{"id":1221,"date":"2018-06-09T19:27:10","date_gmt":"2018-06-09T19:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dwightclough.com\/books2\/?page_id=1221"},"modified":"2018-06-09T19:27:10","modified_gmt":"2018-06-09T19:27:10","slug":"the-story-behind-my-books","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/dwightclough.com\/books2\/dwight-clough-books\/the-story-behind-my-books\/","title":{"rendered":"The story behind my books"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a story behind each book I write, and I thought you deserved to know some of those stories.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I was 35 years old, my father told me this: <\/p>\n

Back in the 1800s, in the backwoods of Maine, the Wakefields and the Cloughs were at war. They were having a genuine Hatfield and McCoy feud. As sometimes happens with these sorts of things, a young Wakefield woman began a romance with a young Clough man. The two married, much to the dismay of their elders. They had two sons, but the young woman\u2019s mother could not forgive her daughter for marrying a Clough. So, when she got the opportunity, she poisoned her daughter. There wasn\u2019t much law in those days, so this crime was never prosecuted. <\/p>\n

Men were considered unsuitable parents for young children, so, after their mom died, the two boys were shuffled from relative to relative, but, of course, because of the feud, nobody wanted them. As they grew up, they had only each other. But, tragically, that ended when they were young men, as one of the boys died on Christmas day, leaving Harvey, the other son, completely alone.<\/p>\n

From that point on, Christmas was a day of mourning, not a day of celebration for Harvey. And Harvey is my dad\u2019s father.<\/p>\n

Is the story true? I don\u2019t know. But I know when I was growing up my dad always seemed like he was trying to recapture what he never had as a child\u2014a joyful and abundant Christmas. <\/p>\n

And I guess I inherited my dad\u2019s love for Christmas, because every year it fills me with wonder.<\/p>\n

Over the years, I\u2019ve tried to share some of that wonder with my readers. In 2017, I decided to put some of those writings together into a beautiful full-color book, called A Beautiful Christmas<\/em><\/a>. My friend David says he thinks it\u2019s the best book I\u2019ve ever written. I don\u2019t know. But I think you\u2019ll enjoy this reading of a portion of it:<\/p>\n