I hope to have Ebenezer, subtitled A sequel of sorts to “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens, available for your pleasure as an ebook, paperback, hardcover, or audiobook on Nov. 24. As you might imagine, preparing the ebook is the easiest part of the equation. Therefore, you might notice a number of fine retailers around the interwebs where you can already pre-order my little story to be delivered to your favorite reading devices on Black Friday.
I’m taking this Monday to show you what the front cover looks like and to share the official blurb of my first new fiction (besides the flash-fiction entry 24 flashes) in nine years:
Edmund Filliput is a successful businessman, but he is living a dreary life on a dreary Christmas Eve. Then he meets a happy stranger who keeps Christmas in his heart year-round. Over a cup of coffee and a bowl of beef stew, the stranger offers to send three friends to Edmund who will show him the meaning of Christmas. Will the “friends” convince Edmund in time to salvage this Christmas and rescue his life?
People who are grumpy at Christmastime are often chided with, “Oh, don’t be such a Scrooge.” But Mr. Scrooge was a curmudgeon no longer when Charles Dickens’ immortal story concluded. This little tale endeavors to reclaim Mr. Scrooge not as he was before that fateful Christmas Eve — a silly old humbug — but as the good and generous man he was as he lived the rest of his days.
As I have continued to tinker with Jeep Thompson and the Lost Prince of Venus, my next full-length novel, I have been playing with a number of smaller projects on the side, including this little story about how Ebenezer Scrooge spent his Christmases in the aftermath of “that” Christmas Eve. I am tickled that I was able to complete Ebenezer first and offer it to you for the 2023 Christmas season.
Watch this space for progress reports.
