The short answer? Pretty darn cool. My kids ask me, “Mom, why are you re-writing Bible stories? If you had chosen to write a book like Fifty Shades of Gray, we’d be rich!†My soon to be 16-year-old daughter, who’s very smart and outspoken, in particular doesn’t get it. She thinks the Bible is just a bunch of made up stories. She doesn’t believe that it’s the word of God. As for me, I think the Bible is both. It’s a collection by a variety of authors of poems, songs, lessons, legends and very cool stories. And, like all of creation – all of our dreams, ideas, and even our experiences in life – they all come from God. I never chose to re-write stories out of the Bible. The stories chose me.
Take Job, the subject of my first novel, The Faithful One, for example. Here’s a man who’s as rich and successful as Donald Trump, as handsome and healthy as George Clooney and has a wife and family like the dad on the Brady Bunch. Pretty interesting stuff. I couldn’t resist writing next about David and Abigail when a friend suggested it. It’s the story of a poor shepherd who becomes a king and the lady who takes a risk and saves him from doing something so low that it could ruin everything. It’s a story full of hardship, battles, abuse, romance and doing the right thing - called The Peace Maker. Before my first novel was even published and my second novel was even finished, I thought about the story of Jonah. You know, the guy who gets swallowed by the whale? Hokey, you say. I thought so too. But then I read it – and I’m so excited to write it for modern day readers.
Job, The Faithful One. Abigail, The Peace Maker. Jonah, The Righteous Rebel. The best part of writing stories based on the Bible? I’ll never run out of material!
