NEVER SAY NEVER

NEVER SAY NEVER
Friday, December 1, 2023 by PATTI SHENE GONZALES

Categories: Friday's Fiction / GUEST AUTHORS

PLEASE WELCOME

PATTI SHENE GONAZALES

FICTION FRIDAY

THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY

I have aspired to be a writer since childhood. Procrastination and self-doubt proved the biggest stumbling blocks to my writing dreams. A career, a family, and other priorities afforded excuses to save the writing for another day.

There were things I said I would never do if I pursued a writing career. Number one, the last story I would ever consider writing was a Christmas story. It’s not that I have anything against Christmas. It is the most joyful and meaningful time of year. However, I could not see myself crafting the type of amazing Christmas stories other authors have written.

Secondly, I would never self-publish a book. I wanted my manuscript in the hands of a royalty-paying publisher who, by contracting it, would validate the worth of my work.

God has an amazing way of changing the minds of even the most stubborn.

Last year, a friend invited me to participate in a multi-author Christmas series. The project sounded intriguing, so I accepted the challenge.

Spending too much time tossing ideas around in my head without writing them down, suddenly my deadline date loomed just a few weeks away. Several nights found me up until 4 a.m., struggling to put words together to make a readable story. Ideas eluded me. I petitioned the Lord in tears, wondering if this was a project I should pursue.

The more I wrote scenes and deleted them, changed my characters’ names, and created conflict and resolution, the easier it became. I thank God for that. He puts ideas into a writer's head that can be transposed onto paper or a computer screen to convey a message.

Once completed, I sent the manuscript to a friend who is blind. Using a reading program, she picks up mistakes the average person doesn’t. She caught those small but annoying errors—an omitted quotation mark, a missing period, a commonly misspelled word. Two other friends served as beta readers.

My fellow authors and I had agreed to self-publish the series through Amazon, so I tackled that learning curve. Expending a bit of time, I got the knack of the program. I spent several hours at my friend's home while she showed me how to upload the book.

Standing in line at a fast-food restaurant, I received an email notification from Amazon that Cathy’s Christmas Confession was “live”. I lost count of how many times I accessed Amazon’s web page over the next few days just to see my book there with my name on it.

The day my sister called to tell me she “loved my book,” I cried. Even though it is a Christmas story, I have received emails throughout the year from friends and relatives, telling me how much they enjoyed the story.

Recently, I learned a copy of Cathy’s Christmas Confession is nestled among other books in a little, free library in Maryland, waiting for its next reader.

So much for never say never. This aspiring writer, who claimed she would never write a Christmas story and never self-publish a book, has an author page on Amazon featuring her Christmas novella.

If you choose to read Cathy's Christmas Confession, out of the thousands of Christmas stories available, I will be truly honored. I pray, that the book will glorify my Heavenly Father and bless you as its reader.

ABOUT CATHY’S CHRISTMAS CONFESSION

Christmas is not a time of joy for the hurting.

During a snowstorm, widow Cathy Fischer creams a stop sign on her way to work at the Christmas Ridge Community Church. Acquaintance David Martin stops to help. Cathy sees signs of deep grief in David, a recent widower. She reaches out with support in an attempt to help David through this most difficult first Christmas without his beloved wife.

David Martin struggles with grief over the death of his wife. He blames God for her rapid demise after her cancer diagnosis. Cathy reaches out to him with compassion and support and soon enlists him in her mission to bring joy to others at Christmas. Will their joint quest restore David’s faith?

David needs to let go of the past and embrace his future. Cathy has a confession to make to the entire community that may give David a different perspective of who she truly is. Will her confession set her free?

Does God have a plan in mind that neither of them anticipated?

EXCERPT FROM CATHY’S CHRISTMAS CONFESSION

Cathy Fischer chiseled at the thick ice encasing the windshield of her gunmetal gray Dodge Ram. Snow blew in her face, slithered down her neck, and crunched under her feet.

Why spend time today on what could be put off until tomorrow? Or the next day. Six decades of this philosophy that had caused her grief more than once was playing havoc again.

Ice wouldn’t have formed under a foot of snow blanketing her truck if a dead garage door battery hadn’t prevented her from putting the vehicle in the garage. That’s where it belonged during an overnight Colorado winter storm. She’d intended to replace the battery days ago.

By the time she cleared the windows, the defroster had left a peep hole in the windshield.

Snow covered the roof. Should she stand on the running board and clear it?

Nah.

That frozen icing would stay right where it was on this metal cupcake.

She backed down the driveway and waited as a black SUV crept up the road. The white stuff fell in a heavy curtain, reducing visibility to less than a quarter of a mile. Wind whipped the shards of icy precipitation against her windshield. She kept a safe distance from the vehicle ahead and tested her brake.

Just in case.

Sure enough.

Slick pavement.

BUY LINK:

https://tinyurl.com/mr26ekaj.

(available on KU and in Kindle and print format)

ABOUT PATTI SHENE GONZALES:

Patti Shene Gonzales hosts “Step Into the Light,” a bimonthly interview-style podcast, where guests share their journey out of darkness or ways they lead others back to light. She hosts writers on her two blogs, “Patti’s Porch” and “The Over 50 Writer.” Patti is published in two anthologies as well as local publications and has three novels in progress. She enjoys writing, reading, critiquing, and spending time with family and friends. Patti lives in Colorado with her devoted feline companion, Duncan. Cathy’s Christmas Confession is her first novella.

Share This Blog: