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Writing Inspirational Holiday Stories with Dan Short · WriterCon

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This week on the writer Con podcast. I joined a writer critique group several
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years ago, and I was more of a bystander. I would bring things,
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but I really was mostly just watching and listening and admiring the other writers
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in the group. Eventually, several members of the group, including Renee and
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Melanie Hemry, who was the leader of the group, said you need to
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write this book. You need to write it, so they did an intervention
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on me. Welcome to writer Kon, a gathering place for writers to share
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their knowledge about writing and the writing world. Your hosts are William Bernhardt,
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best selling novelist and author of the Red Sneaker books on writing, and Laura
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Bernhardt, Award winning author of the want Land Files book series. Hey there,
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writers, Merry Christmas for me and Lara and Jesse. This is our
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last new episode of the year. Next week on New Year's Eve, we'll
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release a classic episode. Actually, we're combining two interviews that we did with
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Aaron Heineke a while back. She is a movie and TV agent and former
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writer come speaker, but she's one who really makes deals for writers and great
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ones with major studios. So these are wonderful interviews and I hope you will
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enjoy the even the second time around. Given the huge upsurge and booked to
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movie deals recently, this seemed like a good choice for New Year's Eve.
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But today on this podcast we're talking to Santa Laura. Are you ready for
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Christmas? I'm so ready. I'm excited here. We have had so much
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going on and just this year has been all about family and getting to spend
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time with people that I love, and it's been absolutely wonderful. I think
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Christmas is going to be a little more peaceful this year too. We're not
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quite so much driving, right, We're still going to see everything, but
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we're never spread it out. We're gonna spread it out. We're not gonna
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cram everything into one day. I'm going to give that a try. I
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always assume one of the benefits of getting older is that instead of having to
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travel for forty eight hours, people come to you at Christmas. Maybe I'm
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wrong. How does it work at your house, Jesse or I should really
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ask who's harder to shop for? Your wife or your cats? Definitely definitely
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Michelle, because the cats, well, yeah, the cats will. The
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cats are happy with the boxes any gift comes in, so they get.
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They get a gift on an almost daily basis in this house. So I
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do that question to me because he knows the ends, stop buying stuff from
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bust of her. I think he has more square footage in the house right
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now than we do. Actually, I just got him and I just got
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him a playspase for outside. So he just continues to get one good thing
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after another. Ah, sounds like a good Christmas to me. Well.
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Our interview today is with Dan Short. Dan Short, you'll hear more about
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this later, but basically, he left the corporate world to follow follow his
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calling, which was to give a gift to children and adults alike by becoming
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Santa Claus. He has fascinating stories of his years as Santa, some moving
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stories about his years as Santa, and now you can read about them because
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he's collaborated with our old friend and writer con co founder Renee Gutteridge to produce
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a lovely book called The Santa Claus Chronicles. What could be better? On
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Christmas Eve? We'll talk to Dan later, but first the news. Well,
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you probably wouldn't be surprised if I told you that the first news story
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involves Ai, and you probably wouldn't be surprised if I said it involved publishers,
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but you might be surprised if I told you. There are assertions out
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there that Big five publishers, including Penguin Random House, are now using AI
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quote to analyze book manuscripts for market potential and reader engagement. In other words,
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Random House is allegedly using AI to choose which manuscripts to publish, And
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there's been a white paper released on this subject. There'll be links to it
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in the show notes. We don't know everything about this and exactly what they're
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doing and not doing. Although at the Frankfurt Book Fair, which we've talked
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about before, it took place not too long ago, the Random House CEO
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said, and I quote at Penguin Random House, we've been working with artificial
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intelligence for more than a decade, primarily with machine learning, for example,
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to set the selling price of an e book, or to determine the starting
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print run of printed books end quote, begin commentary or In other words,
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what he's saying is he's using theater analysis to decide how well a book is
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going to sell and what they should charge for it. But he didn't actually
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admit to using AI to choose which books they're going to make money from.
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But it seems to me that these two are pretty closely related to one another.
