Keeping Childhood Wonder Alive Through Story

You know that rush of childhood wonder you can almost feel in your chest and how it gets harder to reach as you grow up? We chase that feeling with author Christopher Charles Anderson, who takes a character nearly everyone recognizes and asks a deceptively big question: what keeps the magic alive year after year, and how does Frosty come back every Christmas? 

We talk about *Frosty and the Magic of Christmas* as both a holiday story and a craft problem. Christopher shares how his screenwriting background shapes the book’s pacing, dialogue, and “see it like a movie” approach, plus why writing for younger readers is anything but easy. We also get into the fun parts of being the writer: sneaking in tiny Easter eggs, building a world that feels familiar but fresh, and trusting a publisher and illustrator with your vision even when it’s hard to let go. 

The conversation turns personal, too. Christopher reflects on growing up through landmark moments in American history, and how years teaching students with special needs sharpened his understanding of behavior, fear, and processing time. We also explore how his story follows kids into young adulthood, grounding a classic kind of magic inside real-life change, from moving states to evolving technology and the modern urge to film everything. 

If you love Christmas books, children’s literature, screenwriting, or smart adaptations of beloved characters, hit play. Find the Book Here: https://amzn.to/4dAVbIg

Transcript

Why Frosty Still Matters

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Today's guest brings us a story rooted in something we all recognize, that feeling of childhood wonder that somehow slips through our fingers as we grow up. His book, Frosty and the Magic of Christmas, takes a familiar character and asks a simple but surprisingly meaningful question. What keeps that magic alive year after year? Join Elsa as she sits down with author Christopher Charles Anderson. Well, hello, my new friend.

SPEAKER_02 0:23

How are you today?

SPEAKER_00 0:24

I am very well, and that little intro made me feel even better.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

Oh, yay, good, good. That makes my heart very happy, as does your book. So as soon as this came through, I was like, Frosty, and I I'm so excited to talk about this because I love what you've done here. Um, I need to know what inspired you to take a character like Frosty and build an entirely new story around him.

From Screenplays To A Christmas Book

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Okay. First of all, my background is in uh screenplay writing. Okay. Unsold screenplays, you know, stacked. No, I'm kidding. And I have a writing partner when I work on screenplays, for the most part. Um, and so he says to me, why don't we write a Christmas story? Because you know how they you know recycle recycle every year, they come back and sell more. And so I, you know, started thinking about it. I came up with two what I thought were really great ideas for stories, and he didn't particularly care about my butt frosty was one of the ideas that I had, and so I just decided why not? I mean, it's still a good idea. So um started it um last October, um, naively thinking that I could get it published for last Christmas.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

But um anyway ambitiously, ambitiously, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Thank you for um telling me about the cover, because um, as I like to say, my publishers I am paying for up to New Wazoo, but publishers you know have done all the artwork, and uh it's a good thing because that's exactly why it did not get published last Christmas, because they know more about this than

The Mystery Of Frosty’s Return

SPEAKER_00 2:08

I do.

SPEAKER_02 2:08

I hear you. It's really it's uh so yes, I understand it's really hard um trusting your vision to somebody else, somebody else's interpretation. And I and I have experienced that, so I know exactly where you're coming from, and their idea is different, and it's very, very hard to let go and trust someone else's vision for your work, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:29

But I am happy that we finally came to and and the cover, they only really gave me two options, and I love both of them. Um other friends of mine said, Oh, this is the one, and so that's the one you see.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

Nice, yeah. It's absolutely charming. And like I said, it just it brings you right back to your childhood. And I'm so sad for any child that never got to see those movies, in particular that one. Um, so you ask a really fun question in the book, which is how does Frosty come back year after year?

SPEAKER_00 2:57

Um that's pretty much the whole basis. Um as a kid, uh when I would go see a movie, I was almost always asking myself, what happens tomorrow? You know, what happens as this story continues, you know, and the happy ending with the family and everything, or or whatever the ending is, you know. I was always asking myself, so what happens? And so I decided to make it up and to make it that particular set of situations that has to occur for Frosty to come back.

SPEAKER_02 3:24

I love that. So I mean, you know, this not, you know, I know, and I know this because I've spoken to people who are like, oh, children's books are so easy to write. You just write a few words that rhyme and make it cute, and you're like, oh, really? It's that easy? Do it.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

A lot of nice artwork, right?

SPEAKER_02 3:39

Yeah, exactly. Oh my goodness.

