The Story Behind ‘One Holy Night’ by J.M. Hochstetler

One Holy Night started out as a short story back in the late 1980s. I was working with another author to develop a book of short stories that revolved around Christmas, each with a different theme, and all within a larger story that tied them together. I was assigned to write a miracle story, and what greater miracle is there than the birth of Jesus? After we each wrote several stories, however, the project was shelved and never completed. But although I forgot about the story, a seed had been planted.

Over the years I’ve done a lot of thinking about the gritty issues that impact our lives—intergenerational and interracial conflict, addictions, war, illness, death, divorce. Brokenness of one kind or another affects every family and individual. And the more I thought about it, the more I questioned how we can make sense of our lives and find reconciliation in our relationships. How can we find purpose, strength, and healing when we go through painful experiences?

I continued to think about these issues, and when the Gulf War came along in the mid 1990s, it shaped my thinking some more. Around 1999 or 2000, I was looking for a new project, so I got this story back out, reset it during the Vietnam War, and played around with it off and on. Then 9-11 happened, and right around that time a young woman in our church was diagnosed with intestinal cancer and died within a year. In the fall of 2002 my parents both died as the result of a car accident. Afterward the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were in all the headlines, and opposition was growing along with the casualty count. Commentators began to compare the war in Iraq with the quagmire of Vietnam—a conflict I was well acquainted with since I was in high school and college during those years.

So all these things started to find their way into this story set during 1967 about a family in a small town in Minnesota that is faced with these issues while the son is away, serving in Vietnam. The conclusion I came up with is pretty well summed up in the little blurb for the book: As on that holy night so long ago . . . in a world torn by sin and strife . . . to a family that has suffered heart-wrenching loss . . . there will be born a baby . . .

For a long time I didn’t think this story would ever be published and find its way to readers, but the Lord hadn’t forgotten it. One Holy Night was published in April 2008 and won the Christian Small Publishers Book of the Year in 2009. It continues to touch readers’ hearts and to receive excellent reviews, all to God’s glory.

J. M. Hochstetler writes stories that always involve some element of the past and of finding home. Born in central Indiana, the daughter of Mennonite farmers, she graduated from Indiana University with a degree in Germanic languages. She was an editor with Abingdon Press for twelve years and has published four novels. Daughter of Liberty (2004), Native Son (2005), and Wind of the Spirit (March 2009), the first three books of the critically acclaimed American Patriot Series, are set during the American Revolution. One Holy Night, a retelling of the Christmas story set in modern times, is the 2009 Christian Small Publishers Fiction Book of the Year and a finalist for the 2009 American Christian Fiction Writers Long Contemporary Book of the Year.

Hochstetler is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, Christian Authors Network, Middle Tennessee Christian Writers, Nashville Christian Writers Association, and Historical Novels Society. She and her husband live near Nashville, Tennessee.

You can find Joan online at www.jmhochstetler.com or at this book’s blog http://oneholynight.blogspot.com.

The Story Behind ‘Shakespeare Ashes’ by Chris DeBrie

Ever since I was a child, I’ve been a what if kind of person. Not necessarily in a constructive way. It is usually just to amuse myself. I’ve written down a lot of those fantasies, and they became stories. At first, that was all my stories contained: A bunch of action and emotional dialogue, with little sense of character. Fun stuff.

At some point in my twenties, that changed. Growth as a person parallels growth as a writer. Once I started seeing others as complete people, my writing got a little deeper. Every person I see, I get a flash of what s/he would be like as a character of mine, of what backstory I’d create.  Doing that used to keep me from actually relating to people–I’d be off in my own world, dreaming with my eyes open. I learned to compartamentalize. By now, I can take a snapshot of my surroundings, and revisit it once I’m at the laptop.

All writers are mixed and folded into their work.

Shakespeare Ashes is a load of those snapshots, collected and unfiltered. I originally wrote the story in third-person, and from one character’s point of view. But this character had friends who were just as interesting. They wouldn’t shut up, so to speak. So I kept writing the things I heard them say. One day, I wrote a chapter in first person, “just because”, and I realized the story was meant for that format. I rewrote the book. It took almost a year.

