Over the last few weeks I’ve been attempting to write a series of letters to Santa. This letter was supposed to be for this past Monday, Dec 17. We had a storm that messed up the internet and our letter schedule. Therefore, this is letter #3. Please note, there are no promotional links because this isn’t about selling, this is only giving.

Dear Santa, Bless the Troubled

Dear Santa,

This is not a letter of thanks, Santa, but a letter asking for your kindness and aid. I hope you can hear me, Mr. Claus, because what I have to ask would normally go up to The Big Guy Upstairs, but I’m hoping to get a fast track to Him through you.

Santa, first, I want to ask for others to find empathy and compassion for those who are lost. This time of year gives rise to confusion and loneliness. Many feel lost, without anyone to turn to, without a home, family or a friend. As a result, there are numerous suicides (or attempts). When that happens, it seems the trolls come out to play. I hear things like, “well, its his/her own fault.” Or “why didn’t they speak to someone?” 

Good question, right? Why didn’t they? Probably because they were shy, confused, ashamed, depressed, and part of the many lost in the holiday rush. Children who need a kind hand, a strong and loving foster home, or a wish to be adopted. A senior citizen who puts on a smiling face but when the sun goes down find themselves completely shut off from the world. Don’t forget those seniors in the homes who feel dumped, passed over, and forgotten.

We need to remember these lonely souls, the young and the old, the forgotten and the deserted, the anxious and afraid. They need special kindness.

The next group of people I wanted to ask you to support are the sick and the physically challenged. Santa, there are many friends who have battled cancer or who are currently battling cancer…along with several others who have various diseases. It seems the sweetest and most giving end up struggling in some hospital bed putting on courageous faces for friends and family. However, I know that most of these people are worried and scared, deeply afraid that their future may be short or the view of tomorrow will be one of sterile walls and beeping machines.

Santa. those people facing disease or who are physically challenged are the second group of the lost. I want to ask you for them to know love and compassion, to find faith and courage, to know others are praying and encouraging them to keep going. I want them to know I’m more than a face in the online darkness but someone who actually cares and worries and believes they have a fighting chance for a future. Santa, give them that fighting chance. Show them how strong and fierce they can be and help them to find a secret strength they didn’t know they had within them.

Finally, Santa, the hardest lost of them all are the grieving. Whether the tears come from death, flood, fire, or finances, the deep sorrow of grief can be paralyzing, debilitating, stress beyond normal ranges, with a hollowness that no amount of laughter or cheer can fill. Worse, when the grief first happens, so many are there to commiserate and shed tears, offer hugs, and encouragement. But as the weeks crawl by, people leave as their lives go on. Meanwhile, the grieving are stuck in the moment without any way to find forward motion. People need to come back and follow up, check in, remember that grief takes time and life for the grieving is a slow moving carousel. 

Remember that losses coming during the holidays are the hardest to recover from and those are the final examples of the troubled ones. Santa, give them hope. Give them company. Give them random acts of kindness and suprrises. Remind them what joy is and help others to share theirs.

Santa, the forgotten or the lost, the physically troubled, and the grieving are my special cases this year. Please reach into their hearts and share your love with them all. Tell them how much others care for them, worry and pray. Be there for them and pass along our hearts.

This is the candle of hope I light for them. Santa, share this light and help them to feel lost no more.

One more letter coming, Santa. On Christmas Eve I will ask for my most precious wishes. I know you’re wondering what those could be!

Meanwhile, I wish you and the elves good health and good cheer. Merry Christmas dear man. Until the last letter…

I remain, Yours Between the Lines,

Sherry

I’m depressed. Yesterday was Mother’s Day and I miss my mom butt that’s not why I have the blues.

Two weeks ago I finished my latest book, The Gypsy Thorn. It’s a paranormal urban fantasy and a prequel novel to a new vampire series. The new series, The Evening Bower, will begin later this year (hopefully). So, you may ask, if I have a book in the can, why am I depressed?

Because the book is done. 

Sound silly? I suppose it may seem that way. I have written three books of poetry, one memoir, one photography book, and one urban fantasy. Now I have this new book and it will be published any day. Putting a book “to bed,” typing “the end” (figuratively), isn’t new to me and you may be saying, “why aren’t you celebrating instead of bemoaning?”

Let me explain and then maybe you’ll understand what I mean. With the photography and the poetry, I didn’t deal with a character. Yes, my poetry discusses a variety of “characters” but not a sustainable one, not one that has a complete substance.

With the memoir, the topic was me and I was happy when the book was done and published. I released me and it set me free.

With the urban fantasy, Midnight Assassin – A Tale of Lust and Revenge, I told a story that I new would continue. The main character – the vampire Drahomira – was due to return in the new book and so I didn’t feel as though I walked away from her or left her. I never felt that I ever left the story. Instead, Dra hovered near me as I wrote this new book where she is the driving force. Maybe you could say we got very close.

However, when I finished The Gypsy Thorn (GT), Drahomira’s work was done. She was the tool I used to prepare my readers for the series where Drahomira is not the main character. She is one of the important people (and will have her own off-shoot series) but she is not the character on which the series is based. And putting an end to GT closed the door on my favorite bad girl. Her voice stopped and I was alone. Hence the depression.

I hear from other authors and many experience this feeling. I haven’t given birth so I don’t know post partum depression though some have said that birthing a book is similar. It is my baby. Every single one is a labor of love and I give everything to it. I am told that this feeling of “letting go” is much like seeing your children move on, graduate, leave home, etc. I can’t speak to that, but I do feel sad to see it end. And I do miss her not being there to whisper in my ear.

As a result, I am hard at work on the next book. The new characters (introduced in Midnight Assassin and GT) are shyly stepping up and demanding my attention. New whispers fill my ear. But I did want to tell you how I am overcoming this lingering, last book sadness.

Book completions are both joy and sorrow. The joy is pride and a sense of accomplishment. There is no feeling in the world like finishing your story. The sorrow is finishing the story. As with any book I read, I feel satisfaction and a little sadness in ending. That’s the key. Ending.

I realized I needed to let go. I also realized I need not grieve! Nothing is over. The new story begins, and characters continue. Things are not done yet! There is more to tell.

And that is my answer to you. When you find yourself in a little bit of the blues, in sorrow of your book’s end, then begin anew. Take your joy in your success and reseed, regrow, renew!  Be happy and proud, congratulate and celebrate.  And hey, it’s okay to be blue.

To be sad is understandable but not to remain that way. Each author must find a way to move forward, and when you do, you will give birth to new exciting characters and new stories. But first, release yourself.

I’ve heard authors say, “I gave my all to that story. I don’t know if I have anything else to write about.” Pish posh. You need to let go! Blood renews itself. Mine did. Yours will, too.

Today I am nearly over being blue and excited about The Gypsy Thorn’s upcoming release THIS MONTH. Keep checking here and on my Facebook Author page for info.

And the new book, Time and Blood? Oh what a deliciously tangled web we weave! I’ll see you with this one in October.

Meanwhile, I hope your Mother’s Day was lovely and that you have projects you can sink your teeth into with joy and gusto. As for me, the vampires are calling and demanding my attention. And THAT makes me happy!

Thanks for stopping by and keep writing.
Yours Between the Lines,
Sherry

(Midnight Assassin cover by Robin Ludwig Designs)
(The Gypsy Thorn cover by Marisa-rose Shor of Cover Me Darling)