The Christmas Hour

A Novel by John Martin Meek, under the pen name of John Martin Hill

In 2003 John published his first novel, The Christmas Hour, conceived at Christmas time in 1983, began writing in December, 1987 and completed in June, 1999. It’s a love story about a teacher and a student at the Washington National Cathedral’s two elite prep schools, National Cathedral School for Girls and St. Albans School for Boys, and chronicles upper middle class life in our nation’s capital. It was published in 2004 using the pen name, John Martin Hill.

Amanda. Will she be a Monica or a Mother Theresa?

America's young women today are Monica clones, J-Lo and Britney wannabes, and it's all about me, me, me. Right?

Amanda, straight A senior at the National Cathedral School for Girls, knowingly enters into a forbidden relationship with Parker, a teacher at the St. Alban's School for Boys.

Then, in a dramatic turn of events, Amanda must make a choice: simply forget Parker ever existed, or prove that when today's young women face enormous adversity, they still can show great courage, compassion and class.

Her eventual choice in this unusual love story, reaching to the White House, State Department, and Congress, will climax one beautiful spring day in the Nave of the Washington National Cathedral.

The book is available for purchase from Amazon.com.

An idea for The Christmas Hour arrived in my brain in December, 1983, when I was driving by the great complex that is the Washington National Cathedral and its two prep schools, St. Albans School for Boys and National Cathedral School for Girls— older of the two.

My thinking was about what might happen at a St. Albans Christmas party with so many distinguished graduates, powerful parents and bright students. That was it.

Fourteen years later when I finally sat down to write I had no plot, no characters and no real idea where I was going. But within minutes I decided it should be a love story.

From then until I finished Christmas in the spring of 1999—about 16 months in the making—my hands could not write fast enough for the material flowing through my head. I am not a mystical person, but this was a mystical experience. What is more, every minute when I was writing, and researching something on just about every page, was sheer joy.

To say more about the book than it being a love story between a male teacher and female student would give away the actual plot in Christmas. It is not a mystery novel, but there are numerous secrets. They will not impede a reader wanting just entertainment, but might be a challenge to those who find that interesting in their choice of literature. Some are symbolic, some philosophic, some trivial.

For those students at National Cathedral School who have taken the time to review Christmas, I am grateful. But suggesting the school is known by everyone in the world as "NCS" or that the back cover says Amanda is an "A" student at National Cathedral when that is not possible, I would say this: I think nowhere in the book does it say she is an "A" student and I would hope that in a novel of almost 500 pages it would provide enough substance not to be judged by its cover.

Some crtitics have called the two main characters, Parker and Amanda, a little too perfect. But I doubt parents of students of either school would be deliriously happy to know their kids were having a forbidden affair, smoking dope and deceiving friends and family to protect their secret relationship.

That aside, Christmas clearly is not a threat to Faulkner and Hemingway. As one person wrote, "it's a love story in a loveless time" and should be somewhat inspirational to all who read it.

Why Some "Spiders" are Missing this Website

Here is the "Apologia" page from thechristmashour.com in which I explain how the National Cathedral hired a big law firm in DC to somewhat try to stop publication of the book. But, I am going back to dotster and request that since they killed it off without my approval that they retrieve the elements since someone there should have the expertise and we shouldn't have to be doing it.

When first I sat down to write The Christmas Hour it never occurred to me there would be a good many surprises along the way. The biggest surprise was when I came a cropper of a very major institution in our nation’s capital—the Washington National Cathedral Foundation.

But I did, and here's an explanation of why this Web site temporarily is missing most of its "spiders."

The Christmas Hour was to have been published in 2002. The original front cover art was a black-and-white photo of the West Façade of the Cathedral on Wisconsin Avenue in Washington, DC.

The focus of the West Façade is the late Frederick (Rick) Hart’s brilliant sculpture made up of three tympanums, called Ex Nihilo, depicting The Creation.

I also was aware that Rick, a longtime friend, had sued the film company which produced The Devil’s Advocate, a film where a replica of Ex Nihilo in the Devil’s penthouse apartment comes alive.

But I mistakenly thought Rick’s issue was how Ex Nihilo was used in The Devil’s Advocate.

Not true. What most people surely do not know is the entire edifice of the National Cathedral is copyrighted, and it soon became clear that under no circumstances would I be given permission to use the photo on The Christmas Hour cover and Web site.

Also planned for my Web site viewers were several other photos taken around the Cathedral’s close (complex), including images of St. Albans School for Boys and the National Cathedral School for Girls.

In a strongly worded letter sent by one of Washington’s largest law firms, representing the Cathedral Foundation, I was advised use of these photos and certain other information in the book would be a huge mistake.

When I learned about the copyright issue, several weeks before receiving the first of two letters from the law firm, we immediately began planning another cover.

There was never any intent on my part to violate the copyright law. But the fact this splendid structure is copyrighted does not mean I cannot, with my words, paint a portrait of the Cathedral, the two prep schools, and other facilities there for my readers.

It also should be said that never was there any intent in having The Christmas Hour cast the Cathedral and the two prep schools there in a less than favorable light. In truth, I stand in awe of this magnificent national treasure.

My first visit to the Cathedral was years ago when I was invited to Washington to speak to the Religious Newswriters Association at its annual meeting. One of the meeting events was a Cathedral tour conducted by Dean Francis Sayre, grandson of President Woodrow Wilson and the last child born in the White House.

During some of the years I lived in the Washington, DC area my residence was only a short walk to the Cathedral, where I have spent a great deal of time in worship, attending special events such as Rick Hart’s memorial service, playing tennis on one of several courts within the close, and just viewing the endless wonders to be found there.

The several schools under the Cathedral’s auspices share the same great respect I have for the Cathedral itself.

The Christmas Hour is a fictional story, a complete work of my own imagination. It shows the reality of life and the perfections and imperfections of human nature.

In fact, while writing The Christmas Hour I had lunch with a friend and his daughter, then a student at the National Cathedral School for Girls. I asked her if she could give me any little tidbits about NCS that would add authenticity to my story.

"Well," she blurted, "there's a teacher who is having an affair with a student!"

I told her a similar situation was the plot of my book, and not the kind of tidbit I had hoped she could provide.

In short time there will be additional photos on the Web site that hopefully will give the reading of The Christmas Hour more meaning. Or, as they say in the Internet business, this site is a "work in progress."

Finally, for the time being this seems an appropriate place to express my sincere gratitude to those who helped with the book including Amber, Camilla, James, Lisa, Mary, Mike, Tabitha and others who cannot be named here.