Alan Williamson Story “Lights Up”
Chicken Soup Christmas Collections
FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – Question: How many Alan Williamsons does it take to hang holiday lights on a house? Answer: Two. The cheerful, whistle-while-you-work AW that puts them up and the aggravated, despondent AW that takes them down and starts all over because of a bonehead mistake of colossal idiocy.
For Fort Lauderdale writer Alan Williamson, the fine line between Christmas spirit dizzy and impending disaster dizzy finds its flash point atop a low-budget ladder in “Let There Be Lights,” a high-wire act of a holiday story appearing in two new Chicken Soup for the Soul Christmas collections.
In Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Gift of Christmas and Chicken Soup for the Soul: Tales of Christmas, Williamson recalls his apprehension about the prospect of hanging lights from his roof to try and create maximum dazzle for his home with minimum damage to his physical well being.
“Along with having a shaky sense of balance, I was completely intimidated by the challenge of attaching lights to the roof in a way that would keep them hanging after I let go,” Williamson admitted. “Which, when you think about it, is really the most important part of light hanging.”
From a desperate research mission through neighborhood streets to a daring but ill-fated attempt at igniting a homespun festival of lights with limited electrical aptitude, the story finds a common bond with all who have had their own less-than-masterful experiences trying to create some Christmas magic.
After an award-winning run as an advertising copywriter, Williamson launched a second career in 2009 as a nationally-published humor writer. His recent work includes a piece that appeared in the March 2010 issue of Wine Enthusiast Magazine, an article in the Summer 2010 issue of Hearing Health Magazine, a travelogue scheduled to appear in the March 2011 issue of Houseboat Magazine, and a story now appearing in the new Chicken Soup for the Soul: Family Matters anthology. His humor column, “As I Was Saying,” has appeared monthly in Lighthouse Point Magazine (www.LHPmag.com) since 2003 and on www.aroundwellington.com since 2006.
Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Gift of Christmas is available exclusively at Wal-Mart and Chicken Soup for the Soul: Tales of Christmas is available exclusively at Barnes and Noble. Mr. Williamson can be reached at alwilly@bellsouth.net or www.unauthorizedinsights.blogspot.com.
Editor’s Note: Check out Alan Williamson’s “As I Was Saying” each month here at AroundWellington.com.