Greetings at Christmas

                                                                            

While sorting a box of old family photos recently, I found this vintage World War II Christmas card designed for a member of the armed services.  My grandparents sent it to my father in 1942 while he was stationed with the Army at Camp Maxey, Texas.  Dad kept it among his papers where I found it after he died. It reminded me that times may change, but contact with folks back home is still vital for military men and women stationed far away. This holiday season I am thinking of military families and praying for peace.

Bethlehem

Every Christmas of my childhood, I went to Bethlehem.

            Mother began the season by bringing out the box of carefully wrapped figures for the manger scene. It was my job to arrange the figures on a dining room shelf to recreate the scene of Jesus’ birth in a Bethlehem stable. Ours was a mismatched set. The figures of Mary, Joseph and the baby were one piece, cast in a white faux marble inside an arch decorated with flowers and cherubs. It was a gift from a great-aunt and uncle. The rest of the figures were plaster painted to look like china. I spent most of an afternoon arranging and rearranging shepherds, lambs, a dog, a cow, and two angels. The three wisemen and camels I placed at a far end of the shelf and every day I moved them just a fraction closer to Bethlehem.

            On Christmas Eve we dressed up and bundled up to go to church. Lit only by candles in the dark window arches and on the altar, the sanctuary felt mysterious and magical. Pine boughs scented the air. People slipped quietly into pews and whispered greetings to each other. A voice from out of the darkness read the Christmas story from the King James Bible and the organist played the Christmas hymns we all knew by heart. Bethlehem Church in Evansville, Indiana was one of a string of churches built by German immigrants. We ended by singing Stille Nacht in German as we passed the flame to light our individual candles and spread a warm glow into our world.

            Several weeks ago, as I have done every year, I brought out the box of carefully wrapped figures. Mary, Joseph and the baby are untouched by time. The other figures are chipped and cracked. My childish artistry can be seen in eyes redrawn on an angel’s face. I arranged the figures on a new shelf and recalled my childhood wonder at the story they told. On Christmas Eve I will close my eyes and go to Bethlehem once again.

Pathfinding in the Misty Past

A cheery fire was burning in the grate, and I sat down before it with a comforting sense of relief. For two hours I sat there, thinking of bygone times; recalling old scenes, and summoning half-forgotten faces out of the mists of the past; listening, in fancy, to voices that long ago grew silent for all time, and to once familiar songs that nobody sings now.

-  From “A Ghost Story” by Mark Twain in Sketches New and Old, copyright 1903, Samuel Clemens.

 

This year I have been writing short story. I don’t need the comfort of a fireplace to see faces from the past or hear voices long silent. They live in my head until I let them speak through my stories. 

            My story “Working Girl” won third place in the 2008 Women Writing the West short story contest. It will be published in 2009 by Women Out West Magazine. Set in 1918 Denver, it is based on true experiences of my late friend Marie Richey Collins. Researching Denver newspapers of the period gave me new perspective on the years of World War I along with similarities and contrasts to our current era of war. I knew Marie in the last decade of her life. Through writing her story I met the woman of her youth with hopes and dreams yet to be fulfilled. 

Synchronicity Anyone?

     My publisher, Doris Baker at Filter Press, experienced synchronicity as she was preparing Chipeta: Ute Peacemaker to go to press. CLICK HERE to read about it on her blog.

The Baby is Birthed

     No matter how many books a writer has published, each one is like a newborn. It is an exciting moment to hold it in your hands, turn the pages, and see your words in print. Chipeta: Ute Peacemaker, my new middle grade biography, debuted November 7-8, 2008 at the Colorado Association of Libraries Conference. The publisher, Filter Press, reports it drew “favorable comments from librarians.”  The Filter Press website offers information ABOUT THE BOOK and an opportunity to READ A SHORT SAMPLE from the text. In addition to the publisher’s website, the book is available through AMAZON.COM and Barnes & Noble.