The Christmas Spirit
Christmas is coming, but not everyone is looking forward to it.
Rebecca has just been dumped and the prospect of spending the
holiday period with her parents is less than appealing.
Eighty- two year old Stanley lost his beloved wife, Edie, to cancer.
How will he cope with his first Christmas without her?
Jacob’s university degree hasn’t helped him get a job, and it looks
like he’ll still be signing on come New Year.
Workaholic Meredith would rather spend December 25th at home
alone with a ready meal and a DVD box set. Can anything make
her embrace the spirit of the season?
The enigmatic Natalie Hope takes over the reins at the Sugar and
Spice bakery and café in an attempt to spread some festive cheer
and restore Christmas spirit, but will she succeed?
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Author Bio – Susan Buchanan lives in Scotland with her husband and
their two children. She is the author of four novels: Return of the
Christmas Spirit, The Christmas Spirit, The Dating Game, and Sign
of the Times. She is currently working on books five and six:
The Proposal and Just One Day.
their two children. She is the author of four novels: Return of the
Christmas Spirit, The Christmas Spirit, The Dating Game, and Sign
of the Times. She is currently working on books five and six:
The Proposal and Just One Day.
Susan is also a proofreader, editor and translator, and when not
working, writing, or caring for her two delightful cherubs, loves
reading,the theatre, quiz shows and eating out – not necessarily
in that order!
Social Media Links
Facebook – www.facebook.com/susan.buchanan.author
Twitter – susan_buchanan
Blog – Sooz’s journal – www.susancbuchanan.blogspot.co.uk
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(Jacob has left university and can’t get
Jacob hated signing on. It was so degrading. Even as a twenty-two year old, he could feel the shame. He knew that for people in their fifties who had worked all their days, then found themselves out of work due to this damned recession, that it galled them to have to ask for help from the state. But they needed to, and so did he. It wasn’t much, but it helped.
No matter how many interviews he was invited to, and there weren’t that many in comparison with how many applications he had made, he had never been offered a job. Four years of university and no job. He had struggled through university, working in bars and even as a bingo caller at one point, but he couldn’t even find that kind of work now. And for what, he had a 2:1 degree in Politics and Sociology. What use was it to him? He couldn’t even get a second interview at a call centre. What kind of failure did that make him? He was well turned-out, had a nice manner, and he thought he was relatively charming, yet the job offers were unforthcoming. To top it all, there was the not so small matter of twenty thousand pounds of student loans to pay back in the future.
Jacob’s family were rich, not just well off, but properly, stinking rich. You would think that would mean money wouldn’t worry him, but his parents were of the belief that you had to earn everything in life. So, no, they hadn’t paid his way through university. When he’d asked for help, they’d reminded him that they’d parted with enough money in the years when he had attended Gordonstoun. If they told him one more time that not everyone was lucky enough to go to the famous school attended by Prince Charles and Prince Philip, he’d do them a serious injury. So, Jacob had found himself jobs whilst at university and paid his own way. Why he ever thought his family would help him, was beyond him. Hadn’t they shipped him off to Scotland at the first possible opportunity? His parents lived in rural Bedfordshire, with apartments in London, Hong Kong, New York and Dublin, as well as condos in North Carolina and Santa Monica. His father had worked for the diplomatic service and his mother, although a trained lawyer, had chosen to travel around the world with her husband, doing some freelance work when she got bored, but mainly playing the part of diplomat’s wife, hosting dinner parties and attending tennis club events. A pity, then, that they didn’t see fit to include their son in their plans.
In the beginning Jacob had loathed boarding school. He hated being away from home, but over time he had felt more at home at Gordonstoun and when on holiday at his friends’ houses than he did in his own house. When he had then gone on to study at the University of Glasgow, some of those alliances had been broken, or perhaps not upheld as well as they had all expected. Life sent them in different directions. Many of his peers had parents who employed them in their firms; some owned their own companies at the forefront of technology, were inventors, or had made canny investment choices long ago. Others came from old money, so had no need to work, enabling them to pick and choose their role.
Jacob was an exception.
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