Here's another story to put in my "Where the Heck did THAT Story Come From?" file.
In
my new Christmas comedy, CATTYWAMPUS CHRISTMAS, there is what writers call
"the inciting incident." The incident here is when the main
character, Dorothy Norton, AKA "Dot," comes home for the holidays to
"Nameless, Texas" and helps her father catch a giant runaway
inflatable helicopter with a Santa in it.
Sort
of like this one. It's SEVEN feet long! Jeepers!
Have
you noticed that these things are getting larger EVERY year? Scary. But I
digress. . .
Dot isn't paying attention and gets knocked
down by her neighbor's VW Bug. I'll leave it up to your imagination to figure
out what's real and what isn't, but all sorts of craziness ensues—vintage toys
come to life, there's a spunky British Christmas fairy, some ravenous invisible
flying monkeys and a very rude Santa who is NOT your typical ho-ho-ho jolly old
elf! (Think
The Wizard of Oz meets Monty Python meets Lost in Space with Snagglepuss. I think I used up my quota of atrocious
groaners with this one.)
Parte
Dos! Anyway, when I was a kid, we lived in Ft. Worth, Texas--home of Bell
Helicopter. We passed Bell on the drive to our grandmother's house in Dallas.
Every year, they'd put one of their older helicopters on their front lawn
with an animated Santa inside, and he moved back and forth, waving at the
traffic. It was such a thrill to anticipate it. We'd keep asking "How much
longer?" and Daddy would frown and say "We'll get there when we get
there! Be quiet and let me drive!" Then we'd finally see it and squeal.
Daddy would cringe, slow down as we passed and we waved back to Santa, never doubting
that he was real. Sigh. Good memories.
(Does ANYONE have a good photo of this? I'd
give anyone a free book if they come up with one I can stick here in the blog.
Seriously. This would have been back in the '60s.)
So,
back to CATTYWAMPUS CHRISTMAS--take an errant yard decoration, a few childhood
memories, a love for vintage Christmas with just a bit of snark against all the
"holiday hoo-hah" insanity and mix all together. That's where THIS story came
from.
And
I hope y'all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Happy
holidays,
bobbi
c.
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