In 1983, bestselling author David Morrell, who created the iconic character Rambo in his 1972 novel, First Blood, decided to write a novella that was a complete change of pace from his traditional action thrillers. The result was The Hundred-Year Christmas (nominated for the 1984 World Fantasy Award), which Stephen King hailed as "enchanting."
Originally written as a Christmas present for Morrell's two children, the novella has different meanings depending if you are a child or an adult. It is about the poignant friendship between Father Christmas, who lives to be a hundred, and Father Time, who lives for only a single year before being replaced. Each year, Santa sees a new version of his friend grow through infancy, boyhood, adulthood, and into an old man, eventually dying. Now it is Santa's turn, but he is having trouble finding a replacement. If he doesn't succeed, there will be no one to take care of the infant Father Time. Time itself will stop.
Due to overwhelming requests for this rare and much-loved Christmas fable, published over twenty-five years ago, Morrell partnered with publisher Dave Hinchberger of Overlook Connection Press to create a new version of Morrell's novella, featuring spectacular all new color drawings by artist Cortney Skinner, commissioned exclusively for this special reissue of the book.
"The Hundred-Year Christmas is my rarest book," Morrell says, "and over the years I have had so many requests for it to be rereleased that I finally decided to do so, but with new artwork, slight structural changes, as well as an introduction entitled 'A Snow Globe of Memories'."
A companion holiday book by Morrell, The Spy Who Came for Christmas, an espionage action thriller (Vanguard Press) set on Christmas Eve in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is now available in paperback nationwide, as well as online and in Kindle format. It contains an afterward, "Christmas in May," that was not in the original hardback.
In the story, it's Christmas Eve in Santa Fe. But among the revelers on snow-blanketed Canyon Road, a decidedly unholy scene is taking place. A desperate undercover agent, Paul Kagan, feverishly seeks refuge for himself and the squirming bundle he holds tightly against his chest, a baby who has the power to change the course of global events.
His pursuers are his former colleagues--members of the Russian mafia who will stop at nothing to reclaim the child that Kagan has risked his life and blown his cover to steal from them. Now he is a spy on the run who must ensure the baby's survival, even if it costs him his own life.
Just a short distance away, Kagan will find an unexpected pair of allies--a mother and her young son who huddle together after an incident of domestic violence leaves them alone, their phone lines cut, and with no means of transportation.
Kagan quickly realizes that he must enlist their help to survive. With the exquisitely honed skills of his profession and the good faith of a weary woman and a disillusioned boy, he takes on forces that will stop at nothing to get to them. In the course of a wild and violent night, the unlikely trio learns lessons of generosity, courage, and selflessness, discovering within themselves the luminous strength of the Christmas spirit.
Few thriller writers are as praised as David Morrell, who has been called "the father of the modern action novel." This New York Times bestselling author delivers a masterwork of suspense that is sure to become a holiday classic, one of his most emotional and gripping stories to date. "Writing The Spy Who Came for Christmas," says Morrell, "I felt good revisiting my former espionage territory, but with a decade's perspective that allowed me to approach it in a new way."
