Click to listen to chapter one.
The studio work is done. The cover
has been finalized and is at the printer. It won't be long now until the CDs
come in the mail. This is the first step in realizing a dream I've had for more
than a decade.
I suppose it was ten or twelve
years ago when I first told Jeanene that one day I would like to write dramatic
versions of the stories that make up the birth accounts of Jesus as found in
Matthew and Luke. Over the next few years I prepared these stories to be
delivered as storytelling sermons at Covenant Baptist Church. I did "Simeon,
the Man Who Waited," "The Shepherds on the Hill," "The Story of
the Manger," "The Story of Three and a Half Magi," and "Cowboy
Gabriel."
In December of 2003, I completely
reworked the manger story, keeping the characters but changing most of the
dialog and adding some new details. I renamed it "The Christmas Story Uncut" and
posted it online at Real Live Preacher, one chapter at a time. Now this story
has been recorded as an audio book and has a new title, "A Christmas Story
You've Never Heard."
It is unorthodox to release a book
in audio form before print publication. But the blog world is opening up new
possibilities and new ways of doing things. And these stories were originally
meant to be "told" anyway.
I do plan to pursue print
publication of this story sometime in January, hoping to have the book out by
Christmas of 2006. At that time I also plan to release another of these
Christmas audio books, though I haven't decided which story to do next. If all
goes well, I'll do this every year until all seven are done. That's my plan, but
of course no one knows what the future holds.
I've created an mp3 file of
chapter one,
which you can listen to or download. It's about
5 meg. in size. The CDs themselves will be ready to ship this month, but I don't
have an exact date yet. I'm still counting the final cost of preparation,
shipping, etc. The price will likely be either $10.95 or $11.95. The book will
also be available in a downloadable format at iTunes and other places for around
$8.95.
rlp
