Something new!

Well, I have been extremely productively busy of late with a lot of work behind the scenes. It has led me onto a new “festive” project which has landed very well on its feet since launch.

This year I was forced to consider the fact I may have to work NIGHTS on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, normally it falls on rest days or else I save having leave during the Summer Holidays and instead opt for the Christmas period…well not this year sadly.

Faced with the prospect of nights on Christmas Eve I decided how I had better explain this away to my three children (8, 6 and 2). Stood in the shower (I shall save you the gory details) I came up with a brief story idea which within the space of an hour or two (I had got out of the shower by that time trust me) had developed into a fully-fledged story that I suddenly needed to write.

And so BLUE LIGHT CHRISTMAS was born.

But there was more to come from this venture. Yes, the story was something I needed to write as an explanation to my children as to what happens when daddy has to work on Christmas Eve without shattering the magic of Christmas. It became something I thought should be shared, could be used to bring a bit of a human face to the ever vanishing Thin Blue Line and why not in the process make something for charity.

But which charity and why…well one sprang to mind straight away and I made my approach very early in the story process. Care Of Police Survivors, a charity that supports the families of fallen officers which in today’s world seems to be something that will be needed more and more.

COPs were very happy to accept my offer (all author profits to them) and I even managed to enlist the help of an extremely generous and talented friend who provided me some illustrations. That in itself was an amazing compliment as I discussed nothing of my expectations or desires and just said he could read the story and draw whatever he wanted from the story. His pictures were amazing and complimented the story perfectly.

And so the children’s short story BLUE LIGHT CHRISTMAS took shape and went off to CreateSpace for print.

It gave me a taste for doing something beyond me. Yes the story will (hopefully) reflect my storytelling *ahem* abilities??? but more than that the feeling of giving across my meagre profits was something quite special.

It set me thinking on a new venture….something non-writing related that is very much in the infancy but watch this space for something totally different.

F0r now though you can get a copy of BLUE LIGHT CHRISTMAS and support a very worthy charity.