Friday, December 27, 2013

Background for ONE SWEET DAY

Thanksgiving and Christmas both slowed me down a bit, but with the first draft of ONE SWEET DAY finally done, I'm able to give a background--and a bit of a disclaimer, too--for this book.

Firstly, I've always had a passionate interest in the study of Christian end-time prophecies, or Christian eschatology. And yet when the Lord first placed it on my heart to write this book, even before I wrote GREETINGS FROM MY SANDY DREAMS, my response to Him in prayer was, Lord, I'm not a scholar. I'm not qualified to write a book about what happens in Revelations!

So I delayed with not one but TWO books before writing this one. I published the beach read but my laptop battery died when I was at the last fourth of the second book, a paranormal called THE VAMPIRE'S MERMAID BRIDE. The following day, at lunchtime, I started writing ONE SWEET DAY by hand, since I couldn't get to the other book, and I figured I would start with an idea that had begun to brew. When I came home that evening I asked my husband if I could borrow his laptop to type out what I'd written. He told me, "Babe, go ahead and use yours--it's working now."

What?? I'd tried for an hour to get the battery to charge. I'd even already started searching for places to buy a replacement battery for a decent price. And Bill just plugs it in and it works, on the same day that I, at last, do what the Lord inspired me to do?

Some may see that as a coincidence, but I took at as a push forward to step out on faith. My campus pastor's wife, only a few weeks later, while speaking about something else at our women's retreat in Myrtle Beach, said the quote, "God doesn't call the qualified--He qualifies the called." That really gave a lot of my beautiful Christian friends at the retreat great encouragement, and that included me.

As it turned out, I had fretted and doubted for nothing. This book is about average believers, spanning about forty years in their lives, their trials, their growth, their sorrow, their joy, as they wait for the Rapture. I never had to worry about which came first--the Antichrist (actually called "The Beast") or the seals being opened or the vials being poured out as documented by the Apostle John during his exile on the island of Patmos. The book only deals with believers watching, praying and waiting for "the blessed hope" while living, growing and learning in this life.

Okay, now you have the background. Here are the disclaimers!

Obviously, I do believe in the Rapture of the Church. Many argue that the word rapture appears nowhere in the word of God. However, you will find the word, harpazo, in the scriptures. It is Greek and it means: to seize, carry off by force; to seize on, claim for oneself eagerly; to snatch out or away.

PLEASE note, too, that ONE SWEET DAY is a work of fiction. I'm not saying it will happen like this, exactly; it's the depiction as I saw it in my imagination. This book is more to encourage and to uplift than to teach about prophecy.

May it bless you right down to your socks! Once again, it will be available January 2014.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Trailer for ONE SWEET DAY



My upcoming Christian novel, ONE SWEET DAY, is on its way now! Accounting for the first draft's progress and time for editing and polishing, I can now announce it as a January 2014 release. There are more things I'd like to share about this book, but for now, here's the exciting teaser!