When I was seven or eight years old, I entered a writing contest sponsored by the local newspaper for elementary students. I won! Actually, I won two years in a row. I still remember some things about those stories. I remember that one was about a little girl who was so poor, she had to use fall leaves to make Christmas cards. Uh, kind of got my seasons mixed up there—but the storyline must have been good! That was the beginning of my writing career!
So why do I write biblical fiction?
Can’t people just read their Bibles? Yes. Of course. But years ago, when I was reading through the book of Genesis, studying the lives of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, one of Jacob’s wives caught my attention.
Genesis 29:31 When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved—
God was watching Leah. Can you imagine it? The God of the Universe leaning over the portal of heaven to get a better view of an unloved woman! I was hooked on the story right then. The scriptures were scant, but the story was hiding there in subtle hints. As I fleshed out Leah’s life from the Word, I fell more in love with the God who originally wrote her story. The Great Storyteller who knew both Leah and me before He laid the foundation of the earth, and who wrote our stories with love, promising us the best of all happy endings with Him.
Biblical fiction isn’t meant to replace the Bible.
Not by any means! But it’s a window that allows us to peek into the culture of the ancients, and to watch God’s faithful dealings with them. And to learn from their mistakes!
I hope you’ll follow me and be watching for my next biblical fiction novel The Struggle for Courage: In the Days of Jezebel. I’ll be giving some sneak peeks, and actually asking you to help me finish it!
Now a quick bio!
Marilyn has worn many hats in her life: school teacher, pastor’s wife, mother of four God-loving children, and best of all—Grammy! She is presently the older member of a mother/daughter blogging duo with her wonderful daughter, Rebecca. They co-author Persevering Women, a blog full of inspiration to help women live above their circumstances.
Four years after becoming a widow, Marilyn married Peter Parker. Yes! She’s Mrs. Spider Man! Marilyn says she is truly married to her superhero.
When Marilyn and Peter are not traipsing around the country in their RV, they reside in Buckeye, Arizona with their monster dog, Mimi (don’t let the cute name fool you!). Marilyn’s greatest desire is that her work brings glory to God.
Free! The Day My Brother Drowned
“The Day My Brother Drowned,” is the true short story of a tragic accident that changed a family forever.
The story begins in a mental hospital and reaches back to the dance hall where Marilyn’s parents met during The Great Depression, the potato farm where tragedy took their oldest son, and the little house on Iona Street where Marilyn struggled to live with her mother’s mental illness.
It’s a story of a little girl’s loneliness and confusion and her own struggle with depression as an adult. It’s not until she sees her mom in a dream after her death that Marilyn finally understands the sacrifice her mother made for her.
“The Day My Brother Drowned” is a moving story of hope for those affected by depression—their own or another’s.
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The Struggle for Love: The Story of Leah
Two sisters married to the same man. A man who loves only one.
Leah didn’t want a marriage without love. A strong and capable woman, she had determined to live a life of service as a midwife, bringing other women’s children into the world, allowing her father to breach tradition and betroth her beautiful younger sister first. But that was not to be.
Forced by her father to pose as her sister, Leah goes to Jacob’s wedding bed. When Jacob awakens to find Leah instead of the beautiful Rachel, he tells Leah that he will provide for her and do what a husband must, but she will never have his love.
Rejected by her husband and her relationship with her beloved sister broken, will Leah be able to keep her faith in the God of Abraham through the tragedies to come? Will Jacob see Leah for the woman she truly is? Will these two wives of the patriarch mend their relationship before it’s too late?
Enjoy this beautiful story of a woman overlooked by history but not by God. In Genesis 29:31 the scripture says, “When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved—” God was watching over Leah. And He’s watching over you.
