Dad and Dancing Angels

 A collection of my short stories has just come out.  It's called Angels Dancing on  the Roof  and includes seasonal stories that I've written over several years.  Most are Christmas stories, but I have included a Chanukah story as well.

I must say, seeing them is print is a bit of a thrill.  I have had other things, liturgical materials and essays, published, but a whole book!  Cool!  

I will be doing some/readings/signings over the next month.  Being seasonal literature there is a rather specific time frame for promoting it.  But the spirit of the season, which I hope these varied tales reflect, can and should last throughout the year.  I know that's a tad cliched, but who among us doesn't wish that, hope that?  Only the most ardent misanthropes.  I won't say Grinches or Scrooges because (spoiler alert) they both go through a dramatic conversion experience!

The book is dedicated to my Dad, one of the most ardent fans of the Dickens story about old Ebenezer and Tiny Tim.  He would read it to us every Christmas, one stave (chapter) a week through Advent, culminating on Christmas Day with the fifth and final stave.  The epigram on my dedication page, in fact, comes from Dickens.  "It was always said of him, that he knew well how to keep Christmas, if any man possessed the knowledge."

I don't pretend to be in the same league as Charles Dickens.  Not even in the same fictional universe!  But I do hope I have captured some of that same sense of wonder and hope that he did.  

If you'd like to check out the book for yourself, you can find it on Amazon, or locally, at McIntosh Books.