That time of year by Eric Beetner

 Have you ever themed a book or a story around a holiday or a specific time of year? What do you think about writing something aimed at a certain holiday or event? Are you limiting your audience or taking advantage of the season like a singer releasing a Christmas album or a TV show doing a Halloween themed episode?

I've never written anything specific to a time of year, though I'm not opposed to it. There is something fun about a holiday movie or something that is timed to a time of year. Obviously people are reaching for scary books right now. A collection like the Hanukkah-themed anthology Eight Very Bad Nights may well have renewed interest every year.

It can be limiting, pinning your story to a specific place and time. For that reason I've never dealt much with current events. Until now. 

It's not a time of year, but the novel I just turned in embraces the current political climate. It's something I've never tackled before specifically for the risks of making your book locked into a particular time that will inevitably move on and become history.

But for me it was both a challenge and something that needed to be said. If it gives the book a shorter shelf life, then so be it.

On the other hand, like a Mariah Carey song or a Charlie Brown special, sometimes the nostalgia is the appeal. Surely we read many types of books in order to bring ourselves back to a certain way of feeling. Or to learn about a time when we weren't around. It's not a sound marketing strategy, but there is the potential.

I'll be the first time put on the Christmas music (after Thanksgiving though, this steady creep of early Xmas is too much) or cue up the horror movies in October. In looking at my bookshelves, I don't see a lot of holiday themed books. At least not a lot that make the time of year the focus. Brilliant books like The Ice Harvest are certainly Christmas novels at heart, and since people love compiling lists and arguing over them, books get lumped into themes all the time. Horror novels don't need to be set at Halloween to get put onto a list of great October reads. 

So in thinking about it, I don't think it limits an audience. I'm warming to the idea more and more. I'd love to have a book make a list of must-read holiday entertainment. I'm certainly hoping I don't limit my audience with a current events-themed book. I know there is a risk, but probably more so for the political element. I come out vehemently anti-fascist and though I don't mention names of certain wanna-be dictators, my political positions will be clear. 

Writers are often warned against weighing in on political issues, which is ridiculous of course. We put pieces of ourselves into our books no matter whether we try or not. And when issues are large enough to warrant speaking out, then of course we use our words to do so. If I get a few angry emails or one-star reviews, that is a small price to pay for speaking out when my silence would be far more hurtful to my ego. 

So who knows, maybe this time next year I'll be in the midst of writing a novel with snow, tinsel and a pine tree. I'll conjure up my inner Mariah and try to write a classic that people return to year after year. I'll see if I can create a character as well-known as The Great Pumpkin. Alone at night in a pumpkin patch waiting for a mysterious creature to rise? Hmmm, sounds like a horror story to me...