I just typed "The End" on my most recent manuscript, the first book in a trilogy called

Once Upon a Dickens Christmas

(more on that later this week). Anyhoo, as the name implies, the stories are written with a Dickens flair, which meant I had to do a lot of Dickens research. And while I was nosing about, I uncovered an interesting tidbit of Christmasy Dickensian trivia . . .

Everyone's heard of Dickens'

A Christmas Carol

, but did you know he produced a series of Christmas tales before that bestseller?

The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain

is one of those tales, first published in 1848. It addresses the spirit of the holidays as Dickens perceived it. On the first day of publication it sold 18,000 copies. That's a LOT of sales. You can read it for free by clicking

HERE

.

If ghosts aren't really your thing but

A Christmas Carol

is, here's another read you might like.

God Bless Us Everyone!

by Annie Tipton is a devotional inspiration based on

A Christmas Carol

. Here's a blurb:

One of the best-loved and most quoted stories of "the man who invented Christmas"--English writer Charles Dickens--A Christmas Carol debuted in 1843 and has touched millions of hearts since. The familiar story of cruel miser Ebenezer Scrooge who never met a shilling he doesn't like. . .and hardly a man he does. . .and who hates Christmas most of all, has inspired this keepsake devotional God Bless Us Every One! Alongside scenes from the beloved Dickens classic, you'll learn eternal lessons of charity, kindness, goodwill, heart-transformation, and more. Experience a true Victorian Christmas with these 60 in-depth devotional readings that are sure to warm your heart this holiday season and beyond.

The best things about a Dickens tale are his quirky characters and statements on life. Bleak House is my favorite. What's yours?