Christmas in Evergreen: Tidings of Joy

It's the approach to the Christmas season, and visitors are starting to descend on the Northern Vermont Christmas tourist town of Evergreen. One of those is New Yorker Katie Connell, a writer with one published novel under her belt, she who is now doing freelance work as she contemplates novel number two whenever that will happen. This vacation is to experience a little more of life which she feels will make her a better writer. What starts as a vacation ends up being a working trip as her mother Patti Connell, the editor of a business magazine, asks her to write a story for immediate publication, Patti's hope that it will be the transition for Katie to staff and more stable life which Katie has always resisted. Katie decides to find a story in Evergreen and its Christmas traditions. What Katie feels about Evergreen - especially her immediate attraction to and subsequent encounters with native Evergreenian Ben Baxter, one of the town's librarians who once worked as a big city reporter - may be different from what would make a magazine-worthy story. What happens between Katie and Ben may be affected by their diverging life paths, Ben who nonetheless has contemplated returning to the city to resume a writing career, and what Katie may end up writing about Ben's beloved hometown. Katie's story may be overtaken by the latest goings-on in town where there is evidence that there is a fifty year old time capsule somewhere that was meant to be opened this year, also marking the fiftieth anniversary of the town's famed Christmas Festival.—Huggo