Tag: The Man Who Hated Christmas

Orange cones blocked various lanes of the road today. There was fresh paint on the school crossing lines.

The newspaper contained a thick wad of “back to school,” flyers.

Turned on the radio and heard that B.C. is hiring hundreds of teachers. Apparently the province is advertising coast to coast for all grades and subjects.  French immersion teachers are in especially high demand.

All in all, there’s a buzz in the air. Summer is drawing to a close.  School starts in less than two weeks – a new term, a new year, new challenges, new friends to meet, new skills to master.  I always loved the return to school.  I know, I’m weird, but by the time the air turned crisp in September, I was bored with summer and ready to get back to the routine of books and classes.

I haven’t gone to school for many years now, but I still feel energized by cooler air and shorter days. I’ve been re-reading, re-writing and tweaking my collection of Christmas stories.  Many of these tales have been sent to my newsletter subscribers, so the edits have been done before, but there’s always room for improvement.  I’ve fixed a typo here and there, re-arranged a sentence to have more impact, and written new material.

I’ve worked with a red pen on a paper ms.  Very old school of me, but that is my comfort zone.  No one rings a bell at 9:00 am or demands that I present clean finger-nails for inspection, but, in my own way, I’m going back to school.  The student in me enjoys the crisp, clean paper and the sharpened pencils.  The teacher in me is quick to spot misspellings, poor grammar or awkward writing.

The new collection is titled, “The Man Who Hated Christmas – and other short stories.”  I’ve got the cover image – see photo at the top of this blog – and a deadline for formatting.  I’m happy.  I feel like I’m going back to school.

How about you?  Do you love or loathe going back to classes?  Do you prefer a new pencil box or a new ipad?  Leave a comment and I’ll enter your name to win an electronic copy of The Man Who Hated Christmas.  Winner to be announced Nov. 1, 2017.

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