Welcome, Joy. It’s great to have you here this morning. Congratulations on your new book release. I understand your new book is about a wounded warrior. This book is different than the first book you released. What resources did you utilize that make this project unique?
When I set out write Sown In Peace, I wanted to talk to actual wounded warriors to get their take on real military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. I needed to get more than what my research had shown me. The ‘lingo’, the logistics, the way Army life was different over there than at a stateside base.
I prayed for human resources and within a couple of weeks, God sent me the names of two men via others who’d been praying with me. These men, I knew I could trust for that ‘real’ information, since one is a nephew of an editing client, and the other is a very good friend of my own editor.
What I hadn’t realized throughout the months/years I’ve gotten to know them, was the fact, there was so much more I gleaned from the time spent talking, emailing, meeting with the one of them, just hours from my home, than the technical. Jeremy (Fort Wayne, IN and Keith (Bryan, TX), gave very freely of their time, their energy, and their emotions. (those memories were tough for them to recall and discuss with me).
When I went back to the writing, having thought I had all I needed, I found myself putting more and more of those two men, and men like them, into my story. Sown In Peace would not be the story it is without so much more than technical terms that Keith and Jeremy gave me. Their very hearts are in the novel.
I love the way God opens doors when we need them. How long have you’ve known you’re a writer?
I was in 8th grade when I was given an assignment to write a short story. My English teacher was surprised by what she called the ‘maturity of the writing and the depth of the story.’ She told me I should find every avenue to learn creative writing that I could. The following weekend, our church had a missionary guest come in to share his experiences. He spoke to us about using those talents that God has gifted us with, those things He has built into us, to their very fullest. My heart was touched by his message, and I knew it wasn’t a coincidence that it came on the heels of my teachers after-school talk with me about the importance of learning the craft of writing and using it.
In the years following, there were a lot of hic-ups, interruptions, and ditches, keeping me from writing all of the time. I don’t regret them, because they’ve served to educate me a lot in ways that have given my novels more depth, I think.
Jodie, many have labeled my calling, my writing career, a hobby. It isn’t. I’ve had a lot of hobbies, but they have come and gone over the decades since I wrote that short story. No. This desire within me to create stories has never gone away. For that reason, and others, I know the ideas that produce the books I write, stem from what God has placed on my heart… even those I’ve told Him I didn’t want to but have. I am compelled to write in spite of the things that have come along to disrupt the flow.
I can relate to that compelling to write. How does your faith and spirituality work in with your writing?
Jodie, this is the most important part of what makes my stories the novels they become.
Not all of my characters are born-again-Christians, but every story has at least one. There are characters who have made a profession of Christ, and then they may have turned their back on Him, or maybe hadn’t known how to get the information to help them grow in Him. There are characters who have barely heard of Him. None of my stories have a reader saying, they don’t know what Salvation is or don’t understand how God can work in the lives of men and/or women.
Don’t get me wrong. There isn’t any preachiness in the stories. Anything about spirituality comes organically from a character’s natural conversation or thoughts out of their hearts and interwoven in the novel.
Readers of Meant For Her have emailed and/or Facebook messaged me with their Take-Aways from the novel. Jodie, it’s been humbling and gratifying at the same time to see how God has used things I wrote to touch hearts and lives of my readers. More than once, the portion of the novel that tugged at a reader’s heart is something I hadn’t seen as a theme or main thrust in the story. I see God in that for sure.
That’s what we hope for as writers… for reader’s hearts to be touched through our books. Tell us a little bit about Sown in Peace.
How much can one wounded soul take?
Victoria (Tori) Archer has the heart of a soldier. Taken down by an IED during her fourth deployment, she’s permanently separated from her military career and left with physical scars as well as PTSD. Moving back to her hometown of Three Rivers, Michigan, she’s forced by circumstances to live with an irascible and unsympathetic aunt. Tori’s battle with pain, horrific memories, and loss of independence creates a deep yearning for peace. Will God grant her even a small measure of it?
Retired Military Dog Handler Griffin (Griff) McKay turns to training dogs at his farm for wounded warrior therapy, desiring to bring former military men and women emotional and mental healing. Implementing his plan proves to be more difficult than visualized with the arrival of one stubborn soldier. Why has God placed that particular warrior in his path?
Sounds like a good story. What is your favorite Bible verse and why?
“Be still and know I am God.” Psalm 46:10
I prefer the NASB version as it clarifies it better for me.
“Quit striving and know I am God.”
I was an adult before I learned that I NEEDED this to be my life verse. I tend to strive to do those things I’ve planned… to bring about those ideas of mine, but GOD! He reminds me oh, so often, to QUIT striving and KNOW HIM… KNOW He is in control… KNOW He has my best interest and the plans He has for me all worked out.
Amen. Joy, can you tell your readers what your writing space looks like?
My writing space is my library. Jodie, you’ve seen how my husband lined the walls with bookshelves for me for novels by other authors… they are nearly filled. He lined a walk-in closet off the room with shelves for bins and bins of supplies. A closet behind me now has now sliding doors, but has bookshelves in it. Those are filled with reference materials/books and now the drafts and research notebooks of several of my own novels.
I have a U-shaped desk with room for my laptop in the bottom of the U, room for another laptop with larger unattached monitor, and ample room to spread out my notebooks for quick access to timelines, character backstory and photos, and my thesaurus and dictionary, if I want them open. Above my bookshelves are plaques with two very important Bible verses. Proverbs 3:5 & 6, Isaiah 26:3, and Psalm 46:10, which I spoke about above. There is a very large window above two bookcases, and I can look out to the west at my landscaped yard, bordered on one side with burning bushes. I’m so blessed to have a writing space with room to work and a view of God’s creation.
It is a beautiful space. What do you plan to work on next?
Even though Sown In Peace hasn’t gone to print yet, I’ve gotten all of the Kept For Her materials manuscript and manuscript to work on. That’s book 2 of the Intended For Her Series… the one readers keep asking me to publish. They want to know what happens next after Meant For Her.
It’s time to do self-edits and revisions to that novel. It’ll go to my Content Editor after I’ve been through it a couple of times. Then, it’s off we go! I’ve never attempted to edit one book and write another during the same month/months. I want so badly to write the second book in the Operation Return To Peace Series. I’m praying for wisdom and direction on that… especially, since I have to do promotional work to get Sown In Peace out to readers.
I’m sure readers will be anxious to read the next story in both of these series. Where can your readers find you online?
Twitter https://twitter.com/Journeystojoy
Website https://www.joyaverymelville.com
Blog https://www.journeystojoy.net
Facebook Author Page http://facebook.com/jamauthor
Facebook Personal Page http://facebook.com/joy.averymelville
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/joyaverymelville
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/joyjournalinggmailcom
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/joy-avery-melville
Thank you for joining us today. I wish you the best with your new release. Congratulations!
Order Joy’s book here.
Jodie,
Thank you so much for the opportunity to share Sown In Peace with readers and for those questions that got to the heart of why I write… to be a vessel/instrument in the Lord’s hands.
May God richly bless you as you write your next novel!
Great to have you here, Joy. I wish you the best with your new book.