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Jesse, you're a tech expert. What do you think listen like more
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enthusiasm, Yeah, Christmas. Yeah, I'm all for like AI helping people
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do their jobs easier. What I don't like is when AI is used to
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like stop people from doing their jobs or doing the hard work of choosing correctly
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and you know, actually looking at the things they're selecting. Right. AI
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is a great filtering tool, right, but it shouldn't be the tool.
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Well. I think the suggestion when they talk about pricing and print run is
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that basically the computer can do a better job of choosing what they can publish
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profitably then people can. Yeah, well I guess, I guess. My
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cool question is like, is the algorithm set to make the most money or
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is it set to price the book so it sells the most copies? Right?
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And those are two different things sometimes, And you know, and again,
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if the people are training the AI to make them the most profit,
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that doesn't I say me, it's the best for the consumer and or the
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author of the work. That's definitely true. Going to see an unexpected hit
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sometimes books just catch fire and surge. Yeah, I think that's something that
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can be predicted by human war machine. That is such a good point.
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I mean, the Fourth Wing at the start of that series is going mad
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now. And granted they had an established author, but I don't think anything
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anyone could have predicted that it would explode the way it has this year.
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But I suppose that doesn't mean the AI couldn't possibly have picked it. I
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don't know, Laura, I saw you making really disgusted faces when I went
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through this story. Think about AI picking who gets published. I don't love
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it. I just don't love it. You know. We had an article
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in the writer Con magazine where we talked about how AI doesn't do a great
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job writing. Can't put emotion into things. It's right, it's just and
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I don't think that it can pick for us what's going to resonate with audiences,
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what readers are going to feel drawn to, what's going to hit just
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the right nerve. I just don't think that it can. And I'm totally
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with Jesse here. There are great uses for it. We having, you
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know, auto predict in our email and in our text to speak some of
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us, some of us scripe about it, but some of us really enjoy
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having these features available to us, and where it can save us time and
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make life easier, that's great. I don't think it's creative and I don't
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think it can replace the human soul. What's in that field people's heart?
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Is it a cost cut cutting? Just measure? I mean, you know,
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if Random House is going to have AI pickets books, they can let
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go a lot of editors, and I don't love that either. All right,
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News story number two this has to do with what Pad. You may
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remember back in October we told you about what Pad Originals, which was basically
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a way for readers to enjoy paid stories that were published on the what Pad
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platform, usually by authors they've already already come to love by reading their work
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on what Pad. Now they're developing something called what Pad Premium for subscribers who
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want to pay five dollars a month and they'll get access to five curated what
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Pad originals for free. So basically it's like Audible or all the other people
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are trying to sell you subscriptions. You'll get five of these a month if
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you can read that many of them. I just before I turn this to
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question. I just want to say, because I know some people out there
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are probably think what Pad. Who cares? I want to have real books.
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I think more people have been published more successfully as a result of what
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Pad in the past five years than perhaps any other platform, Ana Todd being
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the obvious, but so many people have been discovered on what Pad. Laura,
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what do you think about this new development, the what pad premium.
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I think anything that gets more books into people's hands is great. People who
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like subscription services, it gives them a nice option and has some good books
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for them to try to read. I have a lot of saying I mean,
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you're definitely talking about people who have had access on want Pad. I
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didn't have as much. I'm not actually not on it anymore. But it's
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a great thing for people who are looking for that content. As Jesse says,
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we need more content, so it's a good thing. I hope that
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it's successful me too. All right. One last news story. The Wall
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Street Journal has stopped publishing its bestseller list book bestseller lists. Obviously this is
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important because there are only so many left. We've talked about this before on
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the podcast. The USA Today list was generally considered the most scientifically accurate.
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They killed it and then recently brought it back. But now it's allegedly purportedly
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what adjectives should I at? Verb should I use? Oops, it's being
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done by AI too. Now they're just collecting data from people and reporting.
