This Memphian wrote a Hallmark movie as a 'tribute' to her aunt — and it's holiday 'Magic'

Skyy Blair's professional writing career began in 2007 with the sex-in-the-city novel "Choices," which the Memphis writer describes as "one of the first Black lesbian books I ever saw on sale in Walmart."

The book was a success that spawned three sequels. Yet Blair — who describes herself as "hopelessly single" and "queer," while also saying "I identify as 'me'" — nursed a perhaps surprising career ambition.

She wanted to write a Christmas movie for the Hallmark Channel.

“We live in a world that’s hard,” said Blair, 41. “Dating is hard, life is hard. But when you sit down and watch a Hallmark movie, you know it’s going to have a happy ending.

"You know you’re going to be in a town surrounded by positive people, and that two of those people are going to fall in love. There’s something about that promise that’s missing from the real world. Sometimes you just want to believe that one day you will meet someone and they will just sweep you off your feet.”

Blair's feet may remain unswept, but she nonetheless has reason to celebrate this holiday season, thanks to what she hopes will be more of a happy beginning than a happy ending: Fulfilling her dream, she is the writer of "Magic in Mistletoe," a new movie that debuts at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 8, on the Hallmark Channel.

'Magic in Mistletoe'

Inserting a "cancel culture" theme into the usual "Merry Christmas" matchmaking, "Magic in Mistletoe" stars Paul Campbell — one of the channel's recognizable "Hallmark hunks" according to Blair — as a beloved best-selling author of Christmas fantasy novels whose image and career are threatened after he makes a Scrooge-like social media post. When he returns for the holidays to his small hometown of Mistletoe, he is followed by his publishing company's expert in damage control, a public relations ace named April (Blair's actual first name), played by Lyndie Greenwood.

Will the initial frost between the writer and the publicist eventually thaw? Does Hallmark identify itself as the most popular cable network in America among adult women?

Filmed in Vancouver by Hallmark veteran director Paula Elle, "Magic in Mistletoe" is one 40 new movies produced for the Hallmark Channel and its sister network, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, for this year's "Countdown to Christmas" season of 'round-the-clock holiday programming. The new movies began Oct. 20 with "Checkin' It Twice"; the final premiere, "Miracle in Bethlehem, PA," airs Dec. 21.

The films make Hallmark "the OG destination for Ho-Ho-holiday movies" and "feel-good holiday fare," according to a network press release.

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A 'tribute' to her aunt

A lifelong Memphian, April Blair was raised in Whitehaven (where she still lives) by a grandmother, an uncle and an aunt, Karen Woodard, who was particularly influential. A longtime public school teacher, Woodard introduced her niece to old Hollywood movies, MGM musicals and, later, Hallmark movies, which became a shared escapist passion.

“Nothing makes an English teacher happier than seeing that she had an influence, particularly in her own family,” said Woodard, 74, who now lives in Houston. “Loving literature, I tried to share that with April, and she was fertile ground. Plays, musicals, classic movies, I could see she was always interested.”

She said part of the appeal of the Hallmark Channel is that the characters resolve their differences amicably, with words — "not a gun. Talking it out — that's what we tried to do in our family."

Blair said her Hallmark movie is in part a "tribute" to her aunt. "She loves these movies, and I wanted to write something she would enjoy."

Blair came up with her "Skyy" name in middle school. “I used to stare at the sky all the time," she explained. "I loved to look at pictures of the sunset. I started saying, ‘Hey, I’m kind of like the sky, I’m big and beautiful’ — I’m a big girl. Also, I can cause some damage — you push me, I can push back. So I started calling myself Skyy.”

Praise from Craig Brewer for Skyy Blair

After high school, Blair decided college wasn't for her. She got a job (she now works for the Accredo pharmaceutical company) and began pursuing writing as a career. Urban Books (now part of Random House) published her novels, under the one-word pen name "Skyy"; but Blair also wanted to be a screenwriter.

“Talk about tenacity,” said Memphis filmmaker Craig Brewer, writer-director of such films as the Oscar-winning “Hustle & Flow.” “For years she would come to events I would throw, and she would say, ‘You’re going to be my sensei.’”

She obviously was serious about writing, so Brewer became an adviser and mentor. “She could take criticism. She learned how to write by writing.”

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Blair earned the chance to write for Hallmark after a pilot script she penned called “Curves” won first place among some 1,500 entries in a contest hosted by the 2018 American Black Film Festival in Miami. The pilot was shot in Memphis by the actress Issa Rae's ColorCreative company for the BET network, but it never was developed into a series. Nevertheless, the strength of the script attracted industry attention, leading to meetings with several companies, including Hallmark. Blair pitched several ideas until "Magic in Mistletoe," like a Christmas angel in "It's a Wonderful Life," rang the bell.

Reflecting on Blair’s Hallmark movie, Brewer said: “What I love about it is how much of a dream-fantasy her whole approach to it was. She loves Hallmark Christmas movies, and there’s this whole chunk of humanity that adores Hallmark Christmas movies, and you can make fun of it if you want, but it’s something people really enjoy, and Skyy is one of them.”

Blair said that while Hallmark movies follow a narrative formula, "I believe Hallmark is really making an effort to diversify, and that's something I love about them." For example, although the lead characters are not identified by race in Blair's script, "Magic in Mistletoe" features an interracial couple (Campbell is white, Greenwood is Black). Other new Hallmark holiday movies will showcase Jewish couples ("Round and Round") and gay couples ("Christmas on Cherry Lane" and "Friends & Family Christmas").

"Hopefully, Hallmark movies teach people we're not really different," Blair said. "We all want love and we all want that pure Christmas joy."

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Hallmark's 'Magic in Mistletoe': Meet Memphis writer behind the movie