Belle: The Continued Tale of Ebenezer Scrooge

On a Christmas break about ten years ago, I found that I was the only one awake in my home on a beautiful snowy morning. I didn’t know what I should do, but with the Christmas spirit filling my thoughts I went to my computer and opened a blank document. In our home, we traditionally enjoy Charles Dickens’ "A Christmas Carol." It was no different this year, and having recently not just watched but also read it to know the details that an on-screen presentation might miss, that was on my mind. This year, in particular, I wanted answers to the questions that came with the gaps I had found in the story: What was Belle’s story? What would Scrooge have done if he had earlier learned the lessons that changed his life when those choices mattered, especially as they pertained to his relationship with Belle? Where was Jacob Marley, and what was his part, in the early story that came to affect Scrooge so terribly in the end?
What could I do, then, but answer those questions in the way I imagined them to be answered? This sparked a ten-year-long on and off effort with writing the continued tale of Ebenezer Scrooge. Belle: The Continued Tale of Ebenezer Scrooge
It’s not easy following Dickens, the master of fiction literature. Nor did it become my true intent over time to prove worthy of his name. Instead, a greater motive took over that initial inspiration. I will get to that, but first I should explain some other personal history with my literature interests.
While many authors may have reading interests that match their writing styles, I found it slightly different with me. I like to write fiction, especially novels containing the feeling and spirit of Christmas. I love Christmas! My wife and children often laugh when the radio or Spotify turn on to hear my music playing Christmas classics—in the summer. I truly love the spirit of Christmas, which I find to be the Spirit of Christ!
But my reading isn’t generally found in fiction or Christmas tales. Looking at my bookshelf right now I see what I have been reading most recently: Farrar’s "The Life of Christ;" Edersheim’s "The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah;" McConkie’s Messiah Series; Doctrinal Commentaries on the scriptures; histories, biographies, scripture manuals, and above all the scriptures themselves! I love my recent reading of "The Peacegiver" by James L. Ferrell. Admittedly, I also love Dickens novels, as mentioned before. I read from beloved women authors Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, and recently "Left to Tell" by Immaculée Ilibagiza.
So where do my Christmas retellings come from, (as I have written others as well including a sequel to It’s a Wonderful Life) other than that Christmas nostalgia that I find most inviting?
I think that those looking for a perfect repeat of Charles Dickens, which I honestly tried to obtain in my writing, might have missed my true point and inspiration. You might have already noticed in my list of books how I read where my true heart lies. I think the reason I really loved Ferrell’s "The Peacegiver" so much is because of the way he put his true heart and understanding into a beloved story. That’s my real point in writing as well! The reason I really loved "Left to Tell" by Immaculée Ilibagiza certainly wasn’t for hearing the atrocities she endured, but the true principles of faith that she exemplified to find light in the midst of it all! That’s what I tried to similarly depict in the story about Scrooge, a man who needed that same lesson!
So, there I was, on a Christmas break from work and school, sitting at my computer. And what did I want to write? At first, the rest of the story about Scrooge. But over time, I wanted to write even more about another character! In an early rendition of this story, I included a forward including a little paragraph quoting Dickens himself from something that he had included in another of his books which was also on my shelf at that time: "The Life of our Lord." This was the story of Christ that Charles Dickens wrote to his children. He introduced this to his children in the following way:

"My dear children, I am very anxious that you should know something about the History of Jesus Christ. For everybody ought to know about Him. No one ever lived, who was so good, so kind, so gentle, and so sorry for all people who did wrong, or were in anyway ill or miserable, as he was. And as he is now in Heaven, where we hope to go, and all to meet each other after we are dead, and there be happy always together, you never can think what a good place Heaven, is without knowing who he was and what he did."

So, what did I really come to want to answer in my story about Scrooge? What he was missing, indeed what "A Christmas Carol" was missing (please don’t hurt me for such blasphemy), that would make it so all that Ebenezer Scrooge had found would come to naught in the end without it! Was just realizing that his path was to the grave and chains enough to bring about permanent change? I didn’t think so, not with all I have come to study and learn as a student and teacher of the scriptures. Just like Dickens I thought my children also ought to know something about the history of Jesus Christ! I thought everyone ought to know about Him! I also wanted to share something about “someone who was so good, so kind, so gentle, and so sorry for all people who did wrong, or were in anyway ill or miserable.” I wanted to speak of Jesus Christ! I wanted my children and friends to reflect with me about what a good place Heaven is by knowing who Jesus was and what He did! I hoped I could bring that about with that same discovery by someone who was still missing that very point in his own story—Ebenezer Scrooge! That thought ultimately inspired my journey with writing and finishing "Belle: The Continued Tale of Ebenezer Scrooge."
Now, some may still have other expectations for a story with a title such as I have given it, and they might reflect that. I wanted to make sure those who were true “kindred spirits” might understand where I was coming from, so that they might see this story through the true lens in which I created it.
Incidentally, I have other motives for writing this story. I truly love "A Christmas Carol!" I love the Dickens Christmas setting. I love going into every aspect of it—the Fezziwig past with Scrooge’s introduction to Belle; the Counting House in the given present situated in the rolling fog and despair; the hopeful future based on everything Scrooge has come so excitedly to learn; I love the Bob Cratchit home Christmas setting; I love the slide down Cornhill on Christmas Eve; I love the local London, and the old country setting! I love everything about it! There is little I can leave out.
But in the middle of it all, there remain questions from my sequel that lead to my hopefully inspiring point:
1. What made it difficult for Scrooge to maintain the excitement for life he had found by the end of his first Christmas Carol?
2. After giving Belle up in the pursuit of wealth when he was young, why did he become focused on her again when he was old?
3. Although he felt that all he was lacking in his life was his Belle, what was he really missing?
4. Why weren’t Scrooge’s early efforts to help those about him enough to keep him consistently on the path of joy?
5. Even though Scrooge had changed after his first Christmas Carol, what ultimately caused Scrooge to change in a deeper and more permanent way?
6. What was the outcome of Ebenezer Scrooge’s last communication with the true Spirit right before he actually met Belle?
7. What part did Jacob Marley play in helping Ebenezer Scrooge to truly change?
8. What do you think would have happened in the end if Ebenezer didn’t truly change in the way that he finally did?
9. Would Ebenezer’s change have lasted if he had not found Belle?
These questions may inspire a reader to search beyond the literary genius of Dickens! They truly inspired me, an author enjoying writing and sharing a wonderful Christmas story that brings the true Spirit of Christmas!
My hope is that anyone willing to make the effort of reading my story will find the true point in it all, the hope that is found in someone other than a striving new author. Look through the lens of the kind of faith that this author hoped would be shown through a learning miser such as Ebenezer Scrooge! And come, with me, to see the true Light that came to light the world through any darkness that might come rolling in!
I’m kinda wondering what I will write about next…