By Gayle Bartos-Pool (G.B. Pool)
Ideas for stories come from everywhere whether it’s a person, a memory, a trip, a news article, an object or a picture. Something triggers a writer’s imagination and a story starts to form. Every short story or novel I ever wrote came from something I came across in my life. My three Christmas novels are no exception.
Bearnard’s Christmas was the first one. Many years ago I worked at a miniature store in California. It was one of the first of its kind in the country and the owner had a great store. She also had a holiday shop in a backroom off the open patio. We did Easter, Halloween, and most of all, Christmas. I could buy Santas for my budding collection wholesale which helped my bank account, but we also went to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena when they had their monthly swap meet. I could get Santas for $.50 to $1.00 way back then.
But Kay Kelley also had Christmas cards. I remember seeing one with a Polar bear in a Santa hat. Bing! That got me thinking about a story about this Polar bear who helps Santa and a lady who just happened to collect dollhouses who ends up at the North Pole one Christmas Eve and helps both Santa and Bearnard, the Polar bear.
Now, on my salary, I couldn’t afford to buy a dollhouse, much less a castle, but I could sketch one out that fit my story. Then I started writing that story. A few years later the shop closed and I had to find another job, but I finally found a new one that paid more in salary and I also met and married my wonderful husband, Richard. Within a few years I could buy a dollhouse kit or two, but my story was about a castle.
By then, I had written my story, but I figured I should build the castle to go with it. I did. And I fashioned the characters in the story out of clay and took pictures of everything for my book. Eventually I got the book published.
Then I saw this Christmas card with a mechanical Santa. Bing! Another idea popped into my head. What if Santa had mechanical likenesses of himself made that could be sent around to stores so his favorite stories could be told to children in his own voice? Santa has his elves make a few mechanical Santas, but a bad guy has them reprogrammed to tell kids to demand more and more toys. What is Santa to do? The Santa Claus Machine tells that story.
A few years later I happened to find this dragon ornament at the hardware store. He was just a little guy, but cute. While I was walking one of our dogs one day, I happened to spot one of those stretchy things girls use for their ponytails on the sidewalk. It was sparkly and just fit around the little dragon’s neck like a Christmas wreath. I slipped it on him and then took him upstairs where the Santa Castle was sitting. I placed the dragon on the roof and said: “Every Castle Needs a Dragon.” Bing! Guess what the name of the third book is?
A Christmas card or two, an ornament, and some imagination provided me with three story ideas and three books. Ideas do come from those things. But there is another holiday story that I wrote that had its own origin.
After the miniature store closed, I got a job at two stores in the Glendale Galleria before I got the better job at a bank. First, it was in a card store and then a bookstore. Both had their moments, but at the mall during the holidays, they had a Santa Claus. We’ve all seen them at stores as we were growing up. Well this guy was a neat Santa, but when kids weren’t around he sang. He had a microphone and he would entertain us with all kinds of songs. Bing!
I moved my singing Santa to Las Vegas where he started out as a lounge singer in really small places, but his agent, just an employment agency guy, gets him a job as a Santa in a mall during the holidays. He meets this little girl with an illness who needs some help and this Santa has to decide between his career and this kid. A few things pop up to let him know what life is all about and he makes his decision. This book is called The Santa Claus Singer.
(All books are available on Amazon.)
So ideas come from everywhere. It just depends on what you do with those ideas that determines if you get a story out of it. Write On!
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The Writers in Residence 
Gayle, such a wealth of books from your wealth of ideas. How creative you are. Only your level of writer would see the possibilities in your experiences and craft them into such a form as books. I have certainly brought my own life background into my mysteries, but I don’t think I have been observant enough to turn a glance into a novel. Well done!
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Thanks, Jill. Most writers use things in their own lives to write about, but maybe there are even more stories and details that they can use if they just take another look. (Gayle)
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How fun that you’ve derived inspiration from such a diverse bunch of Christmas ideas, Gayle. Thanks for your post that is itself inspirational!
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Ideas are everywhere. We writers bump into them everyday, but we don’t always know they are telling us something. (Gayle)
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Creativity is sparked in so many ways, large and small. I love the Santa-turned-lounge singer idea that became a story. I haven’t tried a holiday story yet, but there’s time. Maggie
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Short stories about each holiday can make a great collection for a book. I already have ideas about a few of those celebrated days. (Gayle)
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Miko here. Thanks for the timely reminder that ideas can come from anywhere and anything, as long as we leave our imagination open to them. You certainly put your own advice to excellent use.
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Just like you using your family history along with historical things that happened during the time period covered in your books, ideas and information is everywhere. (Gayle)
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Word Press and I are sometimes at odds. I thought I sent one comment already, but it hasn’t shown up! Basically(long windily) I said how much I loved the Polar Bear Santa cover, and the red in your covers, and how important covers are and how my thought trail this morning is going to covers…
As always, enjoyed and learned from your post…(this is anonymous Mad)
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Thanks, Mad. I try to make the cover fit the story. I’ve used photos I’ve taken, stock photos, and even a few photos from friends like Jackie Houchin. But I do use a lot of bold colors. I want the covers to jump off the shelf. (Gayle)
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i have read many of your Christmas books, Gayle, and seen in person the castles and miniatures and Christmas decorations. It is quite a joy. Thanks for sharing early. Good ideas for Christmas shopping for readers we know.
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I’d like to see a few more Christmas mysteries as well as just good old fashioned Christmas stories. Or Easter, Halloween, St. Patrick’s Day…Why not? (Gayle)
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Gayle, our guest on December 13 has written a 4-short-story collection of Christmas mysteries with characters from her 4 series. It’s titled “Christmas Presence” by Liz Hedgecock. (Another Brit.) She also has a crazy kid’s picture book titled “The Christmas Carrot” (26 pages) based on Dickens’s The Christmas Carole.
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Another 3-mystery collection I enjoyed is by Adriana Licio – “A Christmas Mystery in Venice and other Winter Tales”
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Gayle, sorry I’m so late the party! I am always so impressed with your amazing Christmas collection! It’s interesting how our path in life inspires our stories, and your own drawings are wonderful. I’m not surprised it’s led to your own cottage-industry of Christmas and Santa’s tales. Delightful post, Gayle!
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Author Amy Reade has a series of mysteries (novels) with each story set during a holiday. Maggie
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Fascinating reads❣️
I am from a whole different belt, my world among contrasts. My best Christmas moments are in the edges of streets and barefoot angels with eyes that tear me up. Christ meets me in the straw, every December, more so this one. Thank you for inspiring me to write one from Snatches here & there🙏🏼
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