This is the fourth edition of JTPL Stories: a series of interviews with library patrons, staff, and partners. Continue below to meet the faces of JTPL with our Marketing Coordinator, Aliya!
Lincoln Crum, the author of Oh No! Santa’s Going to the Moon!, calls himself an “accidental artist.” He found his way into authorship later in life and hadn’t even seen himself as a creative person until recently.
Before writing children’s books and becoming Santa, Lincoln worked with numbers and business strategy in local companies and real estate.
“I’d written for blog articles or for businesses I ran,” he told me, “but I never really looked at writing as a creative outlet. I’d never had a career based on creativity; I’d looked at spreadsheets my whole life.”
That all changed when Lincoln tried out a Santa costume on October 21, 2021. He then tried it on for another event, and another, and he fell in love with the joy and inspiration it brought to his life. By 2024, he had grown My Local Santa into a year-round job full of community outreach and trips around the globe.
Our local Santa even took a trip to China to serve children and hand out his new picture book.
“When I stepped out of Santa’s closet, it gave me this level of confidence to do other creative things… I love it.” – Santa Lincoln
Lincoln says his work as Santa allowed him to see himself as an artist for the first time. And in the last year, it’s given him the confidence to begin writing books and tapping into his imagination. He spoke to me during this last week before attending Clarksville’s local author fair:
When I stepped out of Santa’s closet, it gave me this level of confidence to do other creative things. Performing as Santa really taps into your creativity and all the senses, and that allowed me to start writing down stories about the things all the kids wanted for Christmas… For the first time, I take real pride in the craft that I’ve created. Especially for someone who was not viewed as that type of person internally. I love it.
Now, Lincoln writes every day, working on different projects as the ideas come to him. He’s written over a dozen books about Santa’s adventures with monster trucks, unicorns, drones, and other kinds of toys kids ask him for during Christmas time. Each visit with new kids sparks visions for new books and Santa adventures.
Oh No! Santa’s Going to the Moon!, the first book Lincoln has self-published and has been working on selling, is available at our library for check out here.
But becoming an author hasn’t solely been about writing, Lincoln told me. Writing is the first phase, and after it comes the hard work of selling his book. It’s this phase that he is just beginning to figure out by handing out his book at malls and book fairs or soliciting for sponsors.
Self-publishing and selling his book takes a whole new level of confidence, resilience, and creativity, but it’s work Lincoln puts his whole heart into.
“Every time I get frustrated or down on my self because my book’s not selling enough and a sponsor rejects me, I think about the bread loaves that I bake. My bread has five ingredients: it’s flour, salt, yeast, water, and patience. And so when I’m down, I think of that fifth ingredient in my bread.”
Getting his books out into the world is like watching the bread rise, Lincoln says, he knows success will come as long as he’s patient and lets the yeast do its work.
Something else that helps him while he waits? Writing. Lincoln says continuing to write “just seems to make it all better.” That sounds a lot better than spreadsheets to me.
You can find Lincoln’s book in the library catalogue or purchase a copy here, on his website. He encourages our readers to support other local authors as well! You can find all the authors who attended our author fair here.
