by Lynne Marie
My story behind the story post begins with an important writing / storytelling tip: Follow where your story leads you.
This Christmas story about anthropomorphic animals trying out for a Nativity pageant, with one giraffe coming to terms that he was too tall, was once something very, very different.
Surprisingly enough, it all started from a desire to write about a tragic incident in my life.
When I was 8, my Sunday School friend Dorothea and I performed as Angels in the Nativity Play at my mother's church. At the time, we thought that being an angel was the coolest -- we had little angel halos (glitter pipe cleaners) and wore what we thought were the most beautiful costumes in the play,
complete with wings.
Flash forward from that Sunday night performance, just three days later, my mother picked me up from school without warning, and didn't say a word to me about what was happening until we were in the car.
You see, she was taking me to the doctor's office to get a meningococcal vaccine, because my friend Dorothea had gotten sick Sunday night and died on Tuesday of Spinal Meningitis.
As you can imagine, this was a difficult loss to bear at such a young age and one that I had carried with me throughout my life. And as an adult, I wanted to remember Dorothea in the best way I could - in a story.
I realized I did not want to write a contemporary story about a child going from an angel in the play to an angel in heaven just days before Christmas. No matter how many doors I tried into the story, it was just too sad for me, and likely for the reader. With my friend in my heart, I focused on the nativity play and set out to find a character.
I considered several, but because my friend was taller than me, I chose a giraffe. I wanted the message to inspire children to be their best and to shine, no matter what the circumstances they were facing. The title, the Star in the Christmas Play just came to me. But I didn't want the story to be about being a star. Or did I?
I brainstormed problems that a giraffe would have being in a nativity play and everything just started to come together - the problem, the attempts and especially, the resolution!
Clearly, it was a story that was emotionally difficult to write -- but when I allowed it to take shape without forcing anything, it came together organically, each thread woven together to tell an inspiring story in the best way possible, all with Dorothea in my heart and at the soul of it.
But then I put it away. And I didn't take it out until Sparkhouse Family, a Christian Publisher, announced a contest. I didn't have many manuscripts that were overtly religious, except this one, which was perhaps a stretch. But I dusted it off, revised it, and send it out anyway.
Several months later, Andrew from Sparkhouse got in touch with me. He explained that my manuscript didn't exactly win the contest because had wanted the winner to be a less seasonal book, but that they couldn't stop thinking about my story, and wanted to publish it. He offered to give me everything they were giving the contest winner. Of course, I was thrilled. He assigned Naomi Krueger to edit. It became one of the first releases from the new Beaming Books imprint! And it even led to me having a second book on an unrelated topic - Let's Eat! Mealtime Around the World (check it out HERE).
I do hope that you will check out my book and that you will enjoy it. It's available in hardback, softcover and
also Kindle HERE.
If you do, please leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads.
And if you desire a signed, personalized book plate, please contact me.
Wishing you all a blessed holiday season and new year!
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