Today, on Conversations, I’m excited to talk to another author (Sorry Sally – you’ll be back next week) who I was privileged to work with this year. This is a long interview, so I’ve broken it into two parts (today and tomorrow!)
You might not know that a big part of MBT is helping authors through our private coaching program. We work with new authors to multi-published authors, coaching them through their stories. I’m thrilled that many of them have landed on best-seller lists and won awards. Often, they are traditionally published stories – but occasionally we work on a self-published story.
One of my favorite self-pubbed projects came to me about a year ago. I loved it immediately – a story of a family caught in technology, who needed a nudge from a different kind of Santa to find the meaning of Christmas. It needed a bit of shaping, and I was privileged to go along for the ride, to lend my voice and encourage the author as he went on the journey. It comes out this week, just in time for Christmas.
The book is delightful. Called, South Pole Santa, it’s a lighthearted read with a powerful message. And, it’s something you could read-aloud to your family over the Christmas season. However, it gets better – it’s also available on audio book. And it’s just expertly read. I have already downloaded it and loaded it up for my family to listen to as we travel to grandparents for Thanksgiving.
I asked the author, Dennis Canfield, to stop by and share his journey with us.
SMW: Hey Dennis! I’m so glad you’re here. Can you tell us a little about South Pole Santa? What is the story about?
Dennis: This story is about what happens when an elf who doesn’t understand the meaning of Christmas meets a family that doesn’t understand the meaning of family. Marmel is Santa’s Head Labeling Elf, meaning he runs the labeling department which decides who goes on the nice list and who goes on the naughty list. Marmel believes that Christmas is all about separating the nice from the naughty and getting presents to the nice and cold to the naughty. This year, nobody is on the naughty list anymore, so Marmel is concerned that Christmas may coming to an end.
So Marmel wants to prove that there are still naughty people and he learns about Amanda Krumwerth and her family who are all definitely naughty. But instead of thanking Marmel, Santa sends him on a mission to help the Krumwerths get off the naughty list.
What I want people to take away from the book has to do with the way technology has changed the ways we communicate with each other. Not all of these changes have been for the better. This is particularly true within families when the ability to communicate becomes a distraction. One objective I hope my story accomplishes is to raise this issue with readers in a lighthearted way that may even lead to some discussions within families about this issue. So I hope that families will read this book together. That’s one reason I am so pleased with the audio version, because the audio version really lends itself to families enjoying this book together, perhaps as they are driving somewhere over the holidays.
SMW: I love it! How do you come up with the concept of this story?
Dennis: The idea for this story came to me last December when I really wasn’t thinking at all about starting to write a new story. My wife and I were in a car on the way home from a Christmas concert at my daughter’s college, listening to the radio, and it was a show about Christmas giving. One of the callers called in about her daughter and I made the comment to my wife, “that girl doesn’t need Santa Claus to come, and she needs Reverse Santa Claus to come.” The idea being that she could benefit by having some things taken away from her. My wife said that was a pretty funny comment, and I thought perhaps I could turn it into a story so I started working on it as soon as I got home that night.
SMW: Inspired!
Tomorrow, Dennis will walk us through the history of this story and help us understand how he went from idea to finished product.
In the meantime, it’s available from:
Amazon.com as a Kindle e-book at this link: http://www.amazon.com/South-Pole-Santa-Christmas-ebook/dp/B009EJ1UO8
Amazon.com as a paperback at this link: http://www.amazon.com/South-Pole-Santa-Back-Christmas/dp/0615662757/ref=tmm_pap_title_0
Audible.com as an audiobook at this link: http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_1?asin=B00A8PH7OY&qid=1353211382&sr=1-1
Visit the website: http://www.southpolesantastory.com/
Or Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/SouthPoleSantaStory?fref=ts
Stay tuned for the rest of Dennis’ journey tomorrow!
Susie May