By Joy Avery Melville
The premise of the novel is based on Genesis 50:20.
My chosen genre to write was Historical Romance, and I had written one and started another when I attended the ACFW September 2011 Conference in St. Louis, MO.
Sorry – got a bit ahead of myself there. I actually got a nudge from the Lord in August 2011. Standing in my kitchen, handwashing some dishes, I overheard a local TV newscast. I didn’t stop what I was doing, but I did ask my husband to turn the television up some.
A young woman had been abducted, and they could find no trace of her. Taken from her home, her family pleaded with the public for help in finding her.
My heart was wrenched as all kinds of ‘what-ifs’ went through my mind. In fact, that news story would not leave my mind or heart, and I felt led to pray earnestly for her and the family.
I went to that writer’s conference, pitched the first Historical Romance I’d written to agents and publishing acquisition editors. Two rejected it outright, saying it wasn’t historical enough, but one agent, went through the one-sheet (or sales-sheet as some refer to it) and told me what she especially liked. She suggested I come home and make a contemporary story out of it.
I did, but in doing so, much of the conflict and tension no longer were strong enough, due to the fact technology had advanced well beyond the story.
In the meantime, I heard more about the missing woman. She had a fiancé they were looking at as a person of interest, and other things that had come to the surface, but no sight of her. I kept praying for them all.
God nudged me… a bit at a time… reminding me of those “what-ifs”, and I thought He was just telling me to keep praying. WRONG!
His nudges got stronger toward putting her story to the page. I argued… I DO NOT RECOMMEND THAT… He won!
Change in genre writing was a MUST. He asked me to write about a young woman who’d been abducted, and to use each of those “What-ifs” I’d been mulling after each time I prayed for her and her loved ones.
What if she were still alive… it’d been weeks… what if she were found alive, but close to death… what if she had been a victim of rape and/or beatings… what if she became pregnant with a rapists’ child… and what if her fiancé abandoned her at her weakest moments?
We found out later, the woman in the newscast had, indeed, been found, but she hadn’t survived the elements where she’d been left.
Meant For Her, though based on that first news story I heard in August, has a decided turn from the actual events, but with each sentence, paragraph, chapter I wrote, the sense I was writing in obedience got stronger and stronger.
God gave me ideas I knew I’d never have come up with, and He brought all the right people to me when I needed to do research on several of the topics addressed in the novel.
The actual writing of the 100,000+ word novel took me six weeks. In the writing, God moved me to bring in subplots I was totally unprepared for. In doing so, He gave me two more books.
Considering I hadn’t intended to write Contemporary… certainly hadn’t intended to write Women’s Fiction… I find the choice of title for the entire series ironic, to say the least, and it didn’t occur to me until the writing of this post just how ironic.
Had it all truly been ~ MEANT FOR HER?![Meant For Her (Intended For Her Book 1) by [Melville, Joy Avery]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/618Bom2l-1L.jpg)
Kidnapped, raped, brutally beaten, and left for dead, Candi Reynolds becomes a prisoner of fear. Faced also with the impact of the unexpected break-up with her fiancé, and an unwanted pregnancy resulting from the attacks, she believes God has forsaken her. Choosing to move back to the Michigan horse farm, owned by her older brother, Dr. Cam Reynolds, Candi essentially goes into seclusion.
Dr. Patrick (Mack) MacKevon, long-time friend of Cam’s, watches from the sidelines at the farm, where his horses are stabled, while Candi struggles to regain a sense of normalcy. His own big-brother tendencies develop into a much deeper emotion over the months he prays for her.
Is it possible for Candi to put all of the pain and trauma behind her and renew her former relationship with the Lord? Will she allow her heart to open enough to discover authentic love while making decisions of victory on her personal journey to joy?
KINDLE PURCHASE: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y8RJFJ1
PAPERBACK PURCHASE: https://www.amazon.com/Meant-Her-Intended-Avery-Melville/dp/1691723665
~ ABOUT THE AUTHOR ~
Joy Avery Melville’s heart’s desire is to be the author God has called her to be by sharing Him with readers in such a way they long to have a deeply committed personal relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord.
Fully intending to write Historical Romance—had in fact— she had no plans to deviate from that. God had something else in mind for that ‘call’ He’d made on her life back in 1967. A mere eighth grader at the time, she had no clue about the topics she’d be drawn to write about.
Surrendering to the genre God placed on her heart has given Joy new insight into the hearts and lives of those who too often hurt in silence.
The settings of Joy’s books are near where she lives in Schoolcraft, Michigan with her husband of nearly 46 years and their one-yr-old Yorkie pup, Is-A-Bella Bindi, (Is-a-beautiful little girl) who thinks she’s a much larger breed with tomboy tendencies.
Joy loves to hear from readers and will respond!
CONNECT WITH JOY:
Email joyjournaling@gmail.com
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
Jennifer Uhlarik 