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The New York Times list is when people always quote. But as we've also
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discussed, this heavily curated. To put it nicely, it focuses on New
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York publishers and New York authors and New York bookstores and doesn't to be fair,
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they have never claimed to be a national bestseller list. It's the New
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York Times list and the Wall Street Journal had to be fair lists that were
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based principally on BookScan data, but still they did cover self published books and
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USA Today and the New York Times probably never will again. And apparently it
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wasn't even like a content based decision. Wall Street Journal just decided not to
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renew its contract with book Scans, so now they don't have the data,
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So now they don't have the best seller list. Jesse, that makes sense
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to you. I mean, like all these lists are kind of junk anyway,
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So I'm fine with let's maybe let's have bestseller lists done by people who
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are in the book industry and who actually judge them in a more like legitimately.
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Yeah, not in genda so much, but like, aren't aren't sourcing
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it out to a third party who they're not necessarily verifying and or not maybe
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keeping up with whatever the newest ways books are pushed or sold are. So
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that's what I say, Thoughts, Laura, are you more in the demise
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of the journal list? I am? I mean I it makes me sad
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to see these go away. And for some of us who were aspiring to
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maybe hit one of those lists, now they're gone. What do we what
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do we do now? We don't have a replacement. Like Jesse said,
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maybe we couldn't replace it with something better, but we don't have that yet.
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And I haven't heard why they're going away anyway. Okay, they just
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used this contract, But why ye decided to wasn't worth the twelve dollars and
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ninety five cents a month they were paying something like that. I don't know,
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but that you know, we there are people out there who are attempting
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to compile lists that will include uh, you know, ebooks and books that
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don't have huge publishing companies behind it. But that is understandably complex, especially
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when Amazon will not release its sales data. Normally, there must be a
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way to get us an accurate bestseller list, but I don't really know what
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it is at this point. We're open to suggestions, listeners, send them
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in. We love to hear from you, all right, Jesse, cue
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up the music. Let us talk to Santa and welcome to the podcast.
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Thank you very much. It's good to be here. Hello. How are
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you both? We're great, It's really good to have you here. All
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right now, I want over here to do understand that The Santa Claus Chronicles
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is your first book, right, yes, it is only book so far,
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the only book so far. I'm working on another Santa Claus book.
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Okay, Oh, I think there could be a sequel. And it's as
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I said, The Santa Claus Chronicles co written by our friend Rene Gutteridge,
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co founder of Writer Cohn and frequent appearance person. There must be a better
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word for that frequent co host on this podcast. Anyway, tell us the
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story. I know you've worked as a Santa for many years yet, but
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how did this book come about? Well? I joined a writer critique group
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several several years ago, and I was more of a bystander. I would
15:56
bring things, but I really was mostly just watching and listening and admiring the
16:03
other writers in the group. Eventually, several members of the group, including
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Renee and Melanie Henry, who was the leader of the group, said you
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need to write this book. You need to write it. So they did
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an intervention on me. Renee and Melanie Hemriy, of course, are also
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important hosts that writer con every year and part of the spiritual or inspirational section.
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So this all makes sense to me. And you ended up co writing
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the book with Renee? Right? I did. Yes. She made an
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offer that I could not refuse. Dare I ask? What was the offer?
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Well, she told me again. I finally said yes, and so
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I took her up on the offer. And I'm very very glad I did.
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That's a stern approach. So what was the process like, What was
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it like working with the co writer Because I haven't done it yet, but
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I'm thinking about giving that a try. Well, I have no previous experience,
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but it was very good. She's a very easy person to work with,
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She's very encouraged, she was very laid back. It was more like
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she would guide me. There were several places certainly where her suggestions from a
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technical point of view were very useful and helpful because she's got a lot more
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experience, and that helped the book a lot. And then there were there
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were The other advantage I think was that I had someone who had a critical
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writer's mind, who could read my stuff and not on the humor or get
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beyond the the you know, the the poignancy, and help it move better.
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And so I was very great to have, well plus such experience.
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Rene probably at that point had written more than twenty books published by a major
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publisher. So you grabbed the gold ring well, and that's an invaluable source.
