My granddaughter, Serenity, was the reason I wrote my memoirs, “Class of ’67.” She would always ask me to tell her the stories from my childhood. Nagging me, let’s say. Continually. So I put them in a book and said, “Here – read them all.”

She did like the book. And liked the children’s books I wrote about the environment. Now that she’s older, she decided she wanted to read my spy novels, “The Secret Lives of Jessie Monroe.” Hmm, I thought. I cautioned my daughter Julie, her mom, that I wasn’t sure those were a good fit for my eleven-year-old granddaughter. People get killed, especially the young twins parents murdered before their eyes. Not good. Julie said Serenity loved the “Hunger Games” and all the “Harry Potter” books, even the later more grown-up releases. But shortly into the first book Serenity let me know, “Grandma … I don’t really like your spy novels. It doesn’t bother me when people get hurt and you know it’s fantasy. Yours seemed more real.”

It was what I’d expected, but still … I had an idea. It was mid-November but if I hurried, I could write a fantasy book and mail it to her for Christmas. So I started to think about a fantasy where Serenity would be in the middle of it and came up with “Star Child (A Serenity Book).” She said she likes fantasy, ferries, and magic.

Here’s the premise: “Serenity always thought she was a normal girl. But one night her parents disappear and a woman named Mathilda tells Serenity she is a Star Child. Serenity learns that an evil presence had taken her parents and Serenity is the only one that can save them. Mathilda gives Serenity a crash course in the Star Arts. Serenity meets others who help her in her journey: the Fairy People, the Constellations, and the porpoises. But in the end it is up to Serenity, alone, to go into the Dark Lord’s lair deep inside the earth and rescue her parents.”

To make it special, I used a photograph of Serenity and another little girl when we were at her cousin Rebecca’s wedding in Utah, up Parley’s Canyon surrounded by beautiful red rocks and a waterfall. The girls were in their white dresses, with bridal flowers in their hair. To me, they looked like little fairies … or star children.

The good news was I wrote it in under two weeks and had it published and into the mail with the proper customs forms before Thanksgiving. The last book I sent to her in the Canary Islands, Spain, got to her in ten days. That was good! On the other hand, her Aunt Kristin sent her a Christmas card that didn’t arrive until April. Shall we say mail service to the Canary Islands is very unpredictable.

Serenity didn’t receive her paperback by Christmas, nor by Three Kings Day. Maybe she’ll have it for her birthday late March. Thank goodness for Kindle … I think she’s been able to read it online by now.