Introduction: Gail Kittleson here, with Shannon McFarland, debut author. While creating A Hill Country Christmas ~ Hope for Hardscrabble Times, I’ve met some wonderful writers. We don’t always claim this vocation without some prodding, for believing ourselves worthy of the label “author” becomes a leap for some, myself included. I used to think, “Who would spend time…and especially money…to read something I wrote?”
Calling myself an author took time and quite a few small successes. I think this proves true for many would-be authors. We long to write, stories continually present themselves to us, but taking on the challenge can be daunting.
I asked Shannon, one of the writers I’ve come to know through this Christmas collection, what this experience has meant to her. She’s a born storyteller with such a creative style—I think you’ll enjoy her response.
Confessions of a Literary Introvert
Question: How does an introvert get published?
Answer: In my case, an extrovert adopts them.
Here’s the thing, and I know it sounds conceited, but I know I can write. That is, I know I can write until someone else wants to read it. Then all of a sudden, I’m not so sure anymore. I mean, I thought I could write…but maybe I was wrong… The popular term for what I am describing is Imposter Syndrome.
Impostor Syndrome is a fancy name for that voice in our heads that tells us that we are not good enough. It constantly asks us what we think we are doing, and it can smell fear a mile away.
Gail Kittleson and I were speaking on the phone when she graciously invited me to submit a short story for A Hill Country Christmas ~ Hope for Hardscrabble Times. My heart said yes before my brain had a chance to even figure out what was happening.
Gail and I had spoken on the phone for over an hour. I knew she was interested in writing stories about the Texas Hill Country. Having grown up in the Hill Country, I had lots of story ideas to share with her. Gail turned this around on me (not sure if this was part of her plan all along) and asked me to take a couple of the stories I told her about and combine them as a single story for the book. In this case, that was the story of my grandmother dancing on the table at Cherry Springs Dance Hall during the depression, and the story of Elvis playing at Cherry Springs in the 1950s. Oh, and have the story take place at Christmas….and be around ten thousand words.
By now, my brain was starting to realize what we were doing, but my heart had a crazed look in its eyes, so brain decided to keep quiet on the matter…Until about two in the morning, when it had a freak out and demanded: WHAT. DID. I. THINK. I. WAS. DOING?
I have a feeling that I don’t have to tell y’all everything my brain said after that because if you ever attempted something new, your brain probably gave you the same speech. The way I overcame this and be able to start writing was by having Gail give me a deadline. Because in my brain, deadlines rule. They are the kryptonite for my Imposter Syndrome.
Funny enough, I did something else I did not realize until now. I gave my protagonist a severe case of Imposter Syndrome. Until one day, her heart had enough and was brave enough to say yes.
If you would like to read my story, you can find it in A Hill Country Christmas ~ Hope for Hardscrabble Times. The book also contains stories by Gail Kittleson, Lynn Dean, Michael Barr, and Gina Lister. Together, we aspire to give our readers the best Christmas gift of all…Hope.
A Hill Country Christmas – Hope for Hardscrabble Times is a collection of 18 holiday stories from every corner of the Texas Hill Country. Five authors make history come alive in these multi-cultural Christmas stories about life and death, humor and sadness, heartache and romance, the blessings of Christmas and the triumph of the human spirit.
The holiday season isn’t always easy, but these regional stories are filled with inspiration from Christmases Past that offer hope for the difficult times we live in today.
- After surviving the Siege of Bexar in December 1835, Deaf Smith and his son-in-law Hendrick Arnold prepare their family for Santa Anna’s reprisal while attempting to celebrate Las Posadas one last time in their San Antonio home.
- Despite a harrowing journey across 5000 miles of ocean and frontier, two Sisters of Divine Providence find reason to give thanks for the blessings of Christmas 1868 at a mission school in Castroville.
- Fiery circuit-riding preacher Andrew Jackson Potter stirs Uvalde pioneers with an 1872 visit that erupts to cause surprising results.
- An Indian attack on Christmas Eve 1876 brings tragedy to a family in Denman (Junction), but even a difficult Christmas offers hope.
- Unaware that a Great War looms just ahead, two sisters seek vastly different objectives when student pilots from Stinson School of Flying make a chivaree wedding reception in Kendalia the social event of the 1916.
- When the Spanish Influenza epidemic threatens Boerne while the town’s only physician is serving in World War I France, Sheriff Joe Saunders institutes a lockdown and pays a personal price for “cancelling Christmas.”
- By Christmas 1918, World War I is over, but soldiers are still in Europe awaiting Armistice agreements. A flash flood in Comfort, Texas compels one family to set aside their own grief and concerns to find “room in the inn” for a stranded stranger.
- In the midst of the Great Depression, a young widow struggles to give her daughter a happy Christmas and discovers unexpected joy in Menard, Texas.
- Beset by needs on every hand, a Gatesville physician working with World War II veterans at Waco’s VA hospital confronts his own lingering PTSD and encounters new possibilities for life and love.
- With two brothers deployed in WWII, a Kerrville teen longing to enter the Schreiner Institute’s military program must finds other ways to serve at home in a heartwarming 1943 holiday story.
- In an old-fashioned Christmas story reminiscent of Earl Hamner’s stories about the Waltons, war’s consequences teach one Fredericksburg boy that friends and family are life’s most important gifts.
- Hilarity ensues when two sisters take jobs to help their family make ends meet and are presented with opportunities they never dreamed of in Cherry Springs, Texas.
- Preparing to leave for college, a Mason youth reflects on Christmases past and the sacrifices his parents made to assure his future.
- A San Marcos policeman volunteering as a Blue Santa builds bridges of goodwill with the family of a former criminal.
- A recent immigrant accepts the challenge to learn German as well as English, embracing her adopted New Braunfels community as new traditions become her own.
- Worlds collide when an event planner for Austin’s elite finds common ground with a Wimberley cedar chopper who exemplifies “goodwill to all.”
A variety of Christmas delights can be found in every town, era, and culture in the Texas Hill Country!