Christmas book launch for local teacher

By Brad Everett Times Contributor

Holy Cross Collegiate teacher, Tony Hamilton-Irving, is hosting a book launch for his new book, Christmas Stories on Dec. 19 at the Sacred Heart Parish Hall beginning at 6:30 p.m.

Published by Friesen Press, the book is a collection of 40 short stories Hamilton-Irving wrote, each one focused on a Christmas miracle moment, where the main character discovers something more about the magic of Christmas. 

“I love Christmas and get inspired at Christmas to write,” he said. “Over the last 10 years I’ve written 10 or more stories each year.”

The book is a collection of the stories that made an impression on him and friends who read them. 

“This is a project I had intended for my retirement, but I heard from so many they wanted to see the stories published so I moved it up,” Hamilton-Irving said.

The book is divided into three parts; the first takes its name from the title of the book “Christmas Stories.” The second part is “Christmas Miracles” and the third is “Looking Back,” stories of Christmas in different times and places. 

Oddly enough, Hamilton-Irving doesn’t teach English, but pretty much everything else. For example, this semester he has Jr. and Sr. High Religion, Social Studies 7, Construction and Science. 

Writing is a life-long passion that truly developed during an education course in university where he was required to write a one-page story every class. 

“I thought, if I have to do this, why not write a book, and that became my first novel, which I’m still working on,” he said.

That led to writing not only stories, poetry and songs, but also plays, which he produced while still in his home province of Prince Edward Island before moving west. 

Christmas Stories is available on-line in e-book, paperback and hard covers (books.friesenpress.com/store, amazon.ca, and indigo.ca).