My Christmas book: a novel in nine months . . .
My fourth novel with Poolbeg Books, By Next Christmas comes out this month – my fourth in four years. But this, my Christmas novel, was birthed in just nine months. Nine months from that first word on the screen to handing my final draft to my publisher.
It was intense. Happily, I loved writing it. I knew I had a good idea, I was excited for my characters and I believed in my story.
Dublin Portal
The original concept involved a little bit of luck. It was sparked by an article in The Irish Times in 2024, about the installation of the Dublin Portal on North Earl Street. At the time, I was writing my third book for Poolbeg so when I read the piece in the newspaper, I simply tucked it away in the back of my mind, resigned to the possibility that by the time I’d start to write my next book, someone else might have already used the Portal in a novel. As far as I know, nobody has.
At the time our Portal was installed, it was only linked with the Portal on Flat Iron Street in New York. Dubliners and visitors to Dublin were immediately caught up in the excitement and possibilities that live link afforded. Video calls were one thing, but standing at a huge public Portal which connected to another city in real time meant catching glimpses of people’s actual lives three thousand miles away. It wasn’t just the immediacy of it – it was the sheer unpredictability.
And that was what caught my attention. Because as soon as I read about it and saw the photos of it in The Irish Times – not to mention the subsequent article in the same paper about its temporary closure just weeks later, after a handful of our locals started to flash body parts – I started to wonder, what if? What if you were standing at the Portal and spotted someone you were never supposed to see again? What if you were standing there and saw someone in that linked city who was supposed to be dead?
By Next Christmas
Or, in what would become the core of my story for By Next Christmas, what if you saw someone you’d never been able to forget – even if they’d been consigned to your past for half a lifetime?
By Next Christmas is about Ria Joyce, a young widow, who, on her late husband’s third anniversary about three weeks before Christmas, spots her American ex-boyfriend at the Dublin Portal during the Dublin/New York real-time livestream. After an online search for him goes viral, the story is picked up by Irish broadcaster Nick Newland, who whisks her away to New York to make a special Christmas podcast about their reunion.
As the book is set across two cities, this is where my real challenge began. While I have been to New York, it’s been years since I’ve visited and it was during one very hot summer. Which meant writing about New York at Christmas meant lots of research!
Happily, some of the book was written over the winter months and I had the perfect excuse to curl up on my sofa with a hot drink, a fire and every Christmas movie set in New York that I could find.
A Romantic at Heart
A romantic at heart, Serendipity with John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale is one of favourite modern movies – although to my shock I discovered it was actually made in 2001! Do I have an ice-skating scene in my book? Check! For sheer fun, Home Alone 2 and Elf were must-sees. But my go-to was always going to be Miracle on 34th Street. So much so, that I managed to weave plenty of references into my story.
It wasn’t the only kind of research I needed, obviously. While a number of elements in the book are fictional – like the hotel Ria stays in on Duffy Square, and a couple of coffee shops she visits – everywhere else is real.
There is a danger when doing the kind of research I did, that you end up going down very time-consuming rabbit holes. I happily sat back for a whole hour one afternoon and watched a vlog about an evening tour of Central Park in December. It was dark and atmospheric and so immersive, that by the end of it my hands and feet were numb with cold and all I wanted was a New York style hot chocolate with extra marshmallows.
But I needed those research breaks. And I finally handed in By Next Christmas a week ahead of deadline.
After that, I took a few weeks off to do as little as possible. I caught up with friends, although I’d practically forgotten the art of conversation. I read – light, easy reads. I watched Netflix. I breathed a bit deeper. I began to exercise again (yes, I hate to admit that exercise is always the first casualty) and I started to sleep better.
And given the chance, I’d do it all over again. In a heartbeat.
(c) Sharon Black
About By Next Christmas by Sharon Black:
A moment of chance …
A New York reunion …
A leap of faith this Christmas …
For Ria Joyce, love belongs in the past. But when she spots her ex-boyfriend Jon Donnelly via the Dublin-New York Portal, she wonders if it’s fate. Especially as it falls on her late husband’s anniversary, just before Christmas.
Then her daughter Amelie posts a photo of Jon, snapped at the Portal, together with a plea to help find him and, to Ria’s horror, the post goes viral.
When Nick Newland, host of the popular podcast, Sex and the Single Dad, asks Ria to appear on his show, she reluctantly agrees. And after Jon, AKA American thriller writer JL Walker, gets in touch, Nick sweeps her off to New York, to document the reunion for his hit podcast.
There, old feelings resurface. Amid twinkling lights, snowy streets and reawakened memories, Jon offers a second chance. But the mistakes of the past must be confronted before she can move forward into an unexpected future.
Will Ria take the ultimate leap of faith this Christmas?
Heart-warming and full of festive magic, this is a story about second chances and discovering that love often arrives when – and where – you least expect it.
Order your copy of By Next Christmas online here and here.
And read more from Sharon Black on Writing.ie here.
