Guest Post by Lena Nelson Dooley
In 1984, God used a number of events in May to show me that He wanted me to become a professional writer. I was working as an auxiliary rural mail carrier at the time. By August, James and I had decided I should resign and write fulltime.
I decided I would use part of my last paycheck to order Christian Christmas cards that year. We didn’t have many Christian book and gift stores at that time. But I did receive a catalogue from a company in Arkansas.
As I was preparing to order the Christmas cards, God told me He had given me the gift of writing, and I should use it to bless people at Christmas. That year, I wrote my first Christmas story. The story of Mary.
Five other stories—of people who were involved with that event so long ago—followed. Joseph … the innkeeper’s wife … Mary’s mother … the youngest shepherd … the servant of a wise man.
The next story was a romance. One year I wrote a modern Christmas fable. Another year, I wrote a short play that was used to take Christmas to two local malls. Other stories contained different perspectives, but one focus—the impact that first Christmas has had on mankind through the ages.
Unfortunately, there were a few scattered years when I didn’t write a Christmas story. Life interfered with my plans.
James and I have friends spread across several countries around the world. Many of them have contacted me to tell me how much the stories mean to them. They anxiously await their copy of the Christmas story and make it part of their family’s celebration. What a blessing that is to me.
I also print up copies that we hand out to people to bless them as well—at church and other places. Many of them have asked, “How can I get copies of previous stories?”
So last year right before Christmas, I put all the stories together and published a book through Kindle and Nook—24 Christmases. When you buy this ebook, you get instructions in the letter to the readers telling you how to subscribe to a mailing list where I will send you each new story when it is written.
In addition to that, I have written a number of Christmas novellas that were published. After they went out of print, the rights reverted to me. So I’ve published each of them on both Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Here are the titles:
Historical:
The Best Medicine
Charlsey’s Accountant
Contemporary:
Christmas Confusion
No Thank You
I will give away one free copy of one of these four Christmas stories, winner’s choice. You can check out these books here.
And be sure to go to http://lenanelsondooley.blogspot.com/2013/12/christmas-blog-exchange-christmas.html to visit with Tamera Kraft about her Christmas book, A Christmas Promise.
About the Author:
Award-winning author, Lena Nelson Dooley, has more than 800,000 books in print. Her book, Love Finds You in Golden, New Mexico, was given the 2011 Will Rogers Medallion Award for excellence in publishing Western literature. The first book in her McKenna’s Daughters series, Maggie’s Journey received the 2012 Selah Award for historical novels, and the second book, Mary’s Blessing, was a 2013 Selah Award finalist. Book three, Catherine’s Pursuit, released this year.
In addition to her writing, Lena mentors other authors and received the ACFW Mentor of the Year Award. She is a frequent speaker at women’s groups, writers groups, and at both regional and national conferences. She has spoken in six states and internationally. She is also one of the co-hosts of the Gate Beautiful blogtalk radio show.
Lena has an active web presence on Shoutlife, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Linkedin, Pinterest, The Bookclub Network, and with her internationally connected blog where she interviews other authors and promotes their books.
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