Preslaysa

Here is a little bit about the book. Decision to Love is the third book in my Sacred Vows series. Eight years have passed since Hope and Tony had their short-lived affair that rocked both of their marriages to the brink of destruction. Hope and James stayed together and Tony and his wife eventually divorced. Hope and James have one child and he goes off to college on a scholarship. They have high hopes for Jimmy. When he tells his parents he’s gay, their foundation is rocked and their lives implode once again. How does a boy who was raised in a Christian home and been saved, enjoyed reading his Bible every day, witnessed to friends, and even gotten baptized suddenly turn and go on an entirely different path than his parents anticipated?

Decision to Love follows a number of different characters who are facing challenges they never saw coming. Jimmy’s “coming out” is only one of the many issues that face Hope. Tony, her former lover, also has a long lost daughter who finds him, and he is overjoyed. But with his new relationship comes an entirely new set of challenges for him.

I wanted to write a book from a mother’s perspective where she is shocked into dealing with an issue she never anticipated. She wanted to be a grandmother and after her son’s disclosure she doesn’t see that happening. Her husband can’t take the stress and becomes so enraged that he has a fatal heart attack when Jimmy brings a boyfriend home with him. Hope is not sure what to do, but after losing her husband, the last thing she wants to do is lose her son, too. She tries to understand and support her son, but grieves the loss of his innocence and is conflicted about her grief over the loss of her husband since his death was caused by the stress he experienced from her son’s revelation.

I wanted to write part of the story from Jimmy’s perspective. How would it feel to know that his father despised gay people and his worst fear was realized the day Jimmy told him the truth about his attraction to men. There are so many internal and external conflicts that arise from this scenario. Jimmy thinks he is in love and rebels against his father, though he only hurts himself by giving his body to his boyfriend. Jimmy ends up feeling used and deceived and questions everything he believed about himself. Jimmy’s spiritual journey is something not seen in inspirational fiction, but this type of conflict happens in many families as I soon discovered from my research.

I also wanted to write a story from a father’s perspective. How it would feel for Tony to see the child he thought he’d lost forever and have her come back into his life only to discover that the man who had replaced him hurt his little girl and damaged her in ways that were unthinkable to Tony. He had a lot of making up to do and wondered if it would ever be enough. Then there is the fact that he also has a son who is still dealing with the loss of his mother when she was brutally murdered, and then the loss of his stepmother when his father divorces her. Tony is conflicted about getting involved in another relationship if it would hurt either of his children. He decides he must love them enough to do what is best for them even if it means he has to stay single.

Decision to Love explores a number of issues that people deal with in modern times, and have, in fact, dealt with for centuries, though on a different moral landscape. Decision to Love is the book of my heart because I go much deeper than I do with any of my other books. I hope you enjoy it, too.

An Unintentional Start Over

By Sherri Wilson Johnson

Have you ever wished you could start over? You’ve made so many mistakes in life that it seems you can’t get away from the reputation you’ve earned? Maybe it’s someone in your life that you can’t get away from and you want to pack your bags and leave. You want to leave your hectic lifestyle in the city for a peaceful existence in the country.

In my novel Song of the Meadowlark, Cora Buchanan is in that very spot. Her husband disappears one night after being arrested and bailed out for drug trafficking. In a flash, Cora’s life is turned upside down. The man she loves with all her heart is now a fugitive on the run. She waits a year and then decides to leave the town she lived in with him to return home to her parents to mend their broken relationship. Although she hopes Clark will return and be found not guilty, she can’t wait on him and must attempt to repair the broken bridges with her parents. She braces herself for the harsh words that will undoubtedly come over the fact that they were right in their opinion of Clark prior to her marriage to him. While traveling through Georgia on her way home to Florida, Cora’s car breaks down and leaves her stranded. This is where her unintentional do-over begins. At first she curses her old car but later realizes if it had not been for it she would not have found a new beginning.

Sometimes all it takes is a desire to start over to set the wheels in motion. The beauty in getting a fresh start is that you have the chance to seek forgiveness from those you have offended and you can forgive those who have wronged you even if they do not ask. To truly start over, a pruning happens in your life. You cut away the old in order for the new to grow. It’s a painful process, but once it occurs, you feel so grand.

When writing a novel, you have to do a lot of editing to get it right. It’s a painful process. Sometimes you have to cut away things that seem vital to the story because in reality they are not. Once you have a finished product, you will not miss those scenes because they weighed down the characters and kept them from being all they could be.

Not all starting over requires you to pack your bags and leave town nor does it always involve kicking someone out of your life. Sometimes all it takes is nothing more than a seed of desire, which germinates and becomes a lovely plant or tree with new life blossoming all over it. When we let God direct our paths and when our motives are pure, He will guide us where we never could go on our own. Psalm 23:3 (NIV) says: “He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.” That is a promise that He will keep.

About Sherri: Sherri Wilson Johnson is the author of To Dance Once More and Song of the Meadowlark. She is from Georgia, has been married since 1988, and is a former homeschooling mom. She loves to write, read, eat ice cream, ride roller coasters and make people laugh. She loves Jesus and hopes to spread His love to the whole world through her writing.  Visit her at www.sherriwilsonjohnson.com

About Song of the Meadowlark:

When trusting others causes nothing but pain and rejection, and loving ends only in loss, what will it take to restore hope again? Shamed by the uncovered truth about her missing husband’s secret life, Cora Buchanan sets out on a road trip for home to mend her broken relationship with her parents. While traveling through Georgia—through a town experiencing missing and murdered women—her car breaks down leaving her stranded. Cora stays at the struggling Southern Hope Ranch until she can get back on the road. While there, a bond develops between Cora and little Susie O’Reilly, who unexpectedly fills a void in Cora’s heart. She finally journeys home but wants to return to Georgia to help save the ranch and to aid the family when the crimes hit too close to home. Will Rex O’Reilly, the bitter widower angry with God—and father to Susie—stand in her way?