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
This Web Site Is Missing Some Spiders
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.