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Really. Yeah, No, I was very very fortunate, no doubt
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about it. I think it has been my good fortune to be in that
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critique group and to know those women, and to know the other writers in
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that group. There are several other writers in that group who have been in
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our continuing to writers. Now, the Santa Claus Chronicles is memoir. Yes,
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it's drawing on your your actual experiences as Santa. But you've been doing
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this for how many years? How is twenty five thirty? How? Many
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years have you been well thirty be now guess all are professionals for about twenty
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six okay, for that the request of my wife and others who you know
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more mildly and regularly amateur Santa, as opposed to that's that is a lot
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of material. How did you choose? Like, how did you pair all
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that down? How did you choose what would go into the book? Oh?
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Goodness, Well, actually I for about two and a half for three
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eating the fulls of this the one to write write one two for my writer
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critique groups so they wouldn't kick me out so that I'd do so. But
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I was to publish and get serious about it, so I ended up with
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about fifty titles, and pairing at the time was more of a process of
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of my own feelings, my own familiarity, and the impact that those particular
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stories had on me. Well, maybe we should roll this back back to
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beyond before the book and tell us how you got started, As Santa.
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You mentioned your wife. I'm going to guess she felt there was a perhaps
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physical resemblance that you could work with. Maybe is that how this got started?
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Well, it's interesting, No, Sally, I was very business like.
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I had assault, and for a very big business was tried in business
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like I went shopping because she loved to shop and I loved her, and
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so I would accompany her on these shopping trips. We were at Quail Springs
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Mall one Christmas season and I had done my duty, which I felt loving
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duty, but my duty, and I asked her permission if I could just
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sit and watch Santa for a while, just have some relief from the shopping
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part. And when I did, it opened up the whole world to me
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in terms of my current life. There was a Santa who I fell in
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love with. He was so gentle and so sincere and so personal with every
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child. He invited them into his presence gently, serely, and I watched
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these children become enthralled and feel safe, and I thought, this is marvel.
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I have got to know how to do that. I would love.
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I watched that man for five years. I would go for two hours at
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a time, several times a season, and hoping and wishing that somedayday I
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could do it. And finally I was standing behind him, away from his
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view so that I could see the faces of the children. I never had
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gotten that close before, and I had never disturbed Santa before. But he
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got up to take his break, and instead of turning to the sunglasses hut
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to take his break, he turned towards me, walked towards me, and
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I thought, Santa's coming to talk to me. And I stuck out my
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hand to Shi and a good boy, and he greeted me and said he
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said, he said hello. I said, Santa, I love watching you
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work. He said, I know, I've noticed. Well, yeah,
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after five years, that's getting a little stalkery. I think the people stalk
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Santa. Oh. Well, then he asked me if I Then he asked
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me if I ever thought about doing this, and I said, I would
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love to do. This phone number on a little pad and said, Baz
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take a break after after Christmas, but invited me to call in the mid
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middle of January, and that's how he hooked you up. Well, beautiful
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story. I absolutely love that. And you know, I think we talked
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so much about how things happen at the right time, So you're you're talking
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about for five years. It was an idea, it was in a developmental
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stage. I think we can all take that to heart. We don't have
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to rush. It's Okay, things take a little time. That applies to
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our books too, things happen in their season when they're supposed to. I
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absolutely love that how did you? How would you do you? Yeah?
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How would you? So when you're when you're choosing these stories, I mean
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a lot of our listeners are writers, and for someone who's wanting to maybe
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not necessarily write memoir like you did, but if they want to take their
24:30
life experiences and bring them to a book, which I think most of us
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want to do. But we also hear that old adage just because something happened
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to you doesn't mean it's interesting or that someone's going to read about how yeah
24:47
to other people. It's not necessarily it's your life, but maybe not going
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to be that interesting to someone else. So do you have some advice on
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how people can take those experiences and make sure that they bring them to their
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story in a way that's going to be engaging and offer some universal appeal.
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Well, I guess there's a lot of hope in that. One of the
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things that happened to me right after I became Santa the very first year,
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was that so many of our friends wanted to hear some stories about my experience.
