by Peter Leavell, @PeterLeavell

I’m wondering if Mary and Joseph thought of hiring a ghostwriter to tell their story. 

Perhaps, if lucky, their story would get picked up by a play studio and be shown in Rome. How cool would that be?

Their story is, after all, pretty original. Young, cute couple. Full inn. Stable for shelter. Virgin birth. Angels and shepherds hanging out. Three fairly smart guys that offered enough gifts to pay for a quick escape to another country after the king tried to kill the family. The kid is God, which fixes a sagging middle. He goes on to become the greatest speaker in all history. Plot twist, he’s killed. Then, ANOTHER PLOT TWIST: Resurrection. 

(It’s rumored an editor for a large play company turned the story down, saying a memoir must be believable, no matter how many witnesses. He currently wishes he’d believed them.)

Mary, Joseph, and Jesus—the single most powerful story ever to be told. If they didn’t sell the rights or write their own memoirs, then how do we know the story?

Chroniclers wrote what they saw. And what’s more—in a unique move for stories of the day—they added names of the people involved so witnesses could be questioned and the stories corroborated. 

Do you understand how important your job as a chronicler is?

You create characters that inspire when exhaustion has pulled the marrow from life. You offer hope when all is lost. You give entertainment when the mind is tired. You turn frowns into smiles. And you turn smiles into worry and concern. You offer pathways through dark times. 

You are the bards of old like the troubadours who came before you. You chronicle life. 

The rich history of your chosen profession is fraught with the heights of heartache and agonizing moments of joy, usually within a single breath. Telling stories brings little wealth, yet the treasures of accomplishment and the thrill having of a listener is equal to nothing. 

Continue on, brave chronicler. Sometimes you are alone. Yet, you belong to a sisterhood and brotherhood that binds us together. 

Merry Christmas!

West for the Black Hills

Philip Anderson keeps his past close to the vest. Haunted by the murder of his parents as they traveled West in their covered wagon, his many unanswered questions about that night still torment him.

His only desire is to live quietly on his homestead and raise horses. He meets Anna, a beautiful young woman with secrets of her own. Falling in love was not part of his plan. Can Philip tell her how he feels before it’s too late?

With Anna a pawn in the corrupt schemes brewing in the nearby Dakota town, Philip is forced to become a reluctant gunslinger. Will Philip’s uncannily trained horses and unsurpassed sharpshooting skills help him free Anna and find out what really happened to his family in the wilderness?