Christmas on Iago Prime

Eight-year-old Libby has come with her parents to spend a year at the newly established colony on the planet Iago Prime. Libby’s parents believe that this is a great opportunity for all of them, but Libby is unhappy on Iago Prime. There are no other children on Iago Prime and Libby can’t go anywhere, because she doesn’t even have a space suit. Worst of all, they will spend Christmas on Iago Prime, where there aren’t even any Christmas trees.

However, Libby’s parents, with a little help from Santa Claus himself, conspire to give Libby an unforgettable Christmas on Iago Prime.

This is a science fictional Christmas story of 6600 words or approx. 22 print pages.

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More information:

• Christmas on Iago Prime is a short story of 6600 words. This story is a digital premiere and has never been published previously.
• I try to release a Christmas story every year. And so, while I was wondering what sort of Christmas story to write, I thought, “Why not write a science fiction Christmas story about Christmas in space?” And since I already had established the earth colony of Iago Prime as a setting for a science fictional holiday story, I thought, “Why not reuse that setting?”
• So I came up with the story of Libby, a little girl who is dragged to Iago Prime by her permanently travelling parents and who is not happy about this at all. And one of the reasons that Libby is unhappy is that the family will spend Christmas on Iago Prime, where there aren’t even any Christmas trees.
• Even though the story is called Christmas on Iago Prime, we catch glimpses of other holiday celebrations such as Halloween, Diwali, Thanksgiving and Hannukah.
• Kai and Maisie, the couple from Valentine’s Day on Iago Prime, also briefly appear in the story and they have happy news to share, for Maisie is pregnant with their first child.
• The colony of Iago Prime was initially conceived as a one-off setting, but I may well revisit it for future holiday stories. After all, there still are plenty of holidays the inhabitants of Iago Prime can celebrate. And besides, I really want to know more about the improvised Halloween monster briefly mentioned in this story.
• The cover is digital art by Gerd Altmann.