Posted on November 11, 2011
I’ve been working on Last Chance Christmas, and yesterday I ran into a snag.
My hero and heroine needed to go on a date and it had to be holiday themed. Also, I wanted to inject a little humor into the story, because the book has been far more emotional that I had originally planned. So I wracked my brain for fun Christmassy things that my hero and heroine could do, and every idea sounded like something right from the Hallmark Channel.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Hallmark, but I wanted something funny not sweet. The book is filled with sweet, poignant moments. I needed a few belly laughs.
Sometimes writing humor can be a bitch. So I called my friend, Carla.
Carla always gives me funny ideas. I have no idea how she does this because she never tries to be funny. But she’s golden and I’m not sharing her with anyone.
“Help,” I said, “I need a Christmas-themed date that isn’t saccharine sweet.”
“Hmmm,” she said, mulling things over. ” They could always go on a drive to see the Christmas lights, and then they could park somewhere and get it on.”
Bwahahahahahahahah……
“That’s not funny,” Carla said.
I gasped and dried my steaming eyes. “Maybe not in the big city where you live, but in Last Chance, South Carolina Old Man Nelson puts up a humdinger of a light show in his corn field. ”
I had just made this up of course, but my fertile mind was already spinning all kinds of humorous scenarios. Because, well, Henry Nelson is a hillbilly who enjoys riling up the church ladies of Last Chance.
I suddenly saw an image of a a big University of South Carolina themed Christmas tree with garlands flashing the words “Go Cocks,” in all directions as far as the eye can see.
And then I imagined a group of tipsy elves making moonshine in the copper still Henry Nelson inherited from his granddaddy.
And, once again, Carla had put me on the right track. I thanked her profusely and went off looking for more tacky Christmas ideas.
And I found this:
You know, sometimes reality is tackier than anything I could make up.
So what’s the tackiest holiday decoration you ever saw? Please, by all means, post links to photos.
