Author Doug Johnston

Coming August 15

Softback

eBook

Audiobook

The Christmas Call-in Show

by Doug Johnston

The Christmas Call-in Show started as a short story when I worked as a publicist at a small publishing company in Utah. They were asking for authors to send in short stories and they would pick some to be in the Christmas short story book coming out that Christmas.

Since I worked there, I didn't want anyone to know I would enter it, so that night I went home and wrote the short story, The Christmas Call in show and it was picked to be the lead short story. I had made a fake name, a fake email so they wouldn't know it was me.

I was in the meeting when they announced it and I then explained that it was me. At the time the company had two owners, and a few days later one of them came in and said to me in front of everyone else in my office, something like, my wife read your story last night and she said if we printed it, she would divorce me. I was dumbfounded, and walked outside, and called my friend and author Kerry Blair and asked her if she would read the story and give me her thoughts.

She read it and a few minutes later she called me back and told me I not only had a great short story but I had the beginning of an amazing novel.

I walked back in, and told the other boss, I was taking my short story out of their pile and he couldn't print it.

About a month later, the other boss came into the office, and said, "Doug, I read your short story last night and I loved it." He walked out and all of us looked at each other and couldn't believe the difference between him and his wife. To this day I don't know if she even read the story.

A few weeks later I quit that job, started writing The Christmas Call-in Show and after it was done, it sat for a very long time.

After one of my sons, Riley, took his life, I knew this book needed to be published so I hired Tristi Pinkston to edit the book and soon it will be out.

One of my earliest memories is telling stories to my kindergarten class. I've always enjoyed making people smile and laugh, though I struggled with spelling, sentence structure and writing in general.

In high school, I wrote an essay on What America Means to Me. My teacher, Ms. Eleanor Olsen, encouraged me to rewrite it and write it better. She then secretly entered it into a writing contest. She typed it up for me. I won. While the prize and accolades were appreciated, I was more excited at the thought that I could write something that others wanted to read.

In 1999 I started a small weekly newspaper. A year later I bought out the competitor newspaper and merged them into one - The Morgan County News. My goal was to not only report on the important news stories of the day, but to give people a place to read happy, encouraging and uplifting stories. My column, Doug's Den, produced over 350 positive stories during its run.

With the release of my first novel, I'm excited to, again, give readers a place to find joy and comfort despite the unfair, uncertainties, and sadness of live.
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Doug currently lives in Layton, Utah where he enjoyed volunteering in the community, hosting the This is My Chapter podcast, and being dad to 10 kids, grandpa to 6, and the best friend to Roz the Bulldog.

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I am glad to announce that my audiobook will be narrated by Noah Wall

Noah Wall, who many of you already know as one of the best audiobook narrators in the book business, has narrated The Christmas Call-in Show. Not only am I proud to announce this but it is completed and the work made me cry with what an amazing job she did on the project.

The audiobook will be released on August 15, 2026, along with the softback and eBook versions. Noah is not only one of the best narrators in the market, but she is also a founding member, with her husband Tommy Norris, of the band The Barefoot Movement.

Noah and Tommy have also gave an amazing introduction and conclusion of the audiobook with their amazing musical talents of Christmas music to go with the intro and exit of the book. We can't wait for you to hear it when you purchase the audiobook.

Tommy and I produced the audiobook and Noah was amazing in the naration. My book is Noah's 101 audiobook.

You can find more writings from Noah at http://www.noahkwall.com

You can find Noah and Tommy's band, The Barefoot Movement at https://www.thebarefootmovementofficial.com

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