Luminary

by Peter Schnake

In this short story, Christie, a relapsed alcoholic, faces her first Christmas apart from her children. As she window-shops for gifts her ex-husband won’t allow her to give, she finds a family huddled around a fire in the alley behind the store. If she wants to offer help, she must face her own fractured heart.

ebook

First published October 29, 2012

About the author

Peter Schnake lives and writes in Lincoln, Nebraska. Although stories had a bad habit of interrupting his life and possessing his pen, he didn’t write in earnest until a bout of seizures in his early twenties caused him to reexamine his priorities. Now he devotes as much time as he is able to his writing and hopes soon to make it a full-time occupation.

He believes that stories should surprise and move. Language should be precise and clean and images should evoke and provoke. He believes that happy endings are not always the best endings, and that sometimes a great story dissatisfies.

His writing spans genres, from the dark and brooding Southern Gothic style of “American Alligator,” to the suspense-filled and intimate thriller, “Thus Arrived the Lights.”

When not writing (or drinking coffee) Mr. Schnake enjoys stargazing and watching the Food Network.

Reviews

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

A refreshingly real Christmas tale you can easily read in one evening cozied up by the fire with a cuppa. Less frothy than its usual counterparts in the genre, Luminary casts a soft glow and warms the heart as the reader follows Christie as she navigates a season that many take for granted as a happy time for all and ultimately ends as a story of hope.