The true meaning of Christmas

In November I signed up to write a 50,000-word novel in honor of National Novel Writing Month. By November 30, still struggling at 32,000 words away, I fell short of the goal. As a short story writer, the objective proved to be more difficult than I realized; however, during the process I made a wonderful discovery.

The story I chose to tell is about a young man who enlists in the Army. As the characters came alive in my mind and I began my research, I realized I didn’t know enough about the Army to write believable scenes. To help me, I visited an Army recruiter who graciously provided answer...