Story Behind the Story: Mary Moore
I’m a Regency fanatic. I fell in love with the time period when I read my first one at age 15. As the years went by, however, the stories became more and more predictable (given the fact that the Regency period only encompasses about 15 years in England’s history, it did limit the story lines). But 15 years ago I came up with my own idea for a story, different than I’d ever read, and I wrote it. Basically, I wrote it for me. I was experiencing medical problems and it took doctors two years to diagnose me with Lupus. In my story, the heroine faces struggles in her life due to a physical problem, and I could incorporate real feelings and real frustration dealing with the medical profession.
In 2004, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.
At the end of that two-year ordeal, I pulled that story out and revised it to reflect more of the personal experiences I faced. I incorporated, most importantly, that the hero and heroine would begin their story as friends. My husband and I started as friends and when we married, we had more than a husband and wife relationship, we had a “stand by you” kind of friendship on top of our “for better or worse” vows. My husband was there for me every step of the way and I wanted the hero to be there through the heroine’s struggles so their bond would be stronger because of it.
Read MoreStory Behind the Story: Lynn Squire
How did you come up with the plot and characters for your novel?
I was studying the book of Job and developed the plot from it. Since I wanted it to be set in Alberta, I pictured a North West Mounted Police Officer, Sergeant Dixon, and a farmer, Joab Black. Over the course of time, Dixon informed me who he was. Not at all whom I sketched out originally. I didn’t think he’d be so prominent in the book. Then Joab slipped to the background more. His story being Job’s story, he felt that the readers might feel depressed if he played center stage.
What inspired you the most about this story that you had to write it down?
The need to keep your focus on eternity and not on the hardships of today. Dixon kept telling me how miserable he was and revealed to me how important it was to humble ourselves before God. As I got to know him, I found he asked big questions that demanded I didn’t give a simple response. I think I wrote to him, or people like him, who wouldn’t settle for a pat answer.
Joab’s Fire released in June – check it out and more about Lynn on her website!
Read MoreStory Behind the Story: Anne Mateer
My grandmother was a born storyteller, the kind that could spin a tale and keep you enthralled from beginning to end. But her tales didn’t come from a tangle of imagination. They came from her life.
I didn’t appreciate this as much as I should have as a child or a young adult, but when Nanny passed away in January of 2000, one of her stories took hold of me and wouldn’t let go. It was the story of her mother, a young woman with four small children left at home while her husband fought The Great War. As the war drew to an end, the influenza epidemic hit, stealing life from the woman. Enter the woman’s niece. She came in and cared for my grandmother and her three brothers. When my great-grandfather returned from France, the story goes that the niece wanted to take the children home with her. My great-grandfather refused to let them go. He married the girl instead.
While I have no idea what really took place between Ruth—the woman I knew as my great-grandmother—and my great-grandfather, I always believed it to be a love story since they went on to have seven more children of their own! After nine years of intermittent research and story starts and stops, I finally plunged into a novel loosely based on their tale. The next year it became my first contracted novel. Wings of a Dream releases with Bethany House September 1, 2011.
Visit Anne’s website and blog for more information! (And it is a beautiful site worth checking out!)
Read MoreStory Behind the Story: Christine Lindsey
This story that is set in India circa 1919 is so dear to my heart. Some of my ancestors on my mother’s side were Irish officers who served in the British Cavalry during England’s rule of Colonial India—the British Raj. It’s a glittering, fascinating era that is long gone. Somehow I grew up on stories set in India. MM Kaye’s Far Pavilions and Shadow of the Moon became the most romantic stories I ever read and even after many readings still sweep me away.
To cut a long story short, I had the intense joy of going to India last January to observe a ministry that focuses on teaching the gospel to children in a camp setting. There I saw the Indian culture of song and dance gorgeously portrayed in these children. Indian children prefer to sing and dance in their camp settings which is so different from our NA children who love sports.
Thank you for stopping by, Christine! Learn more about Christine here!
Read MoreStory Behind the Story: Karen Witemeyer
Have you ever wished there was an epilogue to Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son? I have. So often we focus on the wonderful homecoming the lost son received, but I wanted to know what life was like for him after the fatted calf was consumed and the party was over. How did he relate to his bitter older brother or the servants and townspeople who were only too aware of his past arrogance and wild living? I decided to explore these questions in a new setting—1880s Texas.
First, I needed a prodigal. Enter my hero, Levi Grant. Raised by godly parents, he turns his back on his faith and the blacksmithing trade of his father to prove his manhood and earn easy money through the wild life of a bare-knuckle brawler. Until the day something goes terribly wrong and he ends up in Huntsville state prison serving a two-year sentence. Through the traumatic abuse he suffers in the labor camps combined with the compassion he receives from the prison chaplain, Levi repents and rededicates his life to the Lord.
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