Life History And Hidden Easter Eggs

SPEAKER_02 3:41

Um, now let's talk a little bit about you personally. You've lived through some really incredible moments in American history. Do these or do those experiences shape the way that you tell your stories today?

SPEAKER_00 3:52

Absolutely. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 3:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

I kind of think in my alternate universe that maybe I should have been a journalist, but late for that now. I just keep going with what I have. Um yeah, um I was just thinking about this earlier. I one of the strongest and earliest memories is of um President Kennedy's assassination.

SPEAKER_02 4:16

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:17

And I was like in the first grade, and I was thinking, wow, I remember I was in I was in class, and what another teacher came and told my teacher and whispered in her ear, uh, the president's been shot.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:33

Yeah, so so out of a child's realm of understanding. So your perception and memories of that are of course so different than an adult at that time, you know, what their impressions and thoughts would be. It's so wild. My goodness. But yeah, I I get I get how that those experiences, I mean any of your experiences growing up will will shape how you view things and how you write about them, right?

SPEAKER_00 4:56

Race to the moon.

SPEAKER_02 4:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:58

And a lot of things in there. I I put in little snippets of things, you know, of things that mean something to me.

SPEAKER_02 5:05

I love that.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

For example, um, and this was this was something that we we went around corners um or went around in circles with the illustrator about because I wanted the carrot to go in pointy and first. Um kind of my little side tribute to Game of Thrones. Oh funny. Can you guess? What's the first lesson in fencing?

SPEAKER_02 5:26

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

Stick the other guy with the pointy end.

SPEAKER_02 5:32

That's really funny.

SPEAKER_00 5:35

And and all the other snowman images you see on you know, wrapping paper, on advertising and stuff, the pointy end is out. But I wanted to stick them with the pointy end.

SPEAKER_02 5:44

Oh, that's funny. You know, you made a great point too. Something uh about when when you're the writer, like you have the control, like you're that's the super fun part that you can sneak in these little references that mean something to you, and maybe you know, somebody else that's in on the joke, but nobody else knows. And I think that's really kind of fun, right? Yes, now now I know. We're not telling anybody else. Nobody, everybody, you should have blocked your ears for that loud spread.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

Spoiler alert, spoiler alert.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

I know, right? Yeah, I'll I'll put it across the bottom of the screen for everybody. Spoiler alert. But you know, but I think that does make people go in looking for uh looking for what do they call them? Easter eggs, looking for Easter eggs, little things that they they know, right? That nobody else knows. I think that's so fun.

Teaching Special Needs And Human Behavior

SPEAKER_02 6:30

Um, something very special that you have been a part of that you've done. You spent years teaching special needs, students with special needs. Um, did that yeah, did that experience influence how you connect? Oh yeah. Yeah, you knew my question before I could even uh ask it. Yeah. It's so that obviously impacted probably how you wrote your stories. Tell me a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

Um A and behavior, how people you know react with each other.

SPEAKER_02 6:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

Fears that people have. Um but mostly what I found out through my experience is that it's a uh it's a it's a matter of processing. Um in many instances, um, the students that I had were uh more intelligent than people allowed them time to be because they were still processing information and um didn't come up with the answers right away or you know various different ways of looking at that, but um that was the primary thing.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

That was the primary thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:29

And yeah, because I start out uh with the kids at you know 10 and 13 and grow up with them, um it's probably somewhere just you know buried in my subconscious that I'm gonna use the those tools.

SPEAKER_02 7:43

Yeah, I love that. That's so beneficial to you know, to young readers and and to the adults that are either writing, um sorry, reading the story with them or to them, whatever the case may be, that you know, you you just have these interpretations and uh ways of relaying the story that are more understandable and more relatable, really, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:04

Yes, yes. Um I I don't know what other people do, other writers, but I call mine a stream of consciousness. I know that's a that's a term that a lot of people use, but that's kind of it. I sit down, I think, how would I, as this character, how is I as an actor be this character? And usually works for me.

Writing Like A Screenwriter

SPEAKER_02 8:24

Yeah, so you mentioned um that you're I think we talked about it before we got on camera here, uh, that you're uh a screenwriter. So when you wrote this book, did you so this is how I see books when I when I read I see them as a movie in my head. Did you see this? Is that how you yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

Yes. It was it was that first, but I never I never actually wrote a word of that. But because that's how I that's how I I see the images. Like I said, I see the characters and I try to write down what they said. Um not only, but the character of Frosty is a trademark character, right? Owned by a big picture company. So um by permission, you know, and again, back to my publishers, they told me they've taken care of all of this.

