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| Elizabeth Musser |
I’m excited to have author Elizabeth Musser join us from her
writing “chalet” in France. Yes, that’s right! Elizabeth and her husband have
been serving as missionaries there for many years. If you visit her website,
you’ll see the cute shed in her yard where she pens her novels. Her personal
story is testimony to God’s leading in our writing journeys, no matter where
our lives take us.
~ Dawn
The
Write Place at the Write Time
by
Elizabeth Musser
Twenty years ago I attended my first writers’ conference
held at Moody Bible College in Chicago.
As a missionary serving in France, finding a writers’ conference that
corresponded with my family’s furlough was a stretch of the time schedule and
the pocketbook. But I’d had this
unquenchable thirst to write ever since I was six years old, and after years of
hearing from dear folks who read our prayer letters that “You should consider
writing a book, Elizabeth”, I gathered together a very modest portfolio of my
writings—mostly anecdotal stories about the latest catastrophe with our two
little boys that I wrote during their naptimes to save my sanity—and headed to
the conference.
I went with excitement, fear and the same prayer on my lips
that I had voiced for so many years, “Lord, if You want to do something more
with my writing, show me.” At the conference, I was astounded to discover that
one of the editors representing a publishing house had at one time been a
missionary in France with my agency, and I knew him!
I set up an interview with Dave, and, in a
less-than-confidant voice, announced, “I want to write a women’s
devotional.”
Dave, the quintessential gentleman, smiled and said,
“Elizabeth, we don’t need that.”
My heart fell.
“But,” he added, “We are looking for a woman novelist.”
“I can do that too!” I assured Dave. I left that fifteen-minute interview thinking
only one thing, “Lord, you put me in the right place at the right time!”
I returned to France with the tools I had gleaned from the
conference to write a professional book proposal. A few months later, I sent
the proposal to Dave, and, to my utter amazement, was offered a contract.
I was going to write a novel! All those years of praying and writing were
going to pay off!
Fast forward twenty years. I’m still in France, and I’m
still writing novels. Our two sons are grown, and my husband and I eagerly
await a visit from our toddler grandson—I’m sure he will give me new
catastrophes to turn into stories.
When I got that first contract, I naively believed “This is
it! The rest will be easy!”
It hasn’t been easy. The writing journey has often seemed
like a never-ending roller coaster ride. Acceptance, rejection, glowing
reviews, criticism, best-sellers, and books taken out of print.
But did I really want ‘easy’? Of course not!
My desire as a Christian novelist is to be a good steward of
the gift the Lord has given me. I show
up, work hard, and do my part, and then I trust the Lord to do whatever He desires
with my stories, checking in with Him on a regular basis, for His inspiration,
His nudge, His encouragement.
He has molded my character and grown my roots deeper in Him
through this writer’s journey.
And if I doubt, I look back to that first writers’
conference where He put me at the ‘write’ place at the ‘write’ time.
I wouldn’t want it any other way.
“Therefore my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain
in the Lord.” I Corinthians 15: 58
Tweetables:
The writing
journey often seems like a never-ending roller coaster ride. Click to tweet.
Show up, work
hard, do your part, and trust the Lord to do whatever He desires with your
stories. Click to tweet.
(Click
the title above to read the first chapter and the 14-year saga of trusting, waiting and
God’s timing in getting this novel in print.)
(David C Cook, 2012)
1994. In the south of France, a high school
teacher, a homeless man and a young Algerian student newly converted to
Christianity embark on a journey of faith which leads them into the midst of
Algeria's civil war and into a war for their souls—a war that will force each
one to choose between two cultures, two religions and two destinies.
Ophélie
Duchemin is a high school French teacher and budding playwright in
Montpellier. When her student, Rislène
Namani, comes to her for help, Ophélie is quick to step in. Rislène has converted to Christianity and her
strict Muslim father has found out. The
family is furious and threatens Rislène with physical harm and worse. But Rislène’s betrayal is even deeper—she is
in love with a Christian, Eric, who happens to be Ophélie’s little
brother.
Two
Destinies is the story of the persecuted church in North Africa, the terrorist
activities in the midst of Algeria’s civil war, the desperate homeless people
in France, and courageous individuals willing to risk their lives to help those
in need.
ELIZABETH MUSSER
writes ‘entertainment with a soul’ from her writing chalet—tool shed—outside
Lyon, France. Elizabeth’s highly
acclaimed, best-selling novel, The Swan
House, was named one of Amazon’s Top Christian Books of the Year and one of
Georgia’s Top Ten Novels of the Past 100 Years (Georgia Backroads, 2009). All of Elizabeth’s novels (including The Dwelling Place, Searching for Eternity, Words
Unspoken, The Sweetest Thing, and
The Secrets of the Cross trilogy)
have been translated into multiple languages. Two Destinies, the final novel in the trilogy, was a finalist for
the 2013 Christy Award.
For over twenty-five years, Elizabeth and her husband, Paul,
have been involved in missions work with International Teams. The Mussers have two sons, a daughter-in-law
and a grandson. Find more about
Elizabeth’s novels at www.elizabethmusser.com
and on Facebook
and Twitter.
Whether you’re a plotter, a pantser, or something in-between
(like me), you’ve experienced what I mean. That word, sentence, action, or
tidbit that leaps from your brain onto the screen without planning and ends up
being what you use to tie up loose ends, slip in an unexpected plot point, or deepen
the climax. Discovering the reason for that entry is a euphoric experience.