There are more characters to imagine. More what ifs. And it all started with my illustrated book from the second grade, with wallpaper for a book cover and a crayon drawing pasted on front. The title was, “Forkhead”, about a boy with fork-shaped ridges in his head. Forkhead and his best friend play some pranks around school. They trade some schoolyard snaps. Then they somehow become astronauts and camp on the moon in sleeping bags, with no space suits. i remember they stayed on the moon for 999 days, and the story ended there, so my guess is, they must have gone insane…

Chris DeBrie was born in North Carolina, creating comics and stories as soon as he could hold a pencil. He wrote the millennial love story As Is as a ninth grader, publishing it a decade later. Selective Focus was the result of those homemade comic screenplays. With Shakespeare Ashes, he pulls the reader into the raw thoughts of four very different characters. DeBrie is a fan of photography, learning languages, and clean water. He lives in Virginia.

http://www.washyourhandsproductions.com/

The Story Behind “Rain Dance” by Joy DeKok

From the time I was a little girl I wanted to write for kids. I was sure the stories ahead for me were the fun and sparkly kind.  I’d studied the craft, read books on writing for children, went to conferences, and was sure it was time.

Then, while cleaning house, a story line came to mind and tugged at my heart. It felt like a good idea, but I was certain it wasn’t for me to write. I tried to scrub, vacuum, and polish the idea away. Instead with every moment, it grew into something bigger. I could see the characters and heard their distinct voices.

I rebelled in part because the story involved my story. Who wanted to read about infertility and a pro-lifer who loved post-abortive women?  We’ve all been told to write what we know as well as no author intrusion. I wasn’t sure how to balance this advice so I clung to the latter. I simply could not write this novel – it was too close to home.

Ideas can be stubborn. I thought it might be cathartic to jot down the ideas to rid myself of them. This purging became a chapter and then two. As I quit resisting and released the words onto the page, a novel was born.

After the writing, re-writing, and editing, I considered putting it in a file cabinet and getting on with the real writing – kid’s books. Instead, I started the process of submitting it and receiving numerous rejections although many of them came with positive personal notes from the editors. Now I had editors, agents, established authors, and my husband encouraging me to self-publish. I hesitated to take the publishing road less travelled. I knew it was the harder path and I knew next to nothing about marketing. I was about to put the manuscript in a file cabinet in our basement when my husband brought me a check. He explained he believed the story had to be shared. His belief sparked a flame of hope in my heart.

It wasn’t until I followed the advice of the wise, the children’s books came together and I found an amazing illustrator.

After some time on the market, I approached an online writer’s group I belong to and asked them to read and review Rain Dance. It never occurred to me the woman who had started her own publishing house would be interested, however, she was.

Sheaf House Publishers released Rain Dance on August 3, 2009.

Louisa Mae Alcott once said, “Housecleaning ain’t no joke.” She wasn’t kidding. My second novel idea came while I was doing the dishes. I have no idea where this one will take me, but I’m done resisting. 

Joy DeKok and her husband, Jon, live in Minnesota on thirty-five acres of woods and fields. Joy has been writing most of her life and as a popular speaker shares her heart and passion for God with women. In addition to writing novels, she has also published a devotional and several children’s books.

Visit Joy online at: www.joydekok.com, www.raindancebook.com, www.believe4kids.com and www.gettingitwrite.net.

The Story Behind My Son, John by Kathi Macias

The story behind My Son, John is an amazing one, and I tell it quite often. 

It began nearly twenty years ago, when AIDS was just becoming known in America as a killer disease. We knew little about it, but most of us weren’t too concerned since we figured it would never touch us because we weren’t involved in the high-risk lifestyles associated with contracting the disease. 

I was busy working on a writing project and quite happy doing it—until I noticed that God was tapping me on the shoulder, trying to get my attention. Because I was perfectly content with my life as it was, I ignored Him, at least for a while. But the tapping became more insistent, until I finally had to respond or admit that I was disobeying God. 

“All right, Lord,” I said at last, “what are You trying to tell me?” 

In that moment I knew God wanted me to write a book about AIDS, which made absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. Surely I had misunderstood Him! But the more I listened to that still, small voice, the more I was certain of His marching orders. 

I sighed in resignation. “I don’t even know where to start, Father,” I said. “You’ll have to give me some direction here.” 