SPEAKER_02 9:09

So they better have, right? Yeah, because I mean you bring up a good point. Don't anybody else who's wanting to write a story, you don't get to just do this, you don't get to just, you know, take a uh, you know, an existing literary or or real, um, whatever the case is. Yeah, trademark, thank you. Uh without permission. So make sure you get permission, guys. So, yes, so you went through the proper channels, or they went through the proper channels to do that. I did what I did wonder about that. I'm like, what is the connection? What's that was gonna be a question too? What's the connection and affiliation? I guess really is the the word I'm looking for, and it's just simply you did it the right way and you got permission.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

Our agreement is they have right of first refusal.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

Ah okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

So it's actually not unrealistic. It's not at all unrealistic that they would come back at some point and say, let's let's make a movie, let's make a a sequel, you know, to to Frosty. There has has there been any sequels? I don't even know if there has, if they've done like, you know, Frosty. I think there was a Frosty Returns or something, right? I might be making that up.

SPEAKER_00 10:12

I I didn't, I did not watch um the original writing. I wanted to play. Yeah. But then I and then even looking on on Amazon, I see uh several different Frosty titles.

SPEAKER_02 10:25

Oh, interesting. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

I I know there was a Frosty and Rudolph.

SPEAKER_02 10:29

Um, that's familiar. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

Yeah. Two, three, maybe four frosty animated things of a half hour in length. And most of them very kids play.

SPEAKER_02 10:40

Yeah. I didn't know. Yeah, I like I really I really like what you've done with this. You've taken it in a different direction. It almost makes me think of um it makes me think in a way, obviously totally different style and all of the things, but it makes me think of wicked, you know, it's this this alternate spin on um on the Wizard of Oz. Like, here's a different perspective, or here's a different way to look at some cases, yeah. Yeah, right. Like it's just here's a different way to look at a familiar thing. And so I think I just think that's really fun. It gives it like a whole new life, I think, right?

SPEAKER_00 11:17

Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 11:18

You're welcome. You're welcome. So no, you're I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

I think you caught my drift.

SPEAKER_02 11:23

I caught your drift.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

Yeah, what I was writing and and what I was trying to present. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 11:27

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That makes it so much more

Technology And Kids Growing Up

SPEAKER_02 11:30

fun. Now, here's another thing that I love about this. Your story follows these the kids as they grow into young adults. Um why was that important to you to to show that that transition?

SPEAKER_00 11:44

Um I don't know. Um I just wanted it to be more of a story than a cartoon. Um and that was my place to you asked me earlier about interjecting my life experiences, and so I wanted to kind of grow up with him. From the first experience with Uncle Albert to now why can't it happen again? Well, because we got transferred from Colorado to Texas. So for a few years, there's just no snow for Christmas. And then how they finally get back together, the kids, uh, Ethan, Karen, and Toby. Um, and also uh Ethan's first experience on a cell phone, you know.

SPEAKER_02 12:25

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

So that was definitely a part of the whole you know, skeleton that I was hanging, you know, storyline on was the development of technology as well as that, because that's what we're growing up with. And then toward the end, no more spoiler alert, but um the evolution of a smartphone, you know. Oh right. And um you said TikTok, so um someone's filming everything that's going on. Yes, so true. Evolution along, you know, several different lines was just something that um I thought would work, would make the story more uh grounded in our experience of the last 25 years.

SPEAKER_02 13:06

Yeah, I love the more you're telling me that there's the more I love what you have done with this. This was so brilliant. And this this just came to you like out of nowhere. Or I mean, had you been thinking about this for years, I know you said this was kind of like part of what you do, like you you think uh more, more, you think more.

SPEAKER_00 13:26

Um my style, you might have noticed I put the names before the line. So as you're reading it, you know who's speaking. And I I very rarely tried to put in, you know, uh declares with excitement or something like that. Um I that's part of the screenwriting style of it, to not give the actor any more direction than they have to so that they can use their own imagination. Right. Um, and also scarcity. Um I I talk about a screenplay as sort of the combination of a novel and a poem. Um in that you have to tell the complete story, but as efficiently as possible.

