loving. And racial
diversity is always depicted in these settings, too.
In most cases, the hero or heroine is an outsider who ends
up spending Christmas in this town—an occurrence that comes about not from a
conscious decision but from an unforeseen development. Instead of feeling like
an outsider, though, the newcomer is showered with good, ol’ down-home
hospitality from these warm townspeople (and especially the person who becomes
the love interest).
There is usually a small subplot that may explain why the
hero or heroine has come to the town, and oftentimes this has some connection
to the town’s Christmas festival. A lot of the time there is a Christmas tree
lighting ceremony, and this always involves a countdown!
The best of these shows will have a genuine conflict; the
worst have none at all. Few of the stories are memorable. The one that was the most memorable was one
in which the heroine, a single mother, had a lot of challenges which touched
the viewers’ emotions. In addition to connecting with the hero, she connected
with a grandmotherly woman who helped her. While the romantic escalation was
expected, there was a bonus surprise that had to do with a backstory involving
the grandmotherly character and provided an immensely satisfying ending.
As to the romance in these tales, there’s always a scene
where they’re discovering a bond between them and move toward each other for an
embrace or kiss, but this is always interrupted! That’s because the hero and
heroine can’t kiss until the final scene. In each show, the last shot is
reserved for that longed-for embrace and a nice long smooch where the cameras
do a long fade away to let us know our hero and heroine have at last found
their happily ever after.
It was worth it to watch all these shows for that one kernel
which provided a small spark to get the creative juices flowing to my brain.
The end result was my story titled One Room at the Inn in our Winter Wishes
anthology. It's now my favorite of the nine Christmas novellas I've written. The collection landed in a respectable position on the USA Today
bestseller list, garnered good reviews, and was selected by one blog as the
best Christmas book of 2019!
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