White Christmas was written in October, 2010, when there was every reason to think it would be wet and miserable at Christmas. Then in late November it started snowing, making this story a tiny bit ironic.

For anyone who didn’t recognise it, the story that Darius tells about the rain god, is actually from So Long and Thanks for All The Fish, the penultimate volume of the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams. But what Doctor Who/Torchwood fan didn’t know that? Come on, you did know, didn’t you? If you didn’t, check the links at the bottom of the page for an e-book edition and read it. But where have you been all this time if you’ve never read Hitchhikers?

Anyway, I always thought it was a brilliant idea – a man worshipped by rain – and wanted to get it into a story. I toyed with the idea of the rain god turning up in Cardiff, but it seemed a bit too obvious. Then I realised I could do a variation on the theme as long as the original story was referenced. So it became an alien who attracted snow, getting a lift from a Harwoods driver up the M6 corridor. Of course, it had to be a Harwoods lorry! Who else would know that the right place to bring a lost alien would be Torchwood?

And what to do with the alien? Well, the rain god made a fortune visiting drought-ridden corners of the world. So obviously I sent the snow alien to the Cairngorms for a winter holiday with his new found Human friend. It’s a Christmas story. It’s meant to have a happy ending!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/So_Long,_and_Thanks_for_All_the_Fish
http://flag.blackened.net/dinsdale/dna/book4.html

http://www.cairngormmountain.co.uk/