SPEAKER_02 14:04

Yeah. I may I say that I think you would actually be a phenomenal journalist because that, you know, similarly, you are you are telling a story in much less words than you would a novel, you know, or a book or anything longer length. So you already have that skill set. So just saying, not too late if you feel like doing that too.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

I'll uh I'll send my resume to CNN.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

There you go. Perfect. Oh so now who

What’s Next And Where To Find It

SPEAKER_02 14:30

who would you say, you know, if somebody just tuned in right now and and hears that we're talking about uh, you know, an adaptation uh of you know Frosty, um, and they automatically think, oh, this is automatically it's geared toward this specific age group. Who would you say this book is most geared toward, age range wise?

SPEAKER_00 14:48

I like to say it's uh for Harry Potter readers.

SPEAKER_02 14:51

Okay. Oh, okay. Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

Um probably middle school. Um the characters at the beginning are you know 10 and 13, but they grow up to be you know 20 and 23. So um I don't think any younger than that would would get it, they would still enjoy the story. I don't want to, you know, discount anybody. Um I also want to I also don't want to discount the fact that sometimes adults are gonna be reading to their kids.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:16

So um, but anyway, in short answer, uh the age range, uh the and I know even now, all the original Harry Potter kids have kids of their own.

SPEAKER_02 15:25

Right, right. How crazy is that? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

So but yeah, Harry Potter reading range.

SPEAKER_02 15:31

Nice. I love that. And you know, and I love your point too that there's gonna be parents reading it to or with their their children. And, you know, and to me as a grandmother, um, it would actually be so appealing to me to read that to my grandchildren because I would I would enjoy the story, you know, and what you've done with it. So, you know, really to your point, it's like, you know, I mean, we don't want to box anybody out here because you know, anybody's anybody at any rate age can read this. We're not restricting anybody, you know, just because you're a certain age, you you're not allowed to read it. Not the case. It's for everybody, right? Everybody read it. Um, talk to me a little bit about the writing process for this itself. Were there any parts that um you found harder or more challenging than expected, or any part of the process that was more challenging?

SPEAKER_00 16:19

Uh wow, except sometimes writing through the tears. Uh because I get emotionally involved in what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_02 16:25

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

Yeah. Uh but um yes, I was thinking about the answer to this question because I kind of hoped you would ask it. I I don't ever find any writer's block per se. Like you sit down at the computer, you go, uh once I sit down at the computer, the only writer's block I have is that it's not my only job. You know, I have to, and so I don't always have the time. But once I sit down, um, I know where I'm going. Um, and like I said, I let the characters talk to me, and um pretty much I just start telling a story, even if I have to just start typing something, you know, a sentence. They entered the room by themselves.

SPEAKER_02 17:05

And that's there it comes, yeah. I love that. So we have a similar writing style. You called it uh stream of conscious, which makes perfect sense. I call it something stupid, which is called a pancer. Meaning a pancer, meaning you fly by the seat of your pants, you sit down and I didn't know if you meant the German tank division in World War II, but nope, nope, I wasn't going there with it. I am German, but you know, I wasn't nope, wasn't going there with it. Yeah, so I always I I do tend to ask my my fellow authors like what type of writer they are. And I'll say to them, so you are you a plotter or a pantser? And they just look at me blankly for a moment. I'm like, okay, wait, I guess I'm the only one that uses those terms. So a plotter would be, of course, somebody who's, you know, very structured and outlines everything and you know does all their research and does all of the like the technical behind the scenes stuff and then writes their book, right? And then there's people that are kind of like you and I who are pants who we sit down or stream of conscious writers, we sit down and we let the story be told to us. I always say there's like somebody in my brain sitting on a in a on a little desk in my brain with a little typewriter, and the the words are just going and they're coming out through my fingertips, right?

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Um this is an age thing, maybe, but do you remember a a Disney cartoon uh with a little devil on one side and an angel on the other side?

SPEAKER_02 18:27

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

That's more that's more my style. I've got the conversation, the the good, the bad, the but you say you have one little voice in your head. So anyway.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

Yeah, you have you have more than one. More than one. Yeah. Alisten, I wasn't I wasn't gonna confess to the many in my brain, but I always say, I always say, you know, the indication of what goes on in my brain is displayed on the number of tabs that are open on my computer screen. And let's just say it's a lot.

unknown 18:53

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

Oh, so tell me, the this can't be all that you have for for writing, for words, for books in your head. Do you have more stories in your head ready to come out?

