Christmas Presence (Prequel to the Claus Universe)

Worlds are waiting to be opened. All Van Holloway wanted was to survive the night unnoticed. He didn't ask to be dragged to a Christmas party full of people he barely knew, or to end up in the same room as Charli McNichols-the girl he's had a silent crush on since September. He certainly didn't plan to follow her into a game that wasn't a game, wearing glasses that weren't really glasses. What begins in a crowded game room ends somewhere else entirely. Somewhere cold. Somewhere impossible. Inside a hidden world buried beneath holiday cheer, Van and Charli discover a place filled with clockwork toys, forgotten workshops, and secrets meant to stay buried. They stumble out with more than they bargained for, and something comes back with them. Now, the rules of reality are shifting. Time slips. Closets snow. Strangers appear. Something wants what Van took, and it's willing to do whatever it takes to find him. The green hat was only the beginning. From festive parties to frozen halls, from droids in Santa suits to gingerbread rebels, Van and Charli are caught in a battle between belief and cynicism, myth and machinery. If they want to make it back home-and remember who they are-they'll need to trust each other, hold on to what's real, and face the one thing more powerful than magic: Doubt. Christmas Presence: The Prequel launches the Claus Universe saga, blending sci-fi and holiday fantasy in a story full of sharp humor, suspense, and heart. For fans of Stranger Things, The Santa Clause, and Ready Player One, this is a bold reimagining of Christmas like you've never seen before.

I grew up in the Midwest where the land is flat and the corn is tall. The winters are bleak and cold. I hated winters. I always wanted to write. But writing was hard. And I wasn't very disciplined. The cold had nothing to do with that, but it didn't help. That changed in grad school. After several attempts at a proposal, my major advisor was losing money on red ink and advised me to figure it out. Somehow, I did. After grad school, my wife and my two very little children moved to the South in Charleston, South Carolina where the winters are spring and the summers are a sauna (cliche but dead accurate). That's when I started teaching and writing articles for trade magazines. I eventually published two textbooks on landscape design. I then transitioned to writing a column for the Post and Courier. They were all great gigs, but they weren't fiction. That was a few years later. My daughter started reading before she could read, pretending she knew the words in books she propped on her lap. My son was a different story. In an attempt to change that, I began writing a story with him. We made up a character, gave him a name, and something to do. As with much of parenting, it did not go as planned. But the character got stuck in my head. He wanted out. A few years later, Socket Greeny was born. It was a science fiction trilogy that was gritty and thoughtful. That was 2005. I have been practicing Zen since I was 23 years old. A daily meditator, I wanted to instill something meaningful in my stories that appeals to a young adult crowd as well as adult. I hadn't planned to write fiction, didn't even know if I had anymore stories in me after Socket Greeny. Turns out I did.