Happy New Year
In which it's that time of year again, and I've got a new free story to share.
Hey there, remember me? No, I’m not sure I do either. I think I used to write books or something, didn’t I?
Yes, OK, fine, you’ve rumbled me… I’ll admit it, I’ve been gone for a while. I’m sorry, my darlings. But, I’ve had some good reasons (more on that another time).
Right now, I’m here to wish you a very happy 2025 and a deliver a new, free story for you to enjoy.
I love this time of year. The love the long, dark nights, I love the helter-skelter pell-mell rush through Halloween, Bonfire Night, my sons’ birthdays (OK, not a UK-wide holiday but give them time), and then Christmas and New Year. I love the closing down of the old year, the chance to reflect and recover a little, and the unbridled potential of the new year to come.
Most of all though, I love the excuse not to go anywhere and to stay in and get cosy in front of the TV instead. Stories are a big part of Lynch family Christmas, including my now traditional Lucy Wilson Christmas story.
For those of you who know me through Welcome to Neverbury, The Lucy Wilson Mysteries are books for children/young adults that feature the grand daughter of the late, great Brigadier Sir Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart. I don’t believe in “writing down” to kids, so maybe they aren’t that different to my writing for adults, but the body count is lower. Probably.
I’ve written multiple books, novellas, and short stories for the Lucy Wilson series and Candy Jar (the publishers) even let me loose on the adult books once, although they sensibly kept me tucked away in an alternate reality where I couldn’t do too much damage to continuity.
Amongst these stories have been quite a few Christmas tales, which are normally given away free to fans of the series by the Candy Jar Books in the days just before Christmas. I’m normally rushing to hit the deadline, despite Christmas being at the same time every year, and do I owe a big thank you to the team at Candy Jar for the last minute editing and type-setting that they do every year on these stories. I never, ever start them until the tree is up and I’m feeling appropriately festive, and that has led to some near-misses in the past!
But, just like Father Christmas and his elves, we’ve always delivered.
Download “Lucy Wilson: A Lighthouse in the Clouds” here.
This year’s story is called “A Lighthouse in the Clouds”. It’s got a magical lighthouse, elves, pirate rats, a flying ship, and a pretty jolly delivery man in a highly recognisable red uniform.
During the traditional reading of the Christmas story, where I was replaced by one of the aforementioned kids this year, there are a few similarities to a certain Christmas Special that jumped out at me, which is very odd as I wrote this a few days before seeing it and it was sent out to the Candy Jar mailing list before the Christmas Special aired (and I’m not talking about Gavin and Stacy!)
To me, this is further proof that the BBC have bugged my house or hacked my PC to save them from having to pay me to write this stuff. The joke’s on them, I’d write Doctor Who for free and pay for my own lunch and parking if I could go on-set to see it being filmed.
So, if you’re feeling a little blue now that Christmas has passed, why not give the story a try and see if you can recapture just a little bit of that festive magic?
Thanks for reading. If you enjoy the story, please share this post with your network!
And if this is the first time that we are meeting, it would be great if you subscribed. I send out a lot of free stuff and won’t bother you when I don’t have anything useful or interesting to share… promise ;-)