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Um, A, um, there is a sequel swirling around for Frosty. Um, not done with him yet. And B, the answer to your question is yeah, I have a slate of maybe seven or eight stories at the moment that are um slated to be screenplays. However, um, I guess this would be C. My very next project, it came to me that this book publishing thing is not going away. No matter what they tell you about, you know, computers and AI and all that stuff. Uh I went to the London Book Fair. There's like 10,000 people like me, all trying to get their personal books, you know. And anyway, um there was a C in there. Oh the next screenplay might well be a graphic novel.

SPEAKER_02 19:52

Oh, interesting. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

Yeah, very cool. Because it's a it's a screenplay that's a very uh film noir, very dark comedy. Um and I I like to liken it to if you remember Sin City, um with Bruce Willis and uh uh Abba, what's her name? Jess Jessica Abba. That kind of dark storyline, but yeah. And and I'd have to I'd have to really look at uh the actual physical uh novel of Sin City to see, but uh yeah, anyway, that's my next idea.

SPEAKER_02 20:28

That's so fun. I love the variety. I love your your diversity of skill there of you know, just writing genres and styles and highly envious of your screen screenwriting um skills and and knowledge because that's that's like always been on the list of things, and I just I have not I I don't even think I would do anything with it. I just want to write one. I I always wanted to take my books and turn them into screenplays, yeah. But who doesn't, right?

SPEAKER_00 20:54

Who's stopping it?

SPEAKER_02 20:55

I know. Excellent point. You're so right. Yeah, nobody's stopping me. I'm gonna do it. Darn it. It won't be good, but that's okay. That's okay too.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

I can make enough money at this gate, you can you know, finance it yourself.

SPEAKER_02 21:07

Yeah, I can finance my own, right? I don't need anybody to do it for me.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

Movie studio in our pockets.

SPEAKER_02 21:14

I love it. I love it. That's so true, too, right? What a what a time to be alive, isn't it? Like you really can do all of the things on your own, which is so amazing, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 21:24

So amazing.

SPEAKER_02 21:25

Oh, I love it. Um, could you do me the wonderful favor of telling, or actually tell our viewers and listeners the wonderful favor of telling everyone where they can find your book and where they can find you if you have a website, all of that good stuff?

SPEAKER_00 21:39

Oh, um again, my publishers have set up all this stuff. Um Christopher Anderson is on um what's that one? What the big one? Facebook. Facebook uh huh.

SPEAKER_02 21:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 21:52

Um and uh other than that, I'd really have to get back to you because I I don't do um was it Instagram? Okay. Yep. Part of the reason I don't do TikTok is because I might get plain. And right now I'm pissed off at both the Democrats and the Republicans.

SPEAKER_02 22:11

That's enough to do it because nobody can talk about anything but political stuff. So good for you for sparing your sanity.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

Yeah, yeah. So um Amazon.

SPEAKER_02 22:23

We've got Amazon, right? Amazon?

SPEAKER_00 22:25

Yep. Amazon. Perfect. They told me when I first signed the contract for this and uh and spent the money that I was gonna buy a new Mercedes-Benz with. Um I am kidding. Um they told me it would be on like um many different platforms worldwide, but yes, at least Amazon. Um excellent, excellent. Christopher Charles Anderson. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:45

I love it. Such a great name, by the way, too. That's like a name that would write a Christmas book, right? Like it's just charming.

SPEAKER_00 22:53

That's the other guy.

SPEAKER_02 22:54

That's what it made me think of. That's what it made me think of. Isn't that funny? Yeah, I love it. I love it. Um, I can't thank you enough for coming out and sharing your story and sharing your book. I can't wait for everybody, guys. As always, I'm gonna put those links in the show notes for you so everybody will be able to click right on it and go right to the books and and check it all out. And uh any social handles, I will make sure that they're in there too for everybody to check out. So thank you again for joining me. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 23:20

You know, my pleasure.

SPEAKER_02 23:22

Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 23:23

Thank you. Connected. I know it's been it's been a journey.

SPEAKER_02 23:26

It's been a journey, that's for sure. That's for sure. Well, we did it. We finally did it. All right, my friends. Thank you all for watching. Sure, go ahead. No, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 23:37

Capital Bookstore, Sacramento. Oh Tuesday, May 26th, the day after Memorial Day. Beautiful Sacramento, Tuesday, May 26th.

SPEAKER_02 23:48

Awesome. We'll put that in the show notes too, so they won't uh forget about it. Thank you so, so much. Almost forgot that you remember. I'm glad you remembered. Awesome. All right, guys, thank you again for watching, and we will see you in the next episode.

SPEAKER_03 24:01

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