Jody Pritzl is the author of six books — four nominated for awards by the Colorado Authors League, with a gold medal honor in 2019 for “Immigrants, Ornaments and Legacies-A Story of American-Made Glass Christmas Ornaments. An 80’s transplant from Wisconsin, Pritzl exited a 30-year corporate gig in Denver, Colorado, to become a writer. She earned a communications degree from Metropolitan State University and a master’s degree from Regis University. Supplementing her books with 33 videos, Pritzl’s YouTube channel is at https://www.youtube.com/@jodypritzl8250.
SunLit: Tell us this book’s backstory – what’s it about and what inspired you to write it?
Jody Pritzl: After my two books on Christmas ornament history were well-received, I was intrigued to learn the backstories of Christmas stamps. When I discovered that it was in my lifetime, not back in the 1940s or 1950s, when the first U.S. issue came out in 1962, I was flabbergasted and had to dig in more.
SunLit: Place the excerpt you selected in context. How does it fit into the book as a whole and why did you select it?
UNDERWRITTEN BY
Each week, The Colorado Sun and Colorado Humanities & Center For The Book feature an excerpt from a Colorado book and an interview with the author. Explore the SunLit archives at coloradosun.com/sunlit.
Pritzl: The POTUS appointed the Postmaster General, who, with a yay or nay, could authorize a stamp of whatever he desired. Which means postage was a powerful vehicle for influencing and deciding what history to honor. In Chapter Four, President Kennedy should have been celebrating a stamp commemorating his national tree lighting of the year before but he didn’t return alive from Dallas, Texas.
SunLit: What influences and/or experiences informed the project before you sat down to write?
Pritzl: I was a casual youth stamp collector. My grandmother would drive me to the post office when a new stamp was issued, and I’d lick the hinges and stick it in my thin album. I was fascinated by tiny pieces of history that commemorated America’s heritage.
SunLit: What did the process of writing this book add to your knowledge and understanding of your craft and/or the subject matter?
Pritzl: Reading non-fiction can be as cool as watching Hamilton on stage or screen. It is up to the writer to portray a main character, in this case, the Postmaster General, as human, not as a faceless name without personality.
Other stamp influencers are protagonists in the book during the postmaster transitions. They dressed a certain way reflecting the time period, ate nice lunches, and shook hands with the POTUS. They were real people making choices, and most of America had no idea how a stamp came to be available for sale at their local post office.
So I homed in on the Who and the Why behind each Christmas stamp. Real people made the decisions each year for 15 stamps, just 15, and one of those was a Christmas stamp starting in 1962.
“The December Dilemma”
Where to find it:
- Prospector: Search the combined catalogs of 23 Colorado libraries
- Libby: E-books and audio books
- NewPages Guide: List of Colorado independent bookstores
- Bookshop.org: Searchable database of bookstores nationwide
SunLit present new excerpts from some of the best Colorado authors that not only spin engaging narratives but also illuminate who we are as a community. Read more.
SunLit: What were the biggest challenges you faced in writing this book?
Pritzl: As with all my books, I won’t say it if I can’t prove it. Reading through pages of minutes from the actual stamp committee meetings, I felt political influence and power.
I didn’t want to stray too much into political division, but the December Dilemma is set in Washington, D.C. It was impossible not to understand that elections drove postage stamps’ subjects and designs. The first 10 years of Christmas stamps were influenced by three presidents and seven different postmaster generals. The head of the Post Office Department was on equal footing with the Secretary of Defense and the other eleven cabinet members. Politics-Power-Stamps, they went together.
SunLit: What do you want readers to take from this book?
Pritzl: Stamp stories are cool. Appreciate the art and work of the designers and engravers who took the task very seriously.
SunLit: In a society dominated by digital, what draws you to writing books?
Pritzl: I write for the future. We are losing our history every day in digital content that is erased with a keystroke. Some historical record, researched and noted, is the fuel in my fingers.
SunLit: Tell us about your next project.
Pritzl: With the 250th birthday of America looming, I used 1976 and the Bicentennial as the backdrop for a coming-of-age historical fiction story. I leapt out of my comfort zone to write “The Year We Chased the Fireworks”. I researched actual Bicentennial events, the music, the clothes, the food, but tell the story with a fictional 14-year-old girl and her family.
Back to my Hamilton point. If I wrote a non-fiction book about 7Up cans, Bicentennial Youth Debates, painting fire hydrants, and the tall ships’ parade, few people would care. But cheering for Tottie, who just wants to celebrate America’s birthday, that’s a fun way to get ready for America’s 250.
A few more quick items
Currently on your nightstand for recreational reading: A Springsteen biography, a Lin Manuel Miranda biography, and a Bob Greene book about the North Platte Canteen.
First book you remember really making an impression on you as a kid: “The Bobbsey Twins at the Seashore”
Best writing advice you’ve ever received: Done is better than perfect.
Favorite fictional literary character: Ebenezer Scrooge
Literary guilty pleasure (title or genre): When I need a mind-numbing break and I’m on a beach, my guilty pleasure is reading a Danielle Steele romance in two sittings and then starting another.
Digital, print or audio – favorite medium to consume literature: My preference is print but my ereader holds 40 Project Gutenberg downloads and on any given day at least five titles from the Denver Public Library.
One book you’ve read multiple times: “Around the World in Eighty Days”
Other than writing utensils, one thing you must have within reach when you write: Diet Mountain Dew for the first hour followed by green tea to cleanse the Diet Mountain Dew
Best antidote for writer’s block: Chopping vegetables
Most valuable beta reader: My husband