It’s the day we’ve been waiting for! Okay, maybe not everybody but certainly me. Drumroll please …

I am so proud to reveal the cover of my newest book — Yes There Is a Santa … and I’ve Met Him Personally Many Times.

This is a children’s Christmas book written with extra scoops of love. Yes, There Is a Santa … and I’ve Met Him Personally Many Times is a first-person account detailing my encounters with the jolly old elf written as a Christmas present to my grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Last Christmas Eve, I had a Facebook Live session with the rugrats, reading the stories to them through the marvels of technology.

There are skeptics out there. There are children wavering on the edge of belief. There are young ones who believe with all their being.

So I tried to answer the question, Is there a Santa Claus?  Yes there is!

I make the claim to a broader audience through the book based on seeing Santa many times throughout my life from a kid on Santa’s lap to telling stories about Santa encounters throughout my life.

I thought about the exercise after Christmas and whether it was worth expanding to a wider general holiday audience. I noticed the live feed drew 121 visitors — slightly larger than my pool of 18 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. I connected with Rebecca Benston, my publisher at Higher Ground Books & Media, for affirmation. In the twinkle of an eye we were off and running.

I really do have to thank Rebecca. She embraced the project, giving it the final edit, suggesting deletions of duplicate or similar stories and additional word bridges to improve story flow, dumbing it down to make it more suitable for a younger audience, finding the right illustrator — Jasmine Olgletree — to break up the  text, and creating the cover. We have one more final sign off to do, momentarily as I write. We hope download the project this week. The Kindle version will drop first and we hope the paperback will be available  around Nov. 15 — just in time for pre-Christmas availability

This tale would fit as a good night reading project in the days leading up to Christmas and is sure to become a staple in any child’s library. And maybe Moms,Dads, Grandmas, Grandpas, Aunts, Uncles, whoever narrates the book might also remember their encounters  with Santa and recapture a little hope in this season of hope.

BELIEVE

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THOUGHT TO REMEMBER: Your path is your character defining itself more and more every day. — Jodie Foster