HOW TO TRICK A CHRISTMAS ELF by Sue Fliess (plus a giveaway)

by Sue Fliess

Let’s talk elves!

My book HOW TO TRAP A LEPRECHAUN is doing really well (yay!), so my publisher approached me to write more like it. They wanted one for Easter and Christmas. But they asked me if I would write more ‘trap’ books. When you put trapping with bunnies and elves, well, you can see the issue with that right away. So I came back to them with the titles: HOW TO TRACK AN EASTER BUNNY and HOW TO TRICK A CHRISTMAS ELF.

Great! But now I had to create a story for both of those. And come up with a craft written into each book as well! (Between you and me, trying to write craft instructions in rhyme requires a little humor and a lot of wine). But I said Yes, I’ll do it! and off to the library I went!

Researching Easter, bunnies, Christmas elves, mythical elves, Christmas crafts, that particular elf that hangs out on shelves, Santa, naughty and nice lists…whew! And with the help of my amazing critique group, I was able to come up with a story around both titles.

For HOW TO TRICK A CHRISTMAS ELF, I wanted to avoid having the children trick their elf into getting what they wanted for Christmas because that would be very bad! So I thought if they could trick or distract the elf, simply to peek at his naughty or nice list, then they would know where they stood with Santa and would have a chance to make things right, if need be, before the jolly man in red delivered (or not) their gifts.

So they decide to make the elf his very own miniature sleigh. To their surprise, he is over the moon! Because elves usually make the gifts, this sleigh is the first gift he’s ever received. He’s so delighted that he automatically puts the children on the nice list…and he flies back to Santa’s workshop in style. Now, the series, Magical Creatures and Crafts, is taking on a life of its own! It’s grown to include HOW TO FIND A UNICORN, HOW TO MEET A MERMAID, and even HOW TO HIDE A TURKEY, which are set to publish in 2020. Thanks for inviting me divulge the magic behind my elf book, Tara!

Thanks, Sue!

The elves have a gift for you, blog readers! A copy of the book!

You know the drill…leave a comment and I’ll pick a random winner soon!

Actually, I have a lot of winners to announce, and I had previously promised that post…but life has a way of interfering with the blog, so it’s been far too delayed. Next week we’ll have lots of winners just in time for the holidays!