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I had been assigned my first two years to a big, big mall
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up in Iowa City, the Coral Ridge Mall, And of course I was
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very cautious that first year, worried that I was going to ruin some poor
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child's life with something I said or did or didn't do properly. But when
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I got back, literally the night after we got back and Christmas had passed
25:52
the previous day, they had arranged for me to sit in a rocking chair
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in one of their home, and about twenty of our friends attended and asked
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me to tell stories. So really the stories began right away without any review,
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without any kind of evaluation, and so to some extent that was my
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first evaluation. And there were some stories that hit better than others. I
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really wasn't being very careful about noting them. But then I began to think
26:34
about when I did tell a story, what did I want to get across?
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Because everybody since then has said, oh, I bet you've got some
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great stories, And so I have chosen some from time to times, and
26:49
I share them, and I'm very selective about that, and I try to
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construct them so that they will be either humorous or in many cases poignant and
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sometimes to have them. They don't all necessarily make great wisdom messages, but
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there's always a human point, a human interest, a human message that I
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try to communicate. And I really do that with every child that I meet
27:22
all during the season. I'm there from one point of view to take a
27:27
picture with a child and to have them look their best and give their mom
27:33
and dad a memory that they can hold onto. But I have chosen to
27:37
use those times to ask questions of the children that let me into their lives
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and give me insight into their desires, their fears, their hopes, And
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I use those moments to teach. And it's really I didn't expect that I
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would do that, but it's really also the way that a lot of stories
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emerge. Well after that lead in, you probably know where I'm going next,
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Dan, Do you have a favorite Santa story you can share? Oh?
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My god, and I would ask for five, but since you sticking,
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maybe one, we got a time issue. Let me think quickly that
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you know the story that's been placed in my book first. And I did
28:30
not choose the positioning. The publisher chose the positioning, and I'm not sure
28:37
that I really have ever agreed with that positioning because it's a beautiful story,
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but it's a very poignant story. I got a call on a Friday night.
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I was not due to be Santa for a whole week at north Pole
28:53
City. The season had not started for us. But I got a call
28:57
on a Friday night from Rosanna, who was the manager of the design department
29:03
at north Pole City, and she said, Santa, I know it's late.
29:07
It was about nine pm, but we had a special request today.
29:12
A mother called us and asked if we could make a special time for their
29:18
daughter and their two other children to meet Santa. The daughter had been ill
29:25
with cancer and diagnosed since she was two years old, and she was five
29:30
now, and she had been struggling and she had been declining, but she
29:37
also perked up when she went to Sam's and tasted all the different samples that
29:45
they handed out. They was sort of a highlight for her and when she
29:48
got out for that, she loved it well. The mom asked and Rosanna
29:53
said she would check with Santa, and we did that. The next day.
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I arrived a little before the family did, and Rosanna had decorated the
30:03
set, had created the sleigh and had put aside some toys from the store
30:08
for all three children. And when they arrived, this little girl, this
30:15
beautiful little girl, was frail, bald, and dressed beautifully in a little
30:25
red dress with some lace, and she had patent little black patent leather shoes
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and some socks that had lace at the tops, and she had the most
30:37
beautiful little smile. Well, I met her, and I met her brother's
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brother and sister, and we had a grand time, and I got a
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big, big hug from her, and I wished her well and told her
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Santa loved her. And then just before Christmas, I got a call from
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the mom, and Mom had said that she had gone to heaven, and
31:07
Mom had wanted me to know what their conversation was. Just shortly before she
31:14
died, she asked her mother and dad, do you think it'll be as
31:18
much fun sitting on Jesus' lap was sitting on Santa's lap? And the folks
31:26
said, Oh, yes, of course it will. So that was That
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was probably the most powerful poignant one early on that I that I got.
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But there are so many of them, there are so many funny ones.
31:44
Yeah, I think this is the time I've cried on the past. We're
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not going to talk that story except to say, people, you really need
31:56
to get out and read this book. You'll be so glad you did.
32:00
What do you think, Dan, Can we have a sequel Chronicles too,
32:04
someday? You know. I'm writing some stories now. I don't know whether
32:07
it will be Chronicles two, because unfortunately my book is going out of print.
