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TRUE LOVE About that time I met the love of my life, a blonde, blue-eyed California boy named Don, a guy with one driving passion – to live his life for Jesus Christ. He brought a Bible to our first date and asked me if we could read Philippians together. I didn’t know a Philippian from any other “ippian” and seriously I thought he was crazy. But he was cute and clean-cut, so I put up with the Bible reading. Three months passed and the tension in our “Bible” conversations grew. I couldn’t defend my viewpoints, my worldly values I’d accumulated over the years. Finally, I’d had it. One afternoon standing outside his car I took his precious, underlined, highlighted Bible and I threw it on the ground. Split the binding right down the middle. Don picked up the pieces, gave me a sad look, and drove off. I figured the ground would open up and I’d be headed straight for … well, you know. Instead, God allowed me to get in my car and drive to a Christian Bookstore, a store I’d driven past all my life and never, not once stepped inside. There I bought a Bible and a concordance. I went home to my apartment and set about making a case for my man made beliefs. Instead, I could hear God saying, You can either fall away with your unfounded views on life, or you can grab onto my Word and never let go. I grabbed. I’m still holding on, still standing on that rock today. I’ll be devoted to God’s word the rest of my days.
Don forgave me and we joined a non-denominational Bible-believing church. We attended a weekly Bible study and a few months later we were baptized. It was the same week Don proposed to me. The two of us were married on July 23, 1989 and on our sixth-month anniversary we found out I was pregnant – though that was certainly not our plan. I figured I’d never know this child – too busy working long days at the newspaper. Don simply rejoiced and said, “We need to pray. God will show you a way to write at home. He can do that!”
PRAYING FOR A WAY Over the next nine months I prayed doubtfully, Don prayed faithfully. We prayed the Lord would allow me to make my salary from home. An unlikely request at best. During that time I sold a story to People Magazine – a sad true murder story I’d covered for the newspaper. A literary agent in New York contacted me and thought the story would make an interesting book. I agreed to write a proposal. At the time, I didn’t see my conversation with him as part of God’s plan. But three days before my return to work the agent called again. He told me to sit down. He had gotten my proposal into a bidding war and the resulting deal was beyond anything he had hoped for. The first check? Just $12.49 more than I made a year. I quit my job the next day. I’ve been home writing books ever since.
PLAN ‘A’ Over the next few years I wrote four true crime books – not my favourite topic. After that I couldn’t write about another murder. I begged God to show me what was next, how I might find my way back to that long ago ‘Plan A’ – being a novelist. In 1995 I read Francine Rivers’ book, Redeeming Love, and I knew I wanted to write books that glorified God for the rest of my life. That spring I wrote my first novel – Where Yesterday Lives. I had no agent willing to represent it, and no publisher. Thirty rejection letters followed. The publisher I’d worked with for the crime books said they loved it – but without sex scenes and strong language, they didn’t know what to do with it. I pressed on, praying and believing. A year later I received word from Multnomah Publishers – they wanted my book. And two more. At least. At the same time we welcomed our third child. Over the next few years we decided to add to our family in a way we had never planned. We adopted three little best friends from Haiti – Sean, Josh, and EJ. Today our family is healthy and happy and whole. Don is still the love of my life, still pulling me aside for a little Bible reading and still the best father to our nearly grown children. And I’m still certain that my professor from that distant freshman English class was right. I’ll never, ever stop writing. THE CHRISTIAN LIFESTYLE
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