My Favorite Thing To Write!

by M. L. Buchman

I can't begin to tell you how much fun it is for me to write Christmas books...but I'll try anyway!

I was 40 when I had my first Christmas. Okay, my first real Christmas.

Growing up, Christmas was about getting on a plane in the freezing cold of an upstate New York winter. The Mohawk Airlines Convair 440 would lumber to the end of the runway, begin flapping its wings in the inevitable pre-Christmas blizzard, and somehow make it airborne year after year. The inevitable result was arriving at my grandparents in Florida, where we'd immediately catch the flu for running around in our shorts when it was only 55 degrees, and the misery would begin. Christmas was my parents least favorite holiday and they made sure that my sister and I knew that as well.

Even worse in the winter-wing-flapping department was the Fairchild Hiller FH-227.

In my 20s and 30s I would go to good friends' houses. It was still a strange and awkward time, but I slowly settled into enjoying the holiday as time with good friends and a few small gifts.

Then one Christmas I got a kid.

Okay, it wasn't quite as crass as it sounds, but it's true. I got my step-kid pre-packaged at six years old. Christmas is still a wonder to a six-year-old and my fiance / future wife had a gift for making it special. She still does. The wonders of the season are no longer as anticipated as they were now that the kid is going to grad school out of the country, but it is no less warm and fuzzy inside my happy writer's brain.

Curiously, it was my first attempt at a Christmas book that also launched me into being a full-time writer just 4 years ago. Daniel's Christmas was released without fanfare on 11/1/2012 with the rather unromantic cover at the left below. And it sold! And it has kept selling through four-years, in and out of Christmas season. Daniel has turned 4 this year and we threw him a birthday party!

Original "romance" Christmas cover

I like this cover, but I miss the charm of the old one at times.

The real beauty of his story was that it has spawned a tradition that has continued ever since.

Cornelia and Damien's story will be filling the empty spot in December.

For me, there is a joy of discovery. Of finding ways to a Christmas theme of joy that I found that day as I watched my kid-to-be in absolute ecstasy. The marvels of anticipation, hope, nerves, and joy. Of wide-eyed wonder as the old family sleigh bells (from a farm sleigh generations back) were rattled up on the roof in the middle of a sleepless night.

And each year I will be thankful for Daniel's Christmas. Literally the book that launched my indie writing career that I am so enjoying four years and dozens of novels and short stories later.

If you haven't read Daniel, you can sign up for my newsletter and receive his and three other tales of romance for free by clicking RIGHT HERE, (My Christmas gift to subscribers.)

M. L. Buchman has over 50 novels and 30 short stories in print. Military romantic suspense titles from both his Night Stalker and Firehawks series have been named Booklist “Top 10 of the Year,” placing two titles on their “Top 101 Romances of the Last 10 Years” list. His Delta Force series opener, Target Engaged, was a 2016 RITA nominee. In addition to romance, he also writes thrillers, fantasy, and science fiction.

In among his career as a corporate project manager he has: rebuilt and single-handed a fifty-foot sailboat, both flown and jumped out of airplanes, and designed and built two houses. Somewhere along the way he also bicycled solo around the world.

He is now making his living as a full-time writer on the Oregon Coast with his beloved wife and is constantly amazed at what you can do with a degree in Geophysics. You may keep up with his writing and receive a free 4-novel starter e-library by subscribing to his newsletter at:

www.mlbuchman.com.