Fun Facts About CRYSTAL WAVES

Most writers will tell you there's always a story behind the story. That's no less true with my newest Christian mainstream, the tale about a Jersey shore town where very strange and yet amazing things start to happen!

Here are a few fun facts, the story behind this particular story.

1. CRYSTAL WAVES was actually the first full-length novel that I wrote right before launching my career as first a freelance fiction author, and then a romance and YA novelist. This Christian novel was then never published, forgotten by me, and now that I've come full circle--once more writing Christian/inspirational fiction--it has finally been published, over a decade later.

2. The town is loosely patterned after Ocean Grove, NJ.

3. The movie theater where the character of Jessica "Jessi" Tipton works, the Cinema, is named after the movie theater in Union City where I would go faithfully to see movies as a teenager, often with my best friend, Linda. The Cinema is no longer there, so this was an affectionate namesake.

4. The character of Carissa Brilhart was renamed after my niece, Carissa. The reporter's original name was Cory.

5. I had no access to the original manuscript, and I believe it was lost during one of our moves, either from North Bergen to Union City or from Union City to here, in North Carolina. Here is an earlier entry I wrote regarding the rewrite.

6. In the original version, the character of Katie was named Cecilia, and she worked as a radio DJ in the town rather than a waitress at the local diner. There was a male reporter in the original who fell in love with Cecilia. Her radio station was at the top of a lighthouse, which never made an appearance in the new version.

7. The character of Marilyn is also named after a personal friend.

8. One of the miracles is based on a dream that I had some years ago; this same dream worked its way also into ONE SWEET DAY, my book about the rapture.

9. The JOYFUL NOISE SERIES was interrupted to rewrite and publish CRYSTAL WAVES.

10. It's not mentioned at all in the book, but the name of the town, Crystal Waves, is taken from a scripture: Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. - Revelation 22:1

11. The character of Pastor Lou DePalma is patterned after the late and beloved Pastor Nunzio Leggio of West New York Assembly.

12. The novel begins on July 8, 1972...the 8th of July being my late dad's birthday.