32:13
Our book is going out of print because the marketing department at our publisher
32:21
was terminated within a month of our getting the book signed, so we didn't
32:25
get very much extension for it. But we're hoping. We think we might
32:34
get the rights to the name and maybe the artwork even and if we do,
32:39
we may repeat Chronicles and do too. But I am writing several more
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stories and I don't know how they'll appear, but they will hopefully be published
32:52
at some point. I'm sorry to hear that, Dan. I will tell
32:54
you though, because I just checked that the book is on sale at Amazon
32:59
and probably other places as well. And if we need to find a publisher
33:04
in the future, we know a lot of them because they come to writer
33:07
Con every year. Okay, then, thanks so much for making this special
33:14
Christmas episode even more special. Okay, absolutely wonderful. Thank you, see
33:20
you again soon, Thank you very much. Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas.
33:31
Just a few parting words. It is Christmas Eve. If you haven't yet
33:37
snagged your ninety nine cent copy of Christmas Spirit, you have a couple of
33:40
days left. And don't forget about Christmas Tapestry, which is a lovely collection
33:46
of terrific short stories. And of course we have that holiday episode. Sorry,
33:53
holiday issue of our writer Coon magazine, full of information, an inspiration
34:00
for aspiring authors everywhere at Christmas time or whatever your holiday of choices. That's
34:07
so terrible. I just want to do that over again. Just cut that
34:12
whole thing out, a little dismissive yeah, or whatever you do. Didn't
34:16
work out, didn't come out the way I wanted it to be. Yeah,
34:21
it does have Christmas in the title, but does okay, edit all
34:24
that junk, just end it with herself. But I should say bye?
34:30
Probably, yeah, should say what? Say something about next week we'll have
34:34
a compilation episode from here. But I specifically said a holiday issue of the
34:39
magazine rather than Christmas, because it's all inclusive. We have a Yeah you
34:44
were on it, I wasn't, and I mentioned the episode I bobbled it.
34:49
Oh no, that was nothing. I mentioned the special episode at the
34:52
top. I don't think I need to do it again, but you should
34:55
probably say more about the issue, don't you think tell them about what's in
34:59
it? Okay? Do you want me to just start over or just keep
35:01
going? In Jesse'll, I don't really remember how we love Yeah, let's
35:06
just do it over again, just to make it easier on me. Okay,
35:08
Well, Danny, I'll have two things to choose from. That's true.
35:14
Before we go. Let me go ahead and remind you that if you
35:17
haven't yet picked up your ninety nine cent copy of Christmas Spirit, you have
35:22
a couple more days to grab that. And don't forget about Christmas Tapestry also
35:28
special price for the holidays, and it is full of some very sweet and
35:35
holiday themed stories written by some terrific authors. And we can't end the episode
35:42
without talking about our holiday issue of the writer Con magazine. It is full
35:46
of inspirational and informative articles for aspiring authors. Everywhere you can read about best
35:55
gifts for authors, best gifts authors can give to themselves, how are you
36:00
going to market your book during the holidays, and We even have an interview
36:06
with Santa, so don't miss out on that. Go to substack and find
36:10
the writer Con magazine and subscribe today. You can subscribe free, but you
36:17
don't get the magazine, but you get some lovely little it's worth it,
36:30
but but paid subscriber to get the magazine, and as she indicates, it's
36:35
a bargain. I think my favorite article in this episode is the one about
36:40
how to write it. Well, this sounds kind of cheesy since I contributed
36:45
to this, didn't I, But it's true. The article about how to
36:49
write a Christmas story and how it differs from other kinds of short stories.
36:53
I like that a lot. Anyway, until is yourself a Christmas gift and
37:00
subscribe to the magazine or your best friend who's also a writer or wants to
37:06
be what can happen? I like that Christmas Gifts for Writers is our magazine.
37:12
On that list Renee made on that article, should have been should have
37:15
been? All right? Until next time, everybody, keep writing. You
37:21
don't even get Christmas off right every day, and remember you cannot fail if
37:27
you refuse to quit. Merry Christmas, everybody,