There really is nothing new under the sun!

Congratulations to Carol Baldwin and Joan Edwards. They both won a copy of Obsessed By A Promise! by leaving a comment on my last blogpost! 

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I have often heard the quote from Ecclesiastes 1:9, "There is nothing new under the sun," but never thought much about it until recently when one of my critique partners sent me a link to an article about a spider. Let me explain.  

Years ago, I had an idea for a children's story about a very creative spider who is tired of spinning ho hum barn spider webs and wants to create her own more intricate designs. Mocked for her new designs, the spider would retreat to a window high in the barn loft where others couldn't see. It would take a family moving into the barn and one bright star shining through the new web, to make the others see that having different ideas can have surprising results. 

I had never read a children's story about a spider besides E.B. White's, Charlotte's Web and thought there might be room for another spider book. When I shared my idea with other writers I received very mixed comments. Many folks liked the idea but a fare amount did not. One person even said, "Eww! Spiders are scary. Nobody likes spiders!" But my spider, Spivey, I called her, would have an important job to perform. She would spin a creative web that would calm a very special baby lying in a manger. Spivey's story would have a surprise Christmas story ending.  

Spivey's Web, arrived on the market in 2017 and was retitled in 2020 as Spivey's Christmas Web. Just before Christmas, 2020, I received an article about author Raymond Arroyo and his new book, based on an ancient Eastern European legend, titled, The Spider Who Saved Christmas. Arroyo came across the legend while doing research for a middle-grade series. In his beautiful book, illustrated by Randy Gallegos, it's Nephila, a cave spider whose web saves the Christ child and his parents from Herod's men. 

Another version of the legend tells the story of a pinecone that falls to the floor in a hut occupied by a poor widow and her children. The pinecone takes root and grows into a tree but at Christmas time, the widow couldn't afford to decorate it. While the family slept, spiders in the tree spun webs that sparkled in the morning sun, a gift for the widow and her brood.  Since that time, throughout Eastern Europe, it has been the tradition to decorate Christmas trees with spiders. It is also believed that those spider webs are the reasons we decorate with tinsel to this day.

Who knew? I certainly did not. I thought my idea about a spider helping the Christ child was original, a figment of my creative mind. But you see, it wasn't.  

There really is nothing new under the sun! 

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Leave a comment by February 5th and I'll put your name in to win a copy of Spivey's Christmas Web. 

Check out the Spivey's Christmas Web book trailer here:  

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWxu-vSpuRI

Contact Sandra Warren 

https://www.arliebooks.com 

http://www.sandrawarren.com