The Story Behind the Story: Advent

Last winter was a very mild one, as I recall.  It had hardly snowed until one evening in early February.  Snow had been predicted all day and finally arrived in earnest not long after dusk.  I stepped outside in the still evening air and watched the flakes as they fell slowly to the ground... so slowly, in fact, I could imagine the snow suspended in front of me like a field of stars.  I thought that might make a cool visual I could incorporate into a story at some point.  I even wrote a couple paragraphs about it once I got back inside.  That moment didn’t fit into my current project though, so I filed those paragraphs on my hard drive for the time being.
A few months later I was fleshing out the germ of a new story, the tale of a man who is the victim of corporate cutbacks and subsequently tries to forge a new life path (something many of us can identify with, yes?).  I had the characters alive and vivid in mind. I knew the general the arc of the story and had, in fact, started writing it.  I also knew that it was lacking a compelling pivotal moment, something that would transition the main character from one phase of his life to another.  I started going through some of my notes, the random bits of dialog, character and incident that would often pop up on their own accord.  These notes would generally wind up being stored on my hard drive until such time something could be incorporated into a larger work.  I happened upon the vignette I wrote about the snowfall and knew that was just what I needed.  
Now that the final piece was in place, I finished the story the very next day.  The snowfall bit actually provided an effective transition from the reality of the story as a whole to... well, let’s just say a somewhat more fantastic realm, a place that would enable the main character to explore his life and move forward to the next phase.  I was very happy with the completed story, so much so that I made Advent the title of my short story collection.

“Advent” is just one of the fourteen stories that I’ve included in my new book, “Advent: A Short Story Collection”, now available on Amazon.com.  
http://www.amazon.com/Advent-Short-Story-Collection-ebook/dp/B008K12Q3U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342404759&sr=8-1&keywords=advent+jim+moens