What happens when you plunge an historical figure, the real Saint Nicholas, into the modern world? Not the red-suited, toy-making Saint Nicholas of American legend, but a man who exemplifies the spirit of giving; who gives from the heart and who knows what people need-not what they want. You get Nick, not really a man, but the immortal spirit of giving, who gets the reader to examine the spiritual side of life in a modern way but without a hint of religious dogma. Nick deals with adolescence, family, racial, and social issues and makes a positive difference in every life that he touches as he helps them to cope with seemingly insurmountable problems: Nick, a seemingly enigmatic old man, walks quietly into the lives of twelve very different people and is deprecated with prejudice, apprehension, and disdain about his strange appearance; during the holiday season that initial perception changes to love and respect as he helps orchestrate profound changes in each of their futures through miraculous gifts. Meet the twelve deserving people from all walks of life-all ages, all cultures, and socio-economic backgrounds-as they each struggle with something in their lives that holds them back from achieving their full potential as human beings. Nick is a proponent of the idea of giving oneself for the greater good. Nick helps a teenager in abject poverty trying to cope with the loss of her brother, an African-American mother and her illegitimate daughter enduring prejudice and the racist responsible for their plight, the unorthodox rescue of a sixteen-year-old girl from a sexual predator, a Hispanic couple split apart by the husband's compulsive obsession to put a drug dealer behind bars, a seventeen-year-old gravitating towards the wrong circle of friends, politics replete with graft, a mother coping with the possible loss of her twelve-year-old boy, who is suffering the agony of cancer treatments and life in an oncology unit, and a host of other problems facing both adults and teens that ominously threaten his goals. Each of the twelve days of Christmas will focus on a miraculous gift as the lives of twelve different people become woven together through a common thread that will change them forever. Can 4th century ideals match up to 21st century reality, and can modern man deal with the concept of the afterlife vis à vis the paranormal? Parents can buy their children gifts; Nick is the spirit of giving of oneself, requiring no price-tags, and that inimitable spirit sees none of the boundaries that separate humans from each other-socio-economic standing, race, age, sex, religion.
About the Author: Tim Scullion is a published author, a published photographer, and an accomplished musician. He has both a bachelor's and a master's degree in education from the College of William and Mary. He has several other books available on Amazon in addition to Nick, a children's book on creative ideas for fun (Kids Forever Club), and 4 books on advanced lead guitar. He has recorded an instrumental CD that is a mélange of the timeless sounds of the Native American flute and rhythm instruments with modern guitars and keyboards, creating a sound that spans the ages. Profits from this CD, "Powhatan Renaissance", benefit the medical clinic and the housing needs of the members of the Powhatan Confederation of Native American tribes. His next project is a book of breakthrough paranormal photography unlike anything currently on the market.