A Heavenly Christmas in Hometown

Following is an excerpt from Sharon K. Souza's Christmas novella, A Heavenly Christmas in Hometown. We hope you enjoy our launch of the Christmas season.


Rehearsals were a frantic affair with Christmas Eve just a week off. Tim worked with the choir, while Bev directed the drama. Everyone worked on the props, including Eustace and Spencer.

It was awfully cold that December, everyone said so, and poor Spencer just couldn't adapt. "You don't suppose it was like this when Jesus was born, do you?" he asked, wrapping a muffler around his neck. He remained in a constant shiver, and had to set his jaw to keep his teeth from chattering.

"No, I don't think so, Spence," said Eustace, "but He was born in Bethlehem, not Hometown, you know."

"Is it very different?"

"Quite. I doubt Bethlehem has seen a flake of snow from that day to this."

"It sounds like an inviting place." He looked out a window at the white mounds. "It's nice to look at, but it's so unpleasant in every other respect."

"Many folks would disagree. Really, they would. Look at the children. They enjoy it immensely. If Heavenly Chalet were completed, you'd see just how recreational winter can be."

"Amazing."

"What's the matter, Spence? Getting a little homesick?"

"A lot homesick, actually. I can hardly remember what it's like to be warm."
"I expect you'll find out before long."

"Do you think so?"

Eustace nodded. "Yes, I do."

"I've given the choir a twenty minute break," said Tim, joining his friends. "Thought I'd come see how the stable's progressing."

"If it looks half as good as the choir sounds I'd say we're doing well."

"Thanks, Spencer. Wow! It's amazing what can be done with a little cardboard and paint. You two have a talent for this. It's the most authentic stable we've ever had."

"It was Eustace's design," Spencer said.

"I just made a few little changes on the old one. If you don't mind, I'd like to make an adjustment or two on the manger. It looks more like a cradle on legs than a feeding trough."

"Be my guest," Tim said. "You're doing a great job." He left them to check on costumes.

"What's a feeding troth?" Misty asked.

"I thought you were outside throwing snowballs at your brother," Eustace said. He hadn't seen her come in with Tim.

"I was, but he threw some back and I got cold."

"Oh." Spencer knelt down beside her. "I can certainly sympathize."

She took off her wet mittens, blew into her hands, then rubbed them together. "What's a feeding troth?" she asked again.

"It's a feeding trough," Eustace corrected, "and it's a wooden box where hay and other feed was placed for the animals in the stable. Joseph and Mary used the trough as a bed for baby Jesus."

"Mama said they put baby Jesus in a manger."

"And your mama's right. Manger is another word for feeding trough. It just sounds a little nicer."

"Why did they put baby Jesus in there and not in a cradle? I had a cradle and so did Raymond. Mama lets me use it for my dolls now."

"I'm afraid they didn't have a cradle."

"But Joseph was a carpenter. Why didn't he make one?"

"Well now, Misty, that's a very good question. I think Joseph probably did make a cradle for baby Jesus, but they had traveled a long way from where they lived in Nazareth to Bethlehem where Jesus was born."

"I've heard of Nazareth," she said.

"They couldn't carry much on that trip, certainly nothing so big as a cradle, and I think they both were hoping they'd get back home before the baby was born. But it had to happen just the way it did, for a prophet -- do you know what a prophet is?" When Misty nodded Eustace continued. "For a prophet named Micah had foretold that baby Jesus would be born in Bethlehem long before it happened."

"How did he know?"

"God told him."

"God knows everything, doesn't He?"

"He certainly does."

"Then why didn't He put a cradle in the stable so that baby Jesus would have a bed?"

Spencer and Misty both looked to Eustace for an answer, but he was obviously stumped. "Well, now. I'll have to work on that one," he said, and returned to the task at hand.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

A Heavenly Christmas in Hometown is a lovely little hardback with dust jacket that can easily be read in a few sittings and enjoyed by the whole family. For ordering information, contact Sharon at sharonksouza@gmail.com.

True confessions and Sisterhoods

Congrats to Carla Gade - you have won a copy of Tuesday Night at the Blue Moon. Please email us your snail mail address.


The 12 Days of Christmas Book Giveaway Contest

We're ringing in the 12 Days of Christmas on Novel Matters. (For complete contest rules, click the link.) The winner of Lying on Sunday and A Heavenly Christmas in Hometown will be announced Thursday afternoon.

On the 11th day of Christmas my true love gave to me ...

11 Pipers Piping

I love the women here at Novel Matters. Love and respect them tremendously. When I consider the gifts the Lord has given me this past year, they're among the dearest. They're talented, compassionate, funny, supportive. They're my prayer partners, critique partners, my friends. I've never been part of what I'd call a sisterhood --- till now. And in this sisterhood I have access to women who really know their stuff when it comes to writing. I've learned and will continue to learn so much from each of them.

~

Debbie's post on Monday about journaling is just one example. She's drawn on her journal entries time and again to recapture the details and emotions of one event or another to infuse into her writing, and it's served her well. Like Debbie, I had several diaries in my early to mid-teens. I got them as gifts mostly, and I loved them. Loved the pretty covers and the tiny satin-ribboned key, loved the smell of them, loved the lined pages, loved the idea of keeping a diary. (And speaking of lined pages, here's a bit of trivia about myself. I'd do just about anything to avoid shopping, and I mean anything. I. HATE. IT. But I could spend an entire day in Staples poring over pens, paper, Post-It notes, you name it. For me, there's nothing like a stationery store.)

~

But while I loved my diaries, did I fill those lines with my deepest secrets or longings? Not so much. The truth is I've never been one to journal. With one exception. Two and a half years ago when we lost our son, a very close friend who had lost her husband only three months before gave me a journal and said, "Do this. Really." And I have. I've journaled extensively in all things related to losing Brian.

~

So no, for the most part I'm not a journaler, but I am a jotter. When I'm working on a novel -- which is always -- consciously and subconsciously I'm ever in the story. I walk side by side with my protagonist day and night, through every ordeal she suffers. I listen when she speaks to me, I take note of scene ideas as they come, and I write it all down. Rarely is the material not used, so I've learned to trust the voices I hear. I used to keep stacks of scribbled notes by my computer where I write, things I would jot down on scraps of paper, on napkins, on ticket stubs, whatever was at hand, then search through them for just the right note as I wrote one scene or another. While I still have scribbled notes at my work station -- which is the ONE messy place in my house, this stack of organized chaos (Hmm. Maybe I'll ask Santa for a a stack of 5x7 note cards and a little box to keep them in. Yes, indeed.) -- I've begun the practice of entering my notes at the very bottom of my WIP document so I no longer run the risk of losing them. Yeah, I still have to sift through the notes as I write, but at least I know they're safe and secure. Unless my computer crashes.

~

Do I wish I had a journal from my days as a 15-year-old runaway in 1968, living on Haight-Ashbury? Or from the moment I felt the first flutter of life in my womb four months into my pregnancy with Brian? Or when I stood at my brother's gravesite listening to Taps? You bet. All I can do now is draw on memory for the things I failed to write about, but I do believe I'll take this journaling thing more seriously, thanks to Debbie.

~

And as we soon draw this first year of Novel Matters to a close, I want to say Thank You from the bottom of my heart to Bonnie, Debbie, Katy, Latayne and Patti for all the ways you've enriched my life. I look forward to the fun things we have planned for 2010. And I want to thank you, our readers, for spending some of your precious time with us. I hope we bless you as much as you bless us.

~

So whether you're a writer or not, do you journal? And if you are a writer, how do you keep track of the ideas that come to you? If you're organized, please SHARE! You know we love to hear from you.