Guest Post from Allison Pittman, author of The Seamstress. Allison is going to share with us how faith inspires her writing.
Most authors would claim what I’m about to say: I have always been a writer. I mean, long before I could write I would tell stories. Make up stories. I had an invisible dog named Mitzi Girl who was painfully real to me.xI acted out elaborate plotlines (okay, most of them were blatant rip-offs of Bonanza episodes) pretending our rocking love seat was a covered wagon and my mother’s prized china hutch the counter at the general store. I borrowed characters from favorite books and made them the stars in stories of my own making.
And so, years ago, when I landed my first fiction book contract, I wasn’t as surprised as I thought I’d be. For me, becoming a fiction writer was almost an inevitability.
Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Now, I understand how some might be reluctant to lump writing fiction into doing good works. As far as I know my books haven’t fed anybody, or provided shelter, or any of the other images that phrase brings to mind. When you think about someone living with a wolf at the door, you don’t automatically think, Quick! Get that person a novel! But there are a lot of different wolves out there, and the right story can send them skulking away. Even though it’s officially out of print, I still hear from readers who read For Time and Eternity (from the Sister Wife series), and found their faith strengthened against false teachings.
I got an email years ago from a man who said he read one of my books out loud to his wife while spoon-feeding her breakfast every morning. I recently got a message from a reader who said, “I’ve made so many mistakes in my life, but pulling Loving Luther from a library shelf and reading it isn’t one of them. Thank you for writing such a beautiful story that shows what it means to choose Christ.”
And to think—I’m only doing what I’ve been doing since before I mastered the alphabet. Instead of dictating lines to my very patient mother, I’m opening a laptop and creating worlds on a screen. I stepped into the path God prepared in advance for me. First, God gave me the kind of brain that crackles and sparks with ideas; God orchestrated divine appointments with editors and agents; Finally, God puts my stories into the hands of readers who affirm that, by committing myself to this journey, I am indeed doing a good work.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Allison Pittman, author of more than a dozen critically acclaimed novels, is a three-time Christy finalist—twice for her Sister Wife series and once for All for a Story from her take on the Roaring Twenties. She lives in San Antonio, Texas, blissfully sharing an empty nest with her husband, Mike.