Everyone plans what they think is the path they should travel, whether in life, business or ministry. But sometimes God's plan is different from ours. Such has been the case with my writing. For years I tried to get published for historical fiction - all Christian based stories, but seeking both secular and Christian publishers. Three times I nearly signed on the dotted line and finally reached my goal. But in God's plan, it wasn't time yet.

When my daughter was in high school "Harry Potter" was just begining to become the rage and kids eagerly devouring the books. We didn't feel it was a story we wanted our daughter to read, and she wasn't into dark stories anyway. However, she felt left out and one day came to me, sheepish of making the request, but asked me to write her a story like Narina or Lord of The Rings, a good, old fashion moral story of heros and knights. What parent with the capablity would say "no"? It wasn't until the next day when I sat down and began to think of how that I realized I had been so emersed in historical fiction, I didn't know the first thing about fantasy. Yes, we saw all the movie verisons of the books she mentioned, but I hadn't read Narina since I was kid and never read Tolkien.

The first thing I did was pray. In the middle of prayer I remember I had a folder holding a collection of writings from when I was a kid. The folder was one of the few possessions remainig from my childhood. In and among those old papers was the beginning of a fantasy I called "Shiloh". There was a map with 12 provinces, names of characters and even the first chapater. All written when I was 16 years old. This was no conisidence of keeping papers for 30 years, this was God's timing!! Needless to say, I was both excited and awed by the discovery.

Briana was so excited she told everyone at school her mom was writing her this great epic fantasy! Her friends became intrigued and wanted to know more. Now, I had to live up to God's plan and my daughter's hype. I began by changing the name from "Shiloh", meaning "peace" to "Allon", which means oak, a symbol of strength and is found in Scripture.

I barely finished the second chapter of ALLON when her friends started showing up at the house, filled with questions, advice and curiosity that a parent was actually doing this. Most of these kids were from refugee or immigrant families now living in Nashville, Tennessee. They came from Iraqi, Kenya, Somilia, Laos, Egypt, and Mexico. All were from different religious and culture backgrounds, namely Muslim and Bhuddist, with a couple of Coptic Christians and a Catholic thrown it -  but all wanted and needed the same thing - HOPE!

In short order the conversations turned from my fictional story to their personal lives. Many had questions about the American way of life and what Christians believed. Through these conversations I learned a lot about how teens think and feel, but most of all, I became driven by desire to give them the hope  they so deseparately wanted. I gave Christian counsel without demeaning their beliefs and used what I learned in my stories.

Since then, I have seen the path God always meant for me to take, but had to prepare me. Through the magic of stories, I am to give kids HOPE. But just any hope, but the TRUE and LIVING HOPE.

To find out more about the series ALLON, please visit the website http://www.allonbooks.com