Happy Christmas in July! Welcome to the 3rd blog in this Christmas in July Reader Giveaway, which runs July 12-23, 2021. At the bottom of each author’s blog post, you will find the secret words. Write them all down and provide the entire answer on this Google form.
Note: You must grab all the secret words from every author in the Christmas in July Reader Giveaway to be eligible to win a $400 Amazon gift card. At the end of this blog post is a link to the next blog, and so on, to the final blog post (20 in all). At each blog stop, the author will also give away copy or copies of their featured Christmas book.
Hello, I’m Dennis Bailey and I’m the author of the “just in time for Christmas” thriller, The Boy Who Cried Christmas. Before proceeding further, I’d like to thank Sarah for inviting me to be a part of this giveaway and for giving me this opportunity to spotlight the novel. It’s the story of a skeptical young boy swept back in time to the doorstep of Christianity. There, in addition to an encounter with the newborn Messiah, the boy’s life is threatened along the way by both human and nonhuman antagonists before finally being returned to the present. But like the character from Aesop’s famous fable about a boy and a wolf, when Logan gets back he can’t get anyone to believe his story. And that’s when the fun really begins.
Following the release of my debut novel, Army of God, I had several ideas for a follow-up title. I also knew I wanted to eventually write a Christmas story. I just didn’t know when. To my surprise, it would turn out to be a lot sooner than I expected, the circumstances of which might interest you. Two years ago in December I was working on my second novel, an apocalyptic thriller, when I was overcome by what I can only describe as a severe case of Christmas fever. An idea popped into my head for a story about a spoiled brat who’s transported back in time to learn the true meaning of Christmas.
Despite knowing better—one of the cardinal rules of writing is to never start a new project before finishing the one you’re working on—it was too late. I’d been bitten by the Christmas writing bug. I worked feverishly to try and complete the manuscript in time for a December 2019 release, but my initial story was so bad I had to postpone it for another year working on the rewrite. I also knew I needed a twist from the tried and true, if not overused “protagonist travels back in time to learn lesson” formula of similar novels. I’ll leave it to you, the reader, to judge whether the delay and the twist were worth the wait.
I suspect many readers will not be surprised to learn that the part of my protagonist, Logan, was patterned after the title character from A Charlie Brown Christmas. Both are the same age and suffer from the same disillusionment about the true meaning of Christmas. But where Charlie’s revelation comes from his hearing of the Christmas story—Linus’s memorable recitation from the Gospel of Luke—I wanted Logan to have a more personal experience with the Messiah. Enter the character of Robert, and a journey back to Bethlehem. In using the vehicle of time travel, I not only wanted Logan to hear the message of Christmas, but to bring back a firsthand account to share with the world.
If nothing else, my hope is that in reading this book the reader will be able to experience a small taste of the wonder and excitement, the childlike faith that brought the Christmas story to life for Logan. It’s a story that hasn’t changed in over two thousand years, despite the best efforts of scoffers to ridicule it.
May the joy of the birth of Christ fill your hearts and homes this holiday season, and for all the years to come.
Now, it’s time to for the secret words: Feed the
Save the secret word(s), and when you reach the final blog, enter all the secret words on this form for a chance to win a $400 Amazon gift card!
Thank you so much for visiting! The next author on the tour is PeggySue Wells and her Christmas book Homeless for the Holidays. You can find it at this link. Remember, this Christmas in July Reader Giveaway will end on July 23 at 8 PM EST!
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