Authors Interviewing Characters: Susan Breen
Merry
A mother’s valiant efforts to bring her family the joy of Christmas go haywire when she finds herself haunted by the angry ghost of Charles Dickens.
Merry Bingham used to love Christmas—until she started worrying all the time about family, money and death. The only thing that continues to bring her joy is reading from her heirloom edition of A Christmas Carol, autographed by Charles Dickens himself and passed down through five generations of her family. Now, as she waits for the results of the medical tests that will tell her whether this Christmas season will be her last, Merry prepares to give her book to the next generation. Except that none of her three children wants it.
Merry refuses to surrender Christmas or Dickens without a fight, so she sells the book and uses the money to take her family to London. She will fill them with Christmas joy even if she has to cram it down their throats.
But the harder Merry pushes, the worse everything gets. Her children erupt into vicious arguments, her gentle husband stops talking to her, her deluxe rental apartment is not what was promised. Oh, and she keeps seeing the ghost of Charles Dickens around town—and he is not happy with her.
Fans of family stories, classic literature, Christmas novels, and holiday season magic will adore Merry.
Susan Breen speaks to Merry
You seem a little rattled, Merry. Is everything okay?
I just fell off the roof of my house. That’s never happened before! Thank heavens for the yew bushes that cushioned my fall.
Don’t you live in an old Victorian house, right alongside the Hudson River? No offense, but it doesn’t seem sensible for a woman of your age to be…
Sensible! Everyone keeps telling me I’m supposed to be sensible because I’m fifty-five years old. I’m supposed to be thinking about downsizing and cutting carbohydrates and being careful. I’m not supposed to be crawling around the roof, trying to attach Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to the eaves.
You could have hired someone to put up Rudolph. Or you could have asked your husband or one of your kids.
What would be the fun of that? I love putting up Christmas decorations. I love Christmas and all the tinsel and bells and whistles and Santa on a sleigh.
Anyway, I come from a long line of people who were not sensible. One of my ancestors crashed a plane three times and two of those times he walked away from it. Another one of my ancestors ran into a burning building to save people. Best of all was Nora Villard who actually introduced herself to Charles Dickens. She was only ten years old at the time and they happened to be on the same train. He was so impressed with her that he wound up autographing a book for her. A seventh edition of A Christmas Carol. That book has been handed down in my family for five generations.
That’s amazing. What does it look like?
It’s so small! That’s what always surprises me. It’s not much bigger than a cell phone. It’s covered in pink-cloth and there’s gold gilt on the edges and gold stamped lettering on the cover. Dickens designed it himself to be beautiful because he wanted people to buy it as a gift.
When I touch that book, I feel like I’m touching Charles Dickens. It makes me feel like I’m part of a story that will go on for generations. Oh, I’m sorry. I could go on about that book forever. I just love it so much, and also I work with books. I’m a book scout.
Is that really a job?
Yes, people hire me to find books for them. Sometimes they’re trying to assemble a collection of books with a themes, like books written by women in the 1920s. Or they might be looking for a particular book, like a first edition of a Harry Potter. A lot of people are looking for books by Dickens and surprisingly, you don’t need to have a ton of money to be a collector. Though my Carol is worth a lot of money.
That’s quite a legacy to hand down to your children. They must be so proud.
Not at all. That’s what has me so upset. My son Nick, who lives in Oregon and runs adventure tours, says the book would be too much to take care of. My youngest daughter Song Lee, who we adopted from Korea when she was two, doesn’t want it because she’s just been fired from her job and she has more pressing matters on her mind. And my middle daughter Bessie doesn’t want it because she disapproves of Dicken’s treatment of his wife, which was pretty bad.
That’s sad but people change. Maybe in a few years they’ll be more excited about their inheritance.
But I don’t know how many years I have left. That’s the problem. You see, when I fell off the roof I had to get an X-ray and when they did that, they found a nodule on my lung. I’m having tests right now to find out how serious it is, but what scares me most of all is that my children seem so lost. What will happen to them if I die? Will my family fall apart?
My goodness. That’s a lot.
You should know, Susan, you wrote the book. Why did you give me so many problems?
Because I think you’re strong enough to handle it, and I think there are a lot of people with problems who might be inspired by your journey. If nothing else, you can make them laugh.
That reminds me. Why did you give me a talking dog?
Have fun, Merry! Enjoy London.
London? I’m going to London? How will I afford that?
You’ll see. 😊
BUY MERRY HERE
—
Susan Breen is the award-winning author of The Fiction Class and the Maggie Dove mystery series. She teaches novel writing at Gotham Writers and has been on the faculty of conferences from Cape Cod to Dubai. She loves stories about families, London, ghosts, guilt, atonement, dogs, Charles Dickens, and Christmas. She likes the idea of collecting rare books, though so far, she’s only collected two, both of them being early editions of A Christmas Carol.
Find out more about Susan on her website https://susanbreenauthor.com/merry/
Category: Interviews, On Writing
Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
