Have you ever heard a song and thought, “There's a real story here. Somebody's lived this song?” Novelist Anthony Lamarr remembers thinking this the first time he heard Luther Vandross' Christmas song, "Every Year, Every Christmas."
“The lyrics told a story that was heartfelt and moving,” Lamarr says. “Then Luther’s masterful vocal delivery added genuine emotions and made the story real It instantly became one of my favorite holiday songs.”
That was in 1995, when the song, co-written by Vandross and singer/songwriter Richard Marx, appeared on Vandross’ album This Is Christmas. Now, 24 years after Lamarr first heard the song, which has become one of radio’s most-played holiday songs, he has written and published a novel, Every Year, Every Christmas, about a fictional couple whose story is inspired by the song.
Three years ago, during the holiday season, he was listening to the song on the radio when he began imagining a story about a couple meeting, falling in love, and then parting and promising to meet again. But for some reason they don’t. The following year, when the holidays rolled in and Lamarr began hearing the song, he thought about the story again. This time he gave the couple names—Bryant and Cassie.
Last Christmas, Lamarr resolved to do something about the song and the story it evoked. “I was in the car when “Every Year, Every Christmas” came on the radio,” Lamarr recalls. “It was my first time hearing the song since the previous Christmas. As soon as it came on, Bryant and Cassie’s story started to replay in my mind. Right then, I knew it was time to put their story on paper.”
Lamarr’s new novel, Every Year, Every Christmas, on sale November 1, is being described as an inspired merging of music and literature. In the heartfelt romantic novel, Bryant, a newspaper reporter in his late twenties, returns to a small café in Chicago every Christmas Eve hoping to reunite with Cassie, a beautiful woman he met and fell in love with at the café on an unforgettable Christmas Eve three years ago.
“I wanted to capture the magic of a chance meeting and instant romance between two strangers on Christmas Eve, and I hope that’s what I’ve done,” Lamarr explains.
This is Lamarr’s third novel – his second with a music tie-end. His second novel, The Pages We Forget, a USA Today “Must Read” romance, tells the story of fictional singer/songwriter June Thomas and the recording of her swan song CD, a collection of songs about her first love – the man who walked out of her life without saying goodbye.
“I love writing and literature, but I’m also a lyricist and a shower singer,” Lamarr reveals. “So, music has a major impact on my writing.”