Today's post is from a fellow Carolinian, Alice Wisler, who is introducing her newest novel, A Wedding Invitation. 'Sounds like a great premise!
-Angie
Ever get an invitation to a wedding, where
you so wanted to attend, but then realized that the invite was really addressed
to the previous owners of your home?
Well, that happened to me. The invitation was beautiful, the way certain
wedding invitations can be. The
reception was to be held at some fancy country club in New York. I toyed with the idea . . . What if I showed
up? I'd know no one, but hey, there
would be free prime rib and lobster bisque.
Ever attend the wrong wedding? Nope? Me neither.
But my character Samantha Bravencourt does. She gets an invitation saying Avery Jones is
getting married. Only, it's not the
Avery Jones she went to college with.
A Wedding Invitation, my fourth novel with
Bethany House Publishers, was both fun and nostalgic to write. Fun, because I
enjoy creating zany characters with names like Beanie and Little. Those are two of the boarders at Aunt Dovie's
house in Winston-Salem, NC.
The nostalgic part of the creating came as I
recalled my own days at a refugee camp where I taught in the 1980s. My novel is
loosely based on my experience there. The camp was located in Bataan, Philippines
and housed over 17,000 Indochinese refugees. I taught English to the children.
The Amerasians are who intrigued me. These half Vietnamese, half American (U.S.)
were treated poorly and often given no education in Vietnam. I got to know many of these kids and included
one in particular in A Wedding Invitation. Lien is purely fictitious, but she is a
component of Amerasian girls I had as students. These kids wanted to belong and
be accepted, only they didn’t usually achieve that goal well because they were
often rude and loud. Perhaps that was
the only way they’d get any attention.
Lien strives for this, showing us that we all
have the need to be invited, accepted, and befriended. She learns that God
invites us, too. In his eyes, we are
each accepted, forgiven, and loved with an everlasting love.
What a great world it would be if we could reach
over and beyond society's prejudices and accept those we live near and work
with. When we do this, we open our hearts and lives to some priceless
gems. That's eventually what Samantha
realizes about Lien. Lien is funny,
intelligent, insightful, and grateful. Of course, the time it takes for Sam to
realize these characteristics about the Amerasian is lengthy. But the result is a friendship well worth the
trip.
~Alice J. Wisler is the author of Southern
fiction—RAIN SONG, HOW SWEET IT IS, HATTERAS GIRL and A WEDDING INVITATION (all
by Bethany House). She teaches Writing the Heartache (grief writing
courses) both online and at seminars.
Learn more at her website: http://www.alicewisler.com and blogs:
