Almost every December, my husband attends a medical conference in Branson, Missouri. These continuing medical education courses are required by the state for a doctor to keep his license. I love that rule.

Partly because I want doctors to always be learning the latest and greatest. (Or at least to sit through the old and boring and get credit for being there.) But mostly because it guarantees me a few good days of writing retreats every year. Usually, I learn something useful for my job as office manager, too, just by visting with other wives/staffers at these things.

A couple of years ago, I sat in the room pictured here and outlined a novel I called Thirty Days to Glory. I wrote my little heart out that weekend about Catherine Benson, the aging widow, who wanted to do One Great Thing before she died. About her granddaughter, Beth, struggling to find her way. About the Glory Circle Sisters who challenge Catherine to pray and her housekeeper Emily who challenges her to stay in out of the cold. About Elmer Grigsby, who just wants to stay seriously drunk until he slips out of the world unnoticed. And about his uncomfortable knowledge that he was once a better man.

It was easy to write about these folks from the comfort of the roaring fire. The task grew harder when I went home and could only squeeze in twenty-minutes each day before work. Extra on weekends. But, I kept at it. A quick conversation with Catherine after breakfast. A task for Emily the next day. Glimpses of Christmas Past and the the scent of Ivory Soap for Elmer on Saturday afternoon.

This summer, I introduced the whole clan to my new best friends at CrossRiver Media Group, and the relationship took. Thirty Days to Glory is schedule to be published next year, and all these people in my head will get a life. Sort of.

The point of my post is this: It is great fun to write books (or rear children, or wrangle accounts, or draft lesson plans) under the spell of Christmas dazzle. It is much harder to do so in the glare of January snow. But, really, it is January that makes the difference.

Whatever you have conceived in the glow of this Christmas season, I pray you see it through. All the way to spring and beyond.