Christmas Phone Booth is a time travel set in historic Hotel Wilber, south of Lincoln, Nebraska. My editors came up with the phrase Hearts Across Time for my time travels set in Washington County (north of Lincoln), Cowboy Just in Time and Future of My Heart. I’d like readers to be drawn to the titles.
Readers of fiction often read to escape what’s going in their private lives, or the state of the world around them. Immersed in a character’s dreams, hopes, struggles, and resolutions take us away from our own present trials. A story that reveals how some may cope, and points to the answer to all life from a Christian perspective, often takes a reader to where God whispers to individual hearts.
The message of Christmas is a message of hope. Emmanuel, God with us, which culminates in the mystery of redemption, and leads us to heaven.
I’ve purposely mixed up points of view and tenses here because I include myself as a lifelong reader. Words from the Bible and through the perspective of other authors transports my focus (and hopefully yours) off earth, our temporary home, and switches that focus to heavenly things, our permanent home.
It’s an interesting phenomenon, why readers are drawn to certain stories. I can try to answer because I was a reader long before I became an author. As an eclectic reader, I choose books for several reasons, including variety. Romance, familiarity with authors, setting, publisher, clean reads, spiritual takeaway, escape through fantasy, the thrill of suspense, and nonfiction fill my bookcases.
The variety of Christmas stories offered by Pelican Book Group in their extravaganza line is something I look forward to enjoying each holiday season, as a reader and writer. I can only hope readers enjoy and are satisfied with Christmas Phone Booth.
LoRee Peery
