-
The Merriest Season and a Week of Joy
*** Well, today is Christmas Eve. It’s the day we’ve all been waiting for here at the Verni household. This year, we are hosting both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and then we are heading to my parents’ house the day after Christmas for a celebration with my brother and his family. Three days of family and celebration = good times in our books. We’ve been lucky enough to continue a lot of our traditions this year, including the following: We cut down our Christmas Tree at Pine Valley Farms the day after Thanksgiving We decorated the house inside and outside for Christmas We took our Christmas Card photo and…
-
Friday Fiction | She Said, I Know What It’s Like To Be Dead
If you love the classic story of A Christmas Carol featuring Ebenezer Scrooge like I do, I hope you’ll be amused by today’s Friday Fiction. I honestly can’t remember the last time I posted a short piece of fiction. I haven’t written flash fiction is so long. Today, I’ve attempted to write a short fictional story using a prompt from Brian Kiteley’s book, The 3 A.M. Epiphany. If you are a writer, and you don’t have Brian’s book, you should get it along with the sequel, The 4 A.M. Epiphany; they both contain writing prompts to get you thinking—and writing. I worked hard this summer to finish my third novel,…
-
Go Ahead—Call Me Corny
* * * Last night I snuggled in and turned on the television, which is something I don’t normally do. I don’t watch a lot of TV, but during the months of November and December, I tell my husband to clear some room on the DVR because I record every Hallmark movie so I can watch them from the time the semester ends until Christmas. This is when I get to be “ruler of the television,” as I watch Christmas movie after Christmas movie and feel the holiday spirit. It’s a lovely part of the down time I get with my family, and I love it. I won’t apologize for…
-
Let Scrooge In This Holiday Season
I’m crossing my fingers that my feature writing students will heed my advice and read A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. We talked about the book’s timeless appeal: a ghost story wrapped up in the idea of redemption at the holidays. When you study writing, it’s important to study all writers. Stephen King, in his book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, strongly urges writers to read other writers. It’s the only way we learn technique, garner ideas, and think about things in new and exciting ways. ‘Tis the season, I say. Plus, we could all use a little reminder of the importance of giving and caring and loving…
-
The Case for the Wonderful Christmas Scrooge
“Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world.” — Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol *** It’s about that time. I will get out my treasured copy of Dickens’s novel “A Christmas Carol,” as well as my two favorite copies of films depicting one of my all-time favorite characters: Ebenezer Scrooge. (The George C. Scott version of “A…
-
The Unending Appeal of Ebenezer Scrooge
“Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world.” — Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol *** It’s about that time. Any day now, I will be breaking out my copy of Dickens’s novel “A Christmas Carol,” as well as my two favorite copies of films depicting one of my all-time favorite characters: Ebenezer Scrooge. (The George C. Scott…
