JJ Lee says he’s a “bit of a Charlie Brown.”
“There’s always a sense of loss or mournfulness when I engage with the season, not for any terribly tragic reason, but I’ve been trying to come to grips with that understanding,” he told Gloria Macarenko, the host of CBC’s On The Coast.
It’s a feeling he’d noticed in others, who’d shared their stories of painful, or sometimes comically bad, Christmases.
So, a storyteller by nature, Lee pitched the idea of an anthology of tragic Christmas lore to a book publisher.
“People send in really incredible, hard-to-believe stories that absolutely floor you and are extremely touching like you wouldn’t believe. They’re very moving stories.”
In 2023, he published Better Next Year. But the seemingly endless number of holiday horrors kept coming, so now, he’s published another.
Upon A Midnight Clear: More Christmas Epiphanies is the second book of short, true stories edited by Lee, a former CBC Radio employee who says he harnessed the CBC narrative storytelling style to bring these tales to life.
“We actually had meetings as a group prior to submission, and I talked about the CBC style of storytelling, like narrative style, making sure that you’re keyed in, that you’re painting a picture, all the things that we used to talk about in the newsroom,” he said.
Lee worked with each emerging writer to fine-tune their stories.
He credits, in particular, journalist Volkmar Richter, a fellow former CBC journalist who now writes for the National Observer.
“I remember the day he put his hands on my shoulders and taught me how to tell a story in a script,” Lee said. “I kind of think of Volkmar every time I edit.”
The proceeds from the sale of the book go to the Surrey International Writers Conference to help pay for teen authors to attend the conference and work with established writers, Lee said.
This isn’t the first book in the series, and it won’t be the last, he said; a third book is already in the works. There are even plans to turn it into a live show where the stories are shared with an audience.
“It’s going to be a Chicken Soup [For The Soul], I’m telling you.”
“We’re just trying to gather all the ammunition to be able to unleash just a powerful set of stories for listeners and audiences across the country.”
On The Coast8:03Heartwarming stories of imperfect Christmases
JJ Lee is the editor of Upon A Midnight Clear: More Christmas Epiphanies. Gloria Macarenko is our host.