By the next morning it had become clear to me that I was supposed to write a novel about a middle-aged Christian woman (much like myself at the time) who discovers her 23-year-old son, John, has AIDS. It is her first revelation of his homosexual lifestyle. 

Wow. I knew this wasn’t going to be an easy assignment, so the next thing I did was ask God to bring someone to me who could help me understand how someone like John might feel in his situation. That night I noticed a letter to the editor in the newspaper, written by a young homosexual activist named Mark, who had AIDS and who was mad at the whole world. 

Oh, no, I thought. Please, God, don’t make me work with him! 

But of course Mark was just the one God had chosen. In fact, when I called him and told him about the book, his immediate response was, “Yes, I want to work with you on this because I want to make sure you get it right.” 

We scheduled an initial lunch meeting, and from the moment we sat down at the table, Mark began to tell me exactly how he felt. 

“I hate people like you,” he declared. “It’s because of you Christians that I have AIDS.” 

I did my best not to show my surprise, allowing him to continue to rant while I prayed silently, hoping God might show me that I had misunderstood and Mark was not the person I was to work with on this project. But even as I prayed, Mark stopped speaking for a moment and glanced out the window. When he looked back, there was a hint of tears in his eyes, and he said, “Sometimes I wonder if people like you are right.” 

Before I could respond, he returned to his previous mode of blaming everyone but himself for his condition, but in that brief instant, God had allowed me to see the chink in Mark’s armor. 

And so we began to work together on the book, though Mark made me promise never to “preach at him.” I kept my promise, but Mark read everything I wrote, chapter by chapter. And though we didn’t have a meeting of the minds, we did have a meeting of the hearts. Mark and I became friends; we learned to care for one another, even as we acknowledged the differences between us. 

Finally, just after Mark had read the last chapter and returned it to me with his comments and suggestions, he called me. His voice was weak, as he spoke from a hospital bed at his mother’s home. 

“Do you really believe all that Jesus stuff you wrote about in the book?” he wheezed. 

“Yes, Mark, I do,” I assured him. 

“Then you have five minutes to convince me not to kill myself right now.” 

It took longer than five minutes, but before we hung up I had the privilege of leading Mark to Christ. He died a few days later. 

And the book? I couldn’t sell it anywhere. Though every publisher who saw it agreed that it was a wonderfully written story, no one was willing to offer a contract—until nearly twenty years later, when I learned that my friend Joan had launched Sheaf House and was looking for “Christian fiction with an edge.” Sounded like My Son, John to me! 

Joan agreed, though after we talked about it for a while, we decided to change the storyline from a young man who has AIDS to a young man who murders a family member. The theme of unconditional love and forgiveness would remain the same. 

The rest, as they say, is history. But oh, what I learned between the time I started writing this book and the time it finally saw the light of publication! Before I began writing My Son, John I always thought the mark of a successful book was that it got published and sold lots of copies. (And hey, that’s not a bad thing!) But I now know that My Son, John was a success long before I ever found a publisher willing to take a chance with it. And if I hadn’t found a publisher at all, it would still have been a success because I now have a dear friend named Mark waiting for me in heaven. For that reason, I consider My Son, John the most successful of all my books, regardless of the ultimate sales figures. For after all, isn’t knowing that our work has made an eternal difference in someone’s life what this “Christian writing ministry” is all about?

Kathi Macias is a multi-award winning writer who has authored nearly 30 books and ghostwritten several others. A former newspaper columnist and string reporter, Kathi has taught creative and business writing in various venues and has been a guest on many radio and television programs. Kathi is a popular speaker at churches, women’s clubs and retreats, and writers’ conferences, and recently won the prestigious 2008 member of the year award from AWSA (Advanced Writers and Speakers Association) at the annual Golden Scrolls award banquet. Kathi “Easy Writer” Macias lives in Homeland, CA, with her husband, Al, where the two of them spend their free time riding their Harley. 

Visit Kathi’s website at www.kathimacias.com and her blog at http://kathieasywritermacias.blogspot.com/.  Beginning October 15, 2009, listen to Kathi as she hosts “Write the Vision” every Thursday from 6—7 p.m. (Pacific Time) via THE International Christian Network (www.theicn.com).