When an author wakes up in the middle of the night with a concept and first line for a book completely formed in his head, then it might be worth taking notice. For writer Tom Brenner, paying attention to just that paid off with the publication of his children’s book “And Then Comes Halloween” by Candlewick Press.

After the book’s success, Brenner wrote a second holiday story and launched a new series. Brenner will sign and read from his latest book “And Then Comes Christmas” at 6 p.m. Friday at the Vashon Bookshop.

The original line that nudged Brenner awake back in 2007 formed the structure for the series through a repeated sequential language pattern. Sentences alternately begin with “When” and “Then” to poetically evoke a shift in seasons, a change of place or activity.

“And Then Comes Christmas” portrays a young family in a rural setting preparing for the upcoming holiday. Lyrical verses describe the countdown to Christmas: “When the days barely start and they’re over again, and red berries blaze against green shrubs, and bare branches rake across the sky. … Then hang boughs of fir or spruce or pine, dotted with cones and bits of holly, welcoming winter.”

With the standard short length of 28 pages, writing a children’s book can seem deceptively simple. But as with any publication, each story goes through multiple drafts and the rigors of editorial scrutiny. Brenner may have received a jump start with his first sentence, but there was no guarantee the line would make it to the final galley.

“Of the first 372 words I wrote for ‘And Then Comes Halloween,’ about 130 made it into the book,” Brenner said. “Fortunately the first line in the When/Then pattern, which came to me in the middle of the night, made it through all the revisions.”

Brenner began writing when he retired from teaching elementary and middle school in 1996. His goal was to write novels for pre-teens. As a teacher, Brenner felt frustrated by the lack of young adult novels that reinforced reading, writing and social studies programs in middle schools.

So Brenner started typing. Three novels and multiple rejections later, he put down the keyboard and picked up the hammer and hoe after he and wife Nancy moved to Vashon from Berkeley in 2002. With a hen house built and garden planted, Brenner found his way back to words, taking a children’s book writing class at the University of Washington that Nancy, also a writer, discovered.

“I had hoped the class would help me with my novels, teach me what I was doing wrong so I could get it right,” Brenner said.

Instead, the class critiques spurred Brenner’s nocturnal writing that led to the story, which encouraged him to join the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, where he met Kirby Larson, author of “Hattie Big Sky.” That meeting ultimately led Brenner to Candlewick Press.

On a roll, Brenner has already sold a third book in this series — “And Then Comes Summer” — with more ideas in the works.

“I haven’t given up on the YA novel,” Brenner said with a chuckle. “I’m hoping to get it more ‘right’ this time.”