Emi Taran and her special Christmas story for the season!

iUniverse’s Emi Taran talks about her new book, A Christmas Story – perfect for this Yuletide season!

Please tell us about your book . . .

A Christmas Story is mainly about the very well-known subject of the birth of Christ which takes place in the very humble circumstances as we’ve heard it many times before, but this time a new character is added to the Nativity Scene, another well know character loved by many, Santa Claus. The book has also a subtle and heartfelt message about us, human beings and how sometimes in our hastiness we make the wrong decisions or take our own anger and frustrations out unto others, and not always dealing with the consequences of our actions. In this case, Santa shows us what it takes to make things right, and the courage that is needed to acknowledge our mistakes and mend them, which is most of the time the hardest part.

And can you tell us a little about yourself?

I am 36 years old, mother of 2 boys, with a classical music background but now I work in real estate. I am an artist at heart and always will be. I like beauty in every way, shape or form and story telling to me is one of the ways we can create beauty and memories.

Do you have any particular literary influences? What inspired you to write your book?

I don’t have a particular literary influence, I like many different things, writers or composers, but one of my favorite books will always remain The Catcher in the Rye by Salinger whose style is beyond amazing to me. What inspired me to write the book: a few things have inspired me but my older son is the main reason I decided to write the book. I was telling him the story but he was following my story in a different book which didn’t have the scenes I was talking about, not all of them, so he kept asking where is the old mean man and why and how did he kick them out etc so I decided to write the book in order for him to have the images of the story I was telling him.

What is the one message you would like to convey to your readers?

The message I would like to convey is that we can all live together in harmony with our differences and different belief system. Another reason I wanted to write book is the fact that I hear many times people saying Jesus is the reason for the season and I agree 100% with that. But I also have heard people saying there is no place for Santa, or I have seen images with Santa being kicked out while saying the above statement. We can celebrate both of them and no one has to be excluded or kicked out, and this story is the perfect story that celebrates both Jesus and Santa.

Are you working on a sequel to A Christmas Story?

Yes! I plan on writing a sequel or another story that would be connected to this one.

Are there any events, marketing ideas, or promotions planned for your book?

So far my book is on iuniverse.com and soon will be on amazon and barnesandnobles.com. I plan on doing a few book signing events here in my community if I can get the hard copies in time before Christmas :).

What was your favorite part of your publishing experience, overall and with iUniverse?

My favorite part was definitely working on the illustration and creating the story in images as well as re-doing the text or changing a few minor details that made the book better.

Finally, what advice would you give to aspiring authors?

Write about the things you care and love or are passionate about even though they are not the most popular subjects or the trendiest things to be talking about. Write about what stirs